Hi,a friend at work has a couple of what he thought were WW11 items,he brought in a nice rodo belt and buckle and said that he had what he thought was a wartime helmet. He had trouble locating said hemet but low and behold after some months he brought it in to work! Now I was hoping for a double decal SS but no such luck! It looks like a M40 shell that has a hole in the top to mount the liner,two shields both the same colours and has been messed around paint wise. The unusual liner has 1943 on one of the pads andsome other letters. Any chance that this was a wartime factory lid or post war reissue.Thanks David.
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The liner and the Strap are british. -
Hemet ID.
Hi,so some where along the line someone has fitted that as replacement perhaps the original was missing,so it could be an original M40 helmet.Thanks for the information.Regards David.Originally posted by uscob View PostComment
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I don't know the origin. Light blue and white, maybe Finnland. I know that lot's of countries used German and British Equipment after the War, so maybe it was used by them. Long time ago I had Danish Helmets, from German Shells and a brit. looking like Liner. Also the norwegians usec them with different Liner. In the Moment, a large number of German/Norwegian Shells came to Germany and as sold for Scrap, the original Liners are replaced by repro ones.Comment
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Hans,
This is probably a WWII German helmet but with all the rust and black paint it would probably be impossible to see the war time markings to guarantee that fact. As Nico says, large stocks of German helmets were left over after the war and Norway used a lot of them at first in their military and eventually they were used by civil defence organizations. No doubt other countries in the region did the same thing. Some did have civil defence shields painted on the sides.
Norway sold a lot of these helmets, with the military decals still in place, several years ago. They were plentiful at one time. Not so much now.
Regards,
GordonComment
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David - What struck me is the great disparity in the condition of the shell versus the condition of the liner.
The shell looks like a painted relic; maybe even ground dug. The liner, while well used, seems to be in much better shape than the shell.
Baer and others have shown that some wartime shells were refurbished for use by the BGS with the insertion of a quasi-U.S. style liner. I am unaware of any BRD helmets that employed a British style liner.
Some effort was made to make the liner fit into the shell properly and to rehab the shell. Apparently, the shell was too far gone to allow the paint to set properly.
My guess would be a salvage project undertaken by a collector or re-enactor, or perhaps a project undertaken by a parent looking to provide the kids with some realistic head gear.
I couldn't see a Scandanavian or other government trying to salvage a shell that was so far gone, when there were helmets in much better shape that were ready for issue.
You might try posting the pictures on the helmet forum, but be warned, those guys play rough over there!
I'll post some pictures of the BGS helmet and Norwegian types for comparison.
First up is the BGS helmet with US style liner.
All the best - TJComment
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I believe these views of a German helmet refurbished by Norway are from Manion's Auction Site.
View #1.Comment
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View #2.
In any event, good luck in identifying your lid.
All the best - TJComment
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Replies.
Thanks for all the replies,as to what you said above,my friend bought it in the early 70s for not much money for his kids to use in their games,knowing I would get short shrift I didn't post it in the helmet forum! I passed on the info to my friend who is not a collector and he was interested in the information given. His father was in Germany at the wars end shame he couldn't have picked up a mint hemet then.Regards David.Originally posted by Thomas J. Cullinane Jr. View PostComment
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