M16 S.i.66 w/Swasticas... Reichswehr?

[cousette]

It is a Finnish helmet


The yellow and the red corresponds to the typical badge and the stawiska with branches horizontal is also a symbol used by the Finnish army

[GWA]

Regarding Mr. Roelen's helmet above; I have no doubt it is Freikorps and it sits on a shelf in my office today. I am very happy to have it.

[Hoss]

Chuck
Could be something from The March (9th Nov 23)?
What,s this friend, turning Third Reichy on us?

Eric

[90th Light]

Thanks for taking the time to respond John. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of it being Freikorps because of the WWI liner and chinstrap. In the begining the Reichswehr were supplied these helmets from old military stores. To my knowledge there was not another liner system developed by the Germans until the early 30's. I have no facts to claim this helmet belonged to a member of the Freikorps, or the SA in the early 20's... according to Baer's book SA members painted black swastikas on their helmets.

There were so many variations, and, there is very little documentation to determine one way or the other. Because of this we will never know for sure. Originals are extremely scarce... I think I've held two in 38 years.

As far as being WWII reissued... no way. Another country... who knows.

I normally don't clean my helmets... I like em just as I get them. WD-40 is a good metal cleaner, especially for rust, but, doesn't it leave a smell?

Chuck

Hello Chuck,

I too have one of these helmets excepts my swazs have been done in off- white painted outlines not black. My one appears to have had a big jawless skull painted on the front as well at some stage but this has been scraped off and one can now just make out the outline of it.

I do not know much about my helmet except that I got it at a garage sale many years ago from a family who were selling up & moving out of town. It came with its chin strap which had been broken in half and tied together.

I asked the family what the history was and they said that a friend of their dads had got in the war which they seem to think was WW1 and that it flame thrower soldiers helmet.

I asked if they had painted the swazs on it or the skull but they said no way and had always felt that they should scrap them off.

There is every chance that these may in fact be some sort of WW1 storm or assault unit insignia used right at the end of WW1 and to date not yet documented.

I too consider that Friekorps is in fact more likely but I have never ever seen something from the Friekorps veteran brought back to New Zealand so you tell me ???? May be the Finns ????

Will dig the helmet out as soon as I get a chance and post some images. Has always been one of those things I have meant to investigate more so now would appear to be the chance.

A good question at this stage is however if the Friekorps just carried over unit badges which had in fact had their beginnings with the Storm- troopers of 1918 esp as command began to break down and the Storm-troopers began to identify more with their units than with the Kaiser in 1918 ????

Will try and get some images posted this weekend,

Chris