Italian Sand Cammo M33 Helmet

[CIANO]

Dear All,

I want to show you my last buying....an Italian cammo Sand Helmet of the Bologna Division-that fought in North Africa.

I hope that you enjoy it.

[CIANO]

Close Up

[CIANO]

Side

[CIANO]

Inside

[Bill Grist]

That is a nice one..BILL

[John Hodgin]

I agree with Bill, a very desirable helmet!

[Johnnie]

Nice! I understand that legitimate sand cammos are really hard to find. Congrats,
Johnnie

[Lafitte]

For a right opinion on this helmet Ciano must post a good close up of the badge.
My opinion is it very difficolt to talk about a sand camo helmet with a regolamentar badge.
Bologna Division stai in AOI from the start of the war untill the 1942 when this was destoyed during the figthing, the division not was remake.

[Hille76]

Hello,

is it correct that this sand camo and the badge on the camo was only made by the troops in the theatre and don´t came in such variant from the factory?

I saw pith helmets which badge was directly made with paint and stencil on it, too.

I hope of more contributions of the experts in this interesting thread.

Ciao
Hille

P. S.
@Lafitte: You mean AS not AOI

[CIANO]

Ciao,

Thank you all for your feed backs.

Laffite, I know that the frontal badge is not a "textbbok", as it seems that sand helmets were painted in sand colour when arrived in Africa, so this would mean that the sand painture would be over the frontal badge, which is not the case, in this helmet....
Anyway I like the helmet, like it is, so even if can be some doubts about the frontal badge, I will still keep it in my collection.


Also I think that you are wrong when you say that this division fought in Africa Orientale until 1942...

Please check the Regio Esercito site and you will notice that this Division fought in the Battle of Tobruk and El-Alamein.

http://regioesercito.dns1.us/reparti.../rgt/rgt40.htm

Best Regards

Luis

[mayer]

For a right opinion on this helmet Ciano must post a good close up of the badge.
My opinion is it very difficolt to talk about a sand camo helmet with a regolamentar badge.
Bologna Division stai in AOI from the start of the war untill the 1942 when this was destoyed during the figthing, the division not was remake.

Full agree with you!

[Paolo Marzetti]

Ciano helmet is nice looking either for the sand colour or for the stencilled badge clearly visible.But my doubt is in the fact that generally the Italian grey-green m.33s were directly camouflaged in North Africa with sand paint covering the stencilled badges so that's very strange!According to the recent Osprey's nice books showing Italian militaria stuff,I see in the tables M.33s sand painted with issue stencilled badges. That's wrong.The sand camo paint had been given using common track paint just to cover the too bright external grey green paint and the black of the stencils, only for camo purposes and it was not so important to show a badge while fighting...believe me.
Just my two cents...Ciao, PaoloM

[Raffaello Carola]

the paint sand camo inside is very difficult to see on a helmet ww2, just my two cents.
Cheers, Raffaello

[mr_helmet]

[CIANO]

Hi,

Thank you Marpo, for your feed back and knowledge.
I know that is not a "textbook" frontal badge, and of course I respect your position regarding the concerns about the badge....

Rafaello, thank you also to you for your answer, but in fact there is no sand colour inside of the helmet.Sometimes the photos can also not helping us....

Please see now another photo of the inside less "brighter" and you can notice easily that there is not sand camo inside.

cheers

Luis