Mailed Steel Helmets

[RonR]

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[nzef1940]

Excellent Ron, I was hoping you would post some images, all nice however my favourite is your post 15 & 16 just superb, many thanks

[Hoss]

Ron and Mike
They are beauties.

Eric

[Hoss]

Well
What is it? A walmart smiley face sticker?
Oh ye of little faith. Here,s another, at least three of the lids have late field covers and are not bagged.

The Nut

[RonR]

Courtesy of my friend Dave, another shot of the process...........



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[Mac 66]

Chip, Ron Great photos & Mailed home Camos

Eric what you going on about?

[Hoss]

Chip, Ron Great photos & Mailed home Camos

Eric what you going on about?

Mac
#9 What,s that on the left side of the helmet? Just asking!

Eric

[Mac 66]

Mac
#9 What,s that on the left side of the helmet? Just asking!

Eric

Eric, not sure, very hard to tell by the pic

[Hoss]

Eric, not sure, very hard to tell by the pic

Mac
Your blind mate.
Oh well, forget it! What,s the old saying: 'The Canadiens and Aussies came for the Empire (God Bless em) and the Yanks came for the souvenirs'?

Eric

[ROBB]

I remember a few years ago an argument here where someone was arguing that sometime in 1918 the order came to paint cammo on the helmets, and that this was to a large extent done... I always doubted this.

Not a lot of cammo here...

If you look very carefully at a lot of late war photos of Germans you can often see camo helmets , they just are not very clear as they are all in black and white . Great photo . Rob

[Chris Boonzaier]

If you look very carefully at a lot of late war photos of Germans you can often see camo helmets , they just are not very clear as they are all in black and white . Great photo . Rob

We have that one before a few years ago ...

I disagree to 98%. Following points...

1) I collected WW1 Photos for years, had many, many, many hundreds... spend eons eith a magnifying glass looking for every possible nuance... extreme seldom to find any cam.

2) There is no sign that Germans in late 1918 took any less photos than those of 1916... the argument "they stopped taking pics around the time they started camming up helmets" just does not work.

3) Germans loved to pose...proud and on leave with a hunting knife, an EK2, A bayonet, a gasmask... as martial as possible... one would think the first thing many young lads would have done after camming the helmet was to take a pic.

4) I am a bit of a amature photographer, love working in black and white... the quality of the pics back then was very often phenomenal ... not pics out of a book, but the originals, or negatives are usually clear as glass and exceptionally sharp. There is no way that they can en masse be dismissed as cammo helmets, just not to be seen as they are black and white.

best
Chris

[PlaceOfBayonets]

While camo helmets never outnumbered their green counter parts I've seen them in photos. They seem to come in at about 1 camo for every 50 helmets so far as I can guess.

The Book, The USA in World War one by Douglas Welsh has three camo helmets in wear on German troops. Some of them just captured.

W.

[Chris Boonzaier]

While camo helmets never outnumbered their green counter parts I've seen them in photos. They seem to come in at about 1 camo for every 50 helmets so far as I can guess.

The Book, The USA in World War one by Douglas Welsh has three camo helmets in wear on German troops. Some of them just captured.

W.

Hi,

I agree 100% that there were Cammo Helmets, and these can be seen in collections and photos. I do however strongly believe there are waaay more green ones.

About 5 or 7 years ago someone argued "The order came out and just about everone cammoed their lid. Those not at the front retained green ones. This is proved by the fact that most helmets brought to the US are cammoed."

which I think is total BS.

I think the Alsace-Lorraine-Meuse-Argonne region is a good barometer... and many or most helmets there are not. Also to be remembered... most german units marched back to Germany with their helmets... and most helmets found in Germany are green... cammo is the great exception.

The argument 5 or so years ago was that there should actually be more cammoed ones, but after WW2 GIs sent all the cammo ones over to the US

I think that is total BS.

Sure, there are probably many tens of thousands of original cammoed ones, maybe even hundreds of thousands... but millions of green ones.

best
Chris

[PlaceOfBayonets]

I don't disagree with you at all. From the Photos I see with Camo's and large groups of troops, you see one or two and the vast majority of them are green. If you have even seen the long collums of troops on the march, mostly not a camo'ed one among them that you can see.

So who was making the above argument 5 years ago? Was it here or the amateurs over at the now defunt Militaria Collecting Forum?

The photos do the talking but one asspect to consider, I wonder how many camo'ed helmets were stripped and re finished by the Third Reich.

We know vets brought all kinds of Imperial Items home. My cut out I got at the pawn store was dropped off by a vet and I met a vet who had some WWI iron Crosses. He said he pillfered them from private homes. He was not proud to admit it though. I gave him a pass

[Hans K.]

A quick observation. The one thing I have noticed in late war period photos showing a helmeted unit is that either all or none are wearing camo helmets, and most often the camo helmets have the same or similar patterns at that.

As an example, here are two details of a Minenwerfer Zug of the 16th Sturmbataillon. The MW is also camoed.