A helmet I wish I'd kept.

[SMP]

About 30 years ago I bought a tatty old British MK1 helmet for £3. It was a standard army helmet and not in very good condition. I already had many like it and most were in better condition. The only reason I bought it was because it had some names written in pencil all over it, and it looked interesting. Lots of the names I'd never heard of, so I never really paid it much attention ( I was young and stupid !). I had it at the back of my collection for a few years but sold it along with all the others when I stopped collecting Brit helmets in about 1982.
Well, I visted my parents this weekend and had fun looking through my old stuff with my kids. On the back of a piece of paper we found a list I had made years ago. It was all the names on the helmet. Of course I recognise most of them now. However there are still a few I need help with.

Here's the list:

Liseux
Caen
Tilly
Siene
Lehavre
Laroche
St Valery
Amiens
Abbeville
Arras
Mons
Namur
Goes
Antwerp
Venco
Eindhoven
Nijmegen
Arnhem
Krefeld
Dusseldorf
Essen
Minden
Hanover
Hamburg

Madines
Coeh
Casseless


The spellings may be wrong, but does anyone recognise the last three ?

I am pretty sure the helmet belonged to a soldier in XXX corps. If I can confirm it, I intend to plot the route he took on a European map.

If anyone has this helmet in their collections I would love to buy it back.

Steve

[jelle]

Venco is most likely Venlo,no idea about the 3.

[Mons 1914]

Of the last three Casseless could possibly be "Celles" which is a little town in Belgium during the ardennes campaign 30 Corps passed through this village on the 27th December 1944.

I think your right with the units though theirs certainly a lot of places listed which points to 30 corps but it might be possible to narrow it down even more.

Very interesting Steve!
Scott

[Erwin L]

Hello Steve

To bad you sold it. Coeh is Coo near stavelot and Trois Points (belgium) XXX Corps came from Lommel to Valkenswaard on 17th september 1944, the next day the arrived in Eindhoven.

regards erwin

[SMP]

Hello Steve

To bad you sold it. Coeh is Coo near stavelot and Trois Points (belgium) XXX Corps came from Lommel to Valkenswaard on 17th september 1944, the next day the arrived in Eindhoven.

regards erwin

That's great. Thanks for the info.

( BTW, Thanks Jelle you are correct- it is Venlo - I couldn't read my own writing !)