MkII helmet camouflage

[Infanteer]

Does anyone have any photos of British / Canadian troops during WWII wearing MkII helmets that have been camouflaged by the addition of a burlap / hessian cover? This doesn't appear to have been too common, or perhaps it wasn't done at all, but there are always helmets on the internet for sale that are camouflaged in this manner Any ideas?

[DAK Rommel]

Hi Infanteer,

I know that it was quite common among New Zealand troops during the North African Campaign 1940-43 to use burlap covers on their helmets.
But the majority of NZ MKII Helmets during that campaign were just painted in Desert Camo Colour. Despite the huge numbers of NZ Soldiers in this campaign, I have yet to find a Desert Camo or Burlap Covered Tin Helmet in NZ.
Although I have found a lot of standard MKII's.
Im always suspicious by Burlap Covers, as these are easily faked and from what I can tell, not too many survived.

[ROBB]

Finding pictures of burlap covers and camo helmets at use it the desert is quite easy just open any book on ww2,trying to buy an original is more difficult ,obviously any helmet used during active service in the field will shown signs of use and will have wear therefore avoid anything new .Rob.(attached is a pic of my new Desert helmet )

[ROBB]

Heres a nice pic for you ,looks like they all have hessian covers .Rob.

[DAK Rommel]

Nice Helmet Robb
Im on the lookout for one of those lids myself.
My guess on the lack of Desert Camo Tin Helmets in NZ, is that its a posibility that they were repainted and reissued for the Italian Campaign. Although I have no evidence of this.
The Desert Camo Helmet has to be one of the more scarce and desirable of the Commonwealth Tin Helmets.

All the best

Rob

[ROBB]

I think the reason for not seeing many in the UK is they were probably repainted as soon as they left Africa and Italy a darker shade ,and any that made it home to the UK were either put in the shed where they rusted away quite nicely or handed in and reppainted dark green .Rob.

[Infanteer]

Actually, I never even thought about desert camouflage. Very nice helmet Robb I should point out that I am looking for specific examples of British or Canadian helmets in use in England or Europe during the war. This is where I believe that this practice was much less common as apparently there was concern that the helmets would cause a problem for decontamination should they be exposed to chemical attack. But thanks for the responses so far!

[helmhunter]

Nice Helmet Robb
Im on the lookout for one of those lids myself.
My guess on the lack of Desert Camo Tin Helmets in NZ, is that its a posibility that they were repainted and reissued for the Italian Campaign. Although I have no evidence of this.
The Desert Camo Helmet has to be one of the more scarce and desirable of the Commonwealth Tin Helmets.

All the best

Rob

Hi Rob,
NZ soldiers used a burlap cover with their MK II helmet (see photo).But some certainly painted thier helmets in tan.
Phil

[helmhunter]

The marking inside.

[helmhunter]

Here is a desert camo MK II, the paint has turned very clear ans is well used.
Hope you like it.
Phil

[helmhunter]

And australian desert camo MK II.
Phil

[ROBB]

Nice lids helmhunter that last one is a beauty .Its a funny thing camo Commonwealth helmets are extremely rare whereas German camos are all over the place .Rob.

[helmhunter]

Nice lids helmhunter that last one is a beauty .Its a funny thing camo Commonwealth helmets are extremely rare whereas German camos are all over the place .Rob.

Hi Robb,
Thank you for your kind words. It is a fact the allied were less familiar than the german to paint camo their helmets and so they are rarer than their german counteparts. The german began to paint camo their helmets around 1941 in Europe and in the desert. But i saw nice photos with british soldiers wearing camo helmets during the 1940 France campaign. In the desert field the camo was not always an uniform sand yellow (see my australian lid) it exists nice shots of australian diggers with a random pattern camo helmets. BTW the australian desert camo helmets are rare because Australia left the african battlefield in 1943 to fight against the japeneses in the pacific. I have no evidence of autralian camo helmets in the pacific.
Phil

[RobNZ]

Beautiful helmets! I am a huge fan of Commonwealth Camo Helmets,
they are rare as hens teeth compared to German ones. Has anyone got any examples of non-desert camouflage lids.
I have seen photos from dunkirk of lids with a green-brown striped camo pattern. Has anyone come across these?

RobNZ

[leigh kitchen]

As a little kid back in the 60's- 70's I used to stage the occasional foray into a kind of surplus warehouse area in Brockley, S. E. London. It was like a little old streetwith the back of a church one side & very old terraced buildings the other. There were pith helmets piled against the inside of the windows & massive piles of helmets sitting around in the open, covered in tarps.

If you tried to walk through the entrance then you'd be ejected by some old fellahs, but I discovered that you could lean over the church wall & snag a helmet or two.
The nearest pile was of black & yellow lids, Maltese pattern presumably, but I picked up a few & lobbed them back because I wanted a nice clean green lid.
I never got one, but I rejected hundreds of black & yellow camo ones.
Somebody shoot me.