DDR helmet shell yellow paint stains

[olivyaya]

Hello,
I have one of this strange helmets in my collection... 1st pattern shell grey paint with "yellow stains"... I have seen a few on the net... has anyone got any clue ??? Was it a means of sending a helmet out of duty when too damaged or too old... the yellow paint being an easy means of identifying the ones to get rid of ???
Or was it a special marking while doing manoevres ??
Thanks for sending your comments

P.S. The one pictured is not 1st type !
picture is available on this link :
http://www.gunboards.com/militaria/t...p?TOPIC_ID=643

[tony james]

does it have the original liner in it ?

tony

[olivyaya]

does it have the original liner in it ?

tony

yes it does

[tony james]

from looking at the picture again it could have been applied by anyone for
whatever reason.camo scheme ? i doubt it . if applied by the east germans,
there's the possibilty of being it marked by a inspector for repaint and a new
liner. i have a 1959 dated helmet that has been repainted and has a 1977
dated liner in it , and i have seen quite a few like this at surplus stores and
in ads from dealers. the east germans did not waste anything and items
were used till worn out.

tony

[olivyaya]

[what's surprising in fact is that I have seen quite a few like this one around (in Europe and US) with exact same yellow colour... strange... I doubt(just like you) it had to do with any sort of camouflage coating)
Cheers anyway !

[Peter_Suciu]

[what's surprising in fact is that I have seen quite a few like this one around (in Europe and US) with exact same yellow colour... strange... I doubt(just like you) it had to do with any sort of camouflage coating)
Cheers anyway !

I've seen a few of these at surplus stores and I asked what the color meant and one source told me that the color was to denote items marked for surplus rather than re-issue. The surplus store owner told me the story he was told was that the Germans were planning on re-using these helmets but then decided to sell all as surplus. So unlike WWII era helmets that saw service as fire helmets, border guards, etc., the DDR helmets were just totally replaced and sold off. But the first ones deemed to go got the yellow paint.

[olivyaya]

Thanks for help... this is what I had suspected...
nice to see my opinion is shared