How many German helmets brought back?

[ccmax]

Have you ever wondered how many German helmets were brought back by US soldiers as souvenirs? I'm thinking only of the helmets that entered the country either in duffle bags or were sent via mail up to 1945 or 46, not to mention the large numbers of helmets that were also probably brought back by occupation forces and the modified and post war used German helmets that were imported from countries such as Norway and Czechoslovakia.

Considering that there were millions of service men in the ETO and the MTO, and the fact that helmets were amongst the most popular souvenirs, the numbers should probably be very high...

[MauserKar98k]

I was just thinking about this today. I am pretty sure that there were a lot fewer German helmets saved than we think there were. Out of the approximately 20 Million German helmets that were manufactured during WWII, maybe ... I don't know... maybe there might be 1 million of them still in existance today, probably even less. I base this opinion on the fact that I have never seen yet seen 2 helmets with the same maker and the same lot number, which would suggest that the population of the lids has been very severely thinned. Now that I think about it though, this seems like pretty simpleminded and elementary reasoning.

I'm not sure and I'm just thinking out loud. Let's see what the other guys think.

MauserKar98k

[101combatvet]

helmets?

I always thought that German Daggers were what GI's really craved for.

[Dan P]

I thought the Luger was the most sought after GI souvenir.

BTW, my guess on German helmets either brought back or mailed home by GI's is 336,294

[ROBB]

I will guess 456,765 .Rob

[Finnishlion178]

I will guess 777,777 but think about how many are left in old house and lets not forget German Helmets that were made for other countries like China, Guatemala, and Argentina, just to name some. How many of those helmets would be mixed up as Orginal Thrid Reich Helmets? and how many of those were brought back over the years as well.

[MikeNZ]

About 10 years ago I watched a program on TV showing a factory making colanders out of old helmets...I am not kidding!!!

Mike

[Mooyman]

Only RonR has 1,000 helmets in its collection and I know of another American collector (a medical doctor) that has 1,500 ones.

[Daniele C]

1000-1500 helmets....wow!

[Spanish Freiwillige]

With this question it also strikes my mind how many were destroyed to salvage their steel. So i giees that the number was thinned downed pretty much after the war

[101combatvet]

true

I thought the Luger was the most sought after GI souvenir.

BTW, my guess on German helmets either brought back or mailed home by GI's is 336,294

with all the gun restrictions.... I forgot.... my father brought back two Lugers and three P-38s.

[combat-helmets]

Don't forget alot of those were melted down too !
Think about the vast sums littering the russian country side?
You know all of those got destroyed...I think the last thing russians wanted to see was somethign with a swastika on it.. I am also certain it would have been a crime to possess such items as well..

Seems that alot are going back to europe now too! Alot of the european collectors are making out well on the exchange rate of the Euro to dollar, so they are able to pick up some nice bargains from the U.S. and Canada!

[Finnishlion178]

I agree. I know in the USSR that it was a crime to have a german helmet. Most of the German Helmet were put into museum. Very few russian soldiers were aloud to take there War Booty Home. Let's not forget the WW1 M-16 Helmets as well that were brought back.

[Stephan Wahl]

After we come upon a hypothetical number of helmets still in existance today, we have to assume that only a small portion of them are in good enough condition to actually collect. Look how many stacks of shells are in a photo on Ken N.s' website. Look at all the crap coming out of Latvia, Estonia etc.

[RonR]

Mike,

You are right about the post war usage of many helmets.

They were made into collanders, pitchers, bowls, farm implements like scoops and strainers for slop piles and even chamber pots!

I have a number of them re-manufatured into different forms for different uses.

Here are a couple made into collanders as you mentioned. (five shots to follow)

Helmet into collander: