Romanian basic helmets

[Paolo Marzetti]

I open this topic to help the collectors in the field of the Romanian helmets,
not easy to get in the market.
Let's begin with the Romanian Adrian Mod. 1915-17 with the emblem of
King Ferdinand I. France delivered 90,000 helmets of this type on Jan 1917.
Blue paint.The oval emblem in relief, contains two ornate back-to-back Fs with the royal crown above.

[Paolo Marzetti]

particular of an original emblem:

[Paolo Marzetti]

particular of a not original emblem:

[Paolo Marzetti]

Romanian Adrian M.15-17 with the emblem of King Carol II.Pre-1923 blue
colour.Dark olive colour adopted in 1923.The oval emblem in relief contains
two crossed Cs with the royal crown above:

[Paolo Marzetti]

Particular of the emblem with the new colour adopted in 1923 (Courtesy DBP)

[Paolo Marzetti]

Romanian M.1939 steel helmet (former Dutch M.34) designed by the VerBliFa Co. in Amsterdam and sold to Romania in about 628,000 pieces between 1938
and 1939.Oval in relief of King Carol II.

[Paolo Marzetti]

Particular of an original oval. These have been recently faked, but have been made with fibre material, not brass or bronze:

[Paolo Marzetti]

The use of badges was discontinued after King Carol's exile.
When King Michael I was enthroned in September 1940, helmets with
emblems were not issued: (Signal)

[Paolo Marzetti]

That's a specimen of these helmets, born without emblem:

[Paolo Marzetti]

Germans continued to supply Dutch helmets either M.34 or M.28 Niew Model
or M.38 until 1942 with the old Dutch liners or with the M.31 German liners.Not
uncommon to find these helmets with traces of the old Dutch emblem.But always repainted with a dark green.The Romanians tried also to provide the new badges (this time stencilled) with the
ciphers of King Michael I, but very few of them are know to exist nowdays.The war was
progressing, so the last trouble was the one of the new badges....

[Paolo Marzetti]

The Soviet Ssh40 steel helmet, became the issue helmet till the 70's:the liners
were produced in Romania (they were made with dark brown oilcloth).The
markings on these helmets didn't contain cirillic alphabet .(Take care of this
when you buy one of these helmets, supposed to be Romanian....!)

[Paolo Marzetti]

and its liner made in Romania:

[Paolo Marzetti]

The new M.1973 steel helmet of the Rumanian Socialist Republic (1947-1989)
with enameled badge. THe later version (M.1973-80) was without emblem and
with small, not significative, changes in the liner:

[Paolo Marzetti]

Particulars of the nice enameled emblem:

[Paolo Marzetti]

M.1973 paratrooper's steel helmet.It was designed by using the superior bowl
of the Army helmet. (courtesy P. Santi)