Uboat snow camo helmets?

[jamesmccann]

I have been to visit a salvaged u boat in liverpool.To my amazment included in the recovered artefacts are over half a dozen snow camoed german helmets.Has any one any idea why there would be snow camoed helmets on a u boat?James/IRELAND.

[Gulli]

Hallo
I think that sounds very strange, why should they have helmets at all??
Regards
Kjetil Gulli

[atcase]

Hi all,

wouldn`t the gun crew have worn helmets ?? James do you know where the sub was recovered from, could be a clue to the camo (if real) Also they may have been added as an axtra to the exhibition ????
Just some thoughts.
Ashley

[Allan P.]

It's in Birkenhead, across the Mersey from Liverpool

http://www.historicwarships.org/displaypage.asp?page=13

Take a look!!

Allan

[Olav]

I think I saw a TV program about that some time ago.. One of the former crewmember found his HJ-knife inside the uboat, or something like that.

Cheers
Olav

[Jean-Loup]

Sounds like an interesting story. It is strange that they would have had helmets at all on U boot, with the limited space, and even more limited use they would have had for them. When did it sink? During the war, or after. They say its been under water 48 years?

If these helmets actualy were on the board, maybe the white was a color code, or maybe they just took some helmets that were sitting around, and were snow camoed for other reasons.

JL

[petermac]

I can see good reasons for the crew manning the anti-aircraft guns to have helmets available, if only as confidence boosters but I don't see why they should be painted in camouflage colours. Maybe the sea water reacted with the paint?

Peter

[Bill Grist]

U-534

here is a link to the story of U-534 to include the two tons of documents, Christ Spear, and mysterious passanger... http://web.ukonline.co.uk/gaz/u-534.html This should be interesting to all...BILL

[Gulli]

I just saw the white helmets on the link you posted Bill (thanks).
And I still think it's strange.
The only rason , (thats allready been said here) aboute the cannon.
But at sea why do you need protection against debris falling down on you.
I guess the only debris would be bombs or heavy mg bullets,
and the helmet dont take that sort of things so good.
And of course the limited space on board also makes it strange.
regard
kjetil gulli

[Rolf D.]

I imagine that they are light grey not white.

For one, anybody who has surfaced will see you, so why camoflage them white? Secondly, white was not for navy but light grey was.

[Tim R. B.]

Hi all,

wouldn`t the gun crew have worn helmets ?? James do you know where the sub was recovered from, could be a clue to the camo (if real) Also they may have been added as an axtra to the exhibition ????
Just some thoughts.
Ashley

I also think the country or terain where the boat was stationed might give a clue to why the helmets were white camo, the company that raised her was Danish, so it could make sense. Tim.

[darryl-P]

I'm thinking that the white helmets probably had something to do with visibilty on deck. A person would be seen much more easily if he was wearing a white helmet...especially if the order to dive was given quickly and the Captain had to make a quick visual sweep before he closed the top hatch.

Also, for a "man-overboard" situation the white helmet would be spotted quicker in a dark green ocean.

Just my opinion.

Cheers,

[Jean-Loup]

Now that I saw the picturs of the helmets, it looks pretty clear that the helmets are white because of the type of oxidation that occured to them. Some kind of mixture of rust, sand and sea weed apparently. One helmet seems to have been knocked around a bit, and the white fell off. These helmets were stored outside the U boot apparently, so were not protected from the elements at all.
I have two WW1 helmets found in a river that are also both white. It is a mass of some kind of crap stuck to them sort of like sement, and if I droped a helmet to the ground, all that stuff would splinter off.
Maybe someone could post the picture of the helmets, as I am no longer an association member at the moment.
JL

[LeeG]

Gordon Williamson refers to Uboat crewmen wearing helmets when manning the deck gun in his book Grey Wolf. I have only seen "battleship grey" colored helmets for KM, not white, but, hey, why not white? I could buy the 'man-overboard' argument.

[KoCook]

Could they be white because they were operating in the artic?

Just a thought...