The M-37 revisited

[Eric Queen]

I would really like to hear everyones thoughts on this, especially of course, those who may have direct knowledge.

Roger Bender is now working on the "Jump Equipment" section of my book, and we have a difficult decision to make. Do we picture a M-37 with second model Luftwaffe decal ( which we know for sure is original, but there is no photographic evidence of it ever being worn by members of the FIK / FIB ) or do we picture an Army M-37 ( which is shrouded in doubt. ). There were only a handfull of these known to exist prior to the early 1990's when a bunch of them began showing up on the market. I think I was offered 7 or 8 in a period of three years. My reason for not liking them was mainly to do with the pads. The original which I had seen ( which is the one Iam referring to above and I know for a fact was the result of a direct vet buy in the late 70's ( these type of helmets just where not being faked then ) ) had the original thin orange colored pads, and ALL of the ones I had seen for sale had either no pads, or standard M38 pads ( I don't mean an M38 liner/pad reconfiguration ). My thoughts were that whoever was reproducing these, just could not create the pads in a convincing was, thus they were always missing. The stories about where they were found ( in a warehouse in Italy, have heard Germany as well ) were also a bit hard to swallow.

Recently, I have reason to believe that I may have been wrong, at least on the pads aspect. I will share that later after I hear what your thougts are.

Beyond all the rumors and speculation, does anyone know for sure that these are fake? Let's discuss concrete reasons why we feel these are fake ( other than too many showed up at once, the stories about where they came from, etc. )

Here is the only "confirmed" original that I know of



here is the liner with the pads ( sorry don't have a color one right now



Here is one of the army ones which was purchased by someone I know in 1994



Thanks, and I am really looking forward to hearing what you guys think.

Eric

[Willi Z.]

Eric,

This is tough, tough, tough! Because of the absolute rarity of "known" original M37s it has proven impossible to know for sure. I can share my observations after having closely examined 15 or so fake M37s and one clearly original M37.

The real M37 was apple green, double decal, early Luft eagle, converted with a M38 liner, cut from a M35, factory cut down, restamped "ET68" after the cut down process...and the rim was flawlessy rolled...in other words the cut down process was perfect.....a clear example of pre-war German craftmanship (the exact words of a FJ vet who looked at both the real one and a repro).

The repros all had this in common; they all had the so-called original M37 liner, the chinstraps were always stift, the cut down process was sloppy, rim was not rolled in a uniform manner, the rim was never restamped by the factory with the maker and size........but, when you look under the leather liner you can observe a newly made bright brushed aluminum band which exhibited no age and also had some felt substance under it which also looked very new. Every one of these I looked at (even those in respected collections) turned out to be bogus and no one (including the owners) ever challenged my findings. In other words they agreed that they were bad and that they had been fooled......saw one that was bought for $10,000 and another for $17,000!!!!........both bad....

Just my observations.......Willi

[Eric Queen]

Willi,

Thanks for your thoughts and observations on this. I appreciate it.

Anyone else have any thoughts they would like to share?

Thanks,

EQ

[Prosper Keating]

I think it will be perfectly OK to show modern colour studies of the known original M37 with the 2nd pattern LW eagle decal to give readers a good idea of what an original looked like and then to supplement this with period photographs of FIK men wearing the M37 with WH and 1st pattern LW eagle decals, as well as the famous shots of the Gebirgsjäger after the Narvik drop fiddling with the straps of his modified/modernised M37. I wouldn be wary of showing the M37 with the WH decal if it is doubtful because once you move away from Zero Tolerance, where do you draw the line? That said, you could show it just to give an idea of what the FIK wore but emphasising that it is probably a modern reproduction.

Prosper

[John Hodgin]

M 37 helmets

Hi Eric,

I agree with Willi's observations about the liners on reproduction M 37's.

My objection to the outward appearance of most reproduction M 37's, as well as the Heer M 37 you posted, is how the paint seems to be "lifting" from the shell in places. Have you ever seen an M 38 (or an M 35, M 40 or M 42 for that matter) with this bubbling or lifting to the paint with rust on the shell underneath? I haven't. The paint was originally applied to shells in a techinally superior process and it doesn't lift off with age and the shell won't be rusty unless the paint was compromised by scrape or other damage. Most reproduction M 37's appear to be in undamaged, unscuffed condition yet the paint has "fallen" off or bubbled in places with rust below.......no way!
best,
John

[Eric Queen]

Thanks guys, I appreciate the imput very much.

I will discuss this further with Roger, but I concur if there is any doubt at all about these helmets ( which there seems to be plenty), they should be excluded from the book.

I think it would be best at this point to show pictures of a confirmed original piece (eventhough it is Luftwaffe not Army )

Thanks again,

EQ