My new DAK helmets

[bubble]

Excuse me, but I'm not a collector of helmets, I do not own any of this helmet, me interested history rather than collecting and trying to be impartial.

In my opinion there Czech collectors do not write anything, because they also 100% do not know.

There is no contract of helmets for Egypt in any Czech or Czechoslovak articles, on web, or books, no mention anywhere (!)

Really I would be very interested to know where this information comes ..

As far as I know, the Czechoslovak army, fire brigade or civil defense ', etc ..) have never in the past (40-90s) any yellow helmets did not use (!). Some components of the Czechoslovak Civil Defense has always used only black (as firefighters) or orange helmet, but never yellow ..
http://www.militaria-shop.cz/shop/27...a-prilba-vz-53

But of course, there can not be excluded that these helmets can not be stored in the deep secret Czechoslovak Army Depot for use in any other military conflict (in 50's - after the death of Stalin, Czechoslovakia was prepared to 3.WW).

Here are the archives of hundreds of tons of Czechoslovak documents from 40-50 years to the export of all manner of goods into all sorts of countries. In the archives of the Ministry of Interior, the Czechoslovak Army, Ministry of Commerce, the state's secret police etc etc .. These documents are classified already for 20 years, but still not the end ..
In addition, many documents from that time are still secret.

There is no reason that the documents about these few thousand old helmets are secret (unless component of a secret deal - bigger arms sales), but also many CZ historians these few thousands old helmets also does not care..

[trevor87bikes]

So who first bought these to the market and how many people found this so called depot and why so long after the war . Also surely at least one of the forums collectors would of heard about them being found at the time or heard the proper story how they come about ....surely if someone found these and was 100% they were ww2 painted then they would of been sold as that at the time for similar prices to other originals ......imagine finding what you knew was 100% ss helmets in a depot ...there's no way you would keep that to yourself and sell them cheap

[bubble]

90th Light (#301): I was around in the 1960's, 70's, 80's, and can remember what relations with governments of the former Warsaw Pact were like. These were not sold by the CZ government of the time. It was highly illegal to sell this stuff to the West. One could even be taken to task for owning it. What happened was CZ government officials had to be bribed to get these out. That is how things work then and do even now. The other way was to smuggle them out via the under world. Today it is a lot easier to export/ import to the CZ.


Hi 90th Light: That's not quite true. Here in Czechoslovakia was 60, 70 and 80 years, several large military sales. Here the army was selling old military parts - the old uniforms, camouflage coats, boots, hats, flasks, but also for bonding various sets of boats and thousands of other things .. a lot of these things are old Czechoslovakia 50 years, but also German. Prices were one type of canvas = 5Kcs ($ 0.10 / piece). These things then for many years lay in the bazaars, which were in every major street in the larger cities, and nobody buy it.
Camouflage uniforms or shoes bought mostly just tramp or people like working clothes ..
Personally, I was a little boy (9 years) in one of these huge sales ever in 1977-79 ?? in the center of Prague on the Coal Market. There were thousands of boots and camouflage uniforms (I do not know if also German) but I remember that CZ army there sold hundreds of sets of cutlery with swastika! Yes, it was the entire collection of cutlery on which the swastika for 10Kcs (0,20 USD)/set. There were other clothing or uniforms no swastikas I have not seen, only these metal cultlery, if I remember ..
In Czechoslovakia at the time (50-80's) there were no Nazis (perhaps only a few exceptions) .. here started up nazi-skinheads sometimes at the end of 80 years (87-88) ..

These foreign traders to buy in CS goods and exported to west without any problems. I reckon that the price for a helmet could be so up 5USD apiece. They only had to get permission from any foreign trade (Tuzex, Omnipol etc ..) There was at that time only problem with the export of antiques (furniture from the 1850's, paintings, coins, old signs, ..) but definitely not German helmets or uniforms ..

[GAMS1]

Those helmets surfaced for most of them around the 90's,when huge stocks of military equipments still existing in the warsaw pact reserves were "demobilized" .
I remember having seen 500 pieces of them in the basement of a school , coming from the civil defences stocks .
A friend of mine bought boxes full of helmets from those Army stocks , which were not only CS helmets but everything historically possible to find in this region !
Italian M33 , french Adrian ,russian WW2 , but also german helmets .
Actually they needed only to have written on the paper records stuff to supply to 3 millions soldiers for the big "people mobilization"! And they put in these boxes gems for the today's collectors !
Typical communist mentality and "reality" of the rotten system .
CS civil defence have had sand coloured uniforms in the 50-60's , so i presume
they stocked those sand helmets found in the german stocks to match the uniform colour ?
I also had some issued sand helmets with Statni Films stamps on the leather ,but i'm sure they had them new from those old german stocks and the wear traces were only from the movies use ...as so many original items found there !
IMO those helmets are not only WSS of course, but were intended for the Südfront wear .
I didn't find in this long discussion any real proof of this Post war origin ,unfortunately as so many people are convinced they are ?
Only rumours colported for years , only on "impressions" and no facts ?
Nick
Nick

[NickG]

surely if someone found these and was 100% they were ww2 painted then they would of been sold as that at the time for similar prices to other originals ......imagine finding what you knew was 100% ss helmets in a depot ...there's no way you would keep that to yourself and sell them cheap

Reread your post in yellow and yellow below" and think about this for a minute. We are not talking about Indiana Jones "discovering" something (with value)!
These helmets were not "found" by a knowledgeable dealer...these are war time left overs (war time produced) and moth balled as strategic reserves with a whole bunch being (re)assigned to Civil defence and fire. Not later reworks, fire overpainted black...If refurbished post war why weren't they all treated the same (a civilian color...perhaps ALL black? as opposed to DunkelGelb...) and G'ment disposed of!

This is how it most likely went down: An ex-communist bureaucrat was told to get rid of them...They showed up on an inventory list of obsolete Czechoslavakian gear. That is clear!
Of course this list did NOT describe them as tropical (SS) helmets. And would a CZ bureaucrat even know or be bothered? He probably never even laid his eyes on them when instructed to put them on the market, meaning releasing them from their inventories... He looked at a list...these were flagged for disposal. The inventory description became the selling item description...

It is so simple...Surely no doubt they had them cataloged as "Emergency defence helmets", so they were sold as such..."Emergency Defence helmets" (along all kinds of other obsolete kit) and consequently put on the market as described...Now they hit the market...Because many were tan, an assumption was made (primarily in the West) that they were refurbished from a (conveniently canceled) foreign contract...They were tagged as CZ...Egypt made sense because of Russian arms going there through CZ... That is all hearsay...Yes some German advisores in the mid fifties, and USSR style weaponry...NOTHING to do with these helmets!!!

From the web: Until 1954 the Egyptian army was largely trained and equipped by the British. However, after the disasters experienced in 1948 the Egyptians looked elsewhere for military ideas, hence during from 1950-57 a small number of German instructors were used to impose German doctrine on the army. For example, German instructors trained the new parachute and commando units in the early 1950s. When the British evacuated the Suez Canal in 1954-55 the Egyptians turned to Czechoslovakia for equipment (basically Soviet weaponry), and possible turned to military Soviet doctrine as well although this might have occurred after the 1956 war. Remember earlier in the thread it was claimed to be a King Farouk era procurement, and he abdicated so it got canceled...Well wrong time frame this supposedly solid Czech-Egyptian link. I already touched on that. Its all just connecting the WRONG dots...assumptions!

Would you really expect these helmets to be described as being wartime German helmets on Czechoslovakian inventory lists? Identified as such and sold as such? Really?These government paperpushers probably had no clue of the exact origins, or other than what the paperwork stated...Civil Defence helmets (old type or maybe German type). They later used USSR helmets (new type or Russian Style) for these services...
and again the reasoning that thousands of these were refurbished specifically for emergency/fire/desaster services ...???Really?
In Division size quantities? That's a lot of emergency disaster rescue/fire personnel. The volume found in those (war time assembled) condiitons alone immediately proves its (German) war supplies! What is the other answer?

We already know that the export story is a fable, an assumption...and post war refurbishing (in those quantities) does absolutely not make sense (with 100% war time parts) for a small branch as civil emergencies? Helmets in Division size quantities? Wow!Economically is does not rhyme either...No Way!

These are war time supplies, not something an improverished small country coming out of the war would put together. Scrap metal value is better! Shortages in everything! The math was already shown to be unrealistic...For a non existing lucrative export order?
Why is this so hard to fathom...?

So released from inventory and wholesalers (who bought these dirt cheap) sold them to the West doubling their investment making these still cheap...
and Western dealers bought these "Civil Defence and fire" helmets as such... Simple! Its "origin" (put-together, post war assembled history (with original 1943 liner pins!!!) was unfortunately "born"...
and well since these did not look like your average continental German helmet or bring back overpaint DAK helmet, that was THE story...
they were discredited based on the looks, origin, paperwork (and use), immediately killing the (historical and monetary) value unfortunately
and if the traders believed these were post war reconditioned helmets (because of a story, an easy explanation, again based probably on the CZ Government shipping paperwork- packing slips stated, which no doubt identified these as CZ Emergency/disaster services inventories, 25 years ago), well that's how they were marketed and in a time with less knowledge and no internet. The chain of custody with assumed stories created the post war Czech Egypt refurbished yadayadayada story.. and they still made good money on these!
And to think these automatically must be postwar rebuilts (with 100% war time parts btw) just because of the non-conventional (non continental and non DAK) paint color and finnish/texture which is actually RAL....is odd to me! The color is slightly off is also pure BS...
paint batches varied, UV exposure, water exposure, storage exposure, fading, handling, cheap ersatz paint (actually vehicle/materiel primer)
So they weren't (often) seen/found in the West like this, prior to the find...so? Is that an issue automatically?
How many ersatz leather G43 pouches existed in the west prior to te Ukranian hoard, btw with maker codes that weren't even on the Western collectors market...So a supplier contract (just like these helmets) that remained in the east, no collector exposure...ending up on the other side of the cold war wall, only to be "discovered" after release from storage like these helmets ...but they had a wrong (assumed) birth certificate...Even that story changed...found in parts, no wait found assembled for export...you really think the Egyptian Army would be interested in (only?) 3000 helmets, really?, (1950's strength during Suez canal war : 375,000 – 415,000 troops)
No wait these were made, reconditioned for emergency services, 3000 of such personnel! That's a lot of care givers!
Wow!
and I encourage a debate on this with constructive counter arguments...Not weak arguments like, never seen one prior to this discovery,
or the shade is a little bit off for it to be German...they lack dome stamps... no bring-backs like this exist...or plainly
they just look to new to be real war time....please! Go ahead punch some holes in the above explanation!
Look at those new looking G43 pouches! again some styles never encountered in the west prior to them coming over from the East!
They just didn't get as badly tainted as these helmets but some tried...(like not believing the Dachau SS insignia in mint conditions)
We have been there before but these helmets were discredited almost 3 decades ago it became a "fact" but show the research!
Not some dealer told me story! We have a vet told me story...picked one up in Prague with his Sahariana tunic for deployment in Greece!
(the other Nick)

[Tim O'Keefe]

The Depot near Prague was well known to some of the locals, as they used some of the webb gear and some wore the tropenhelms (without insignia) themselves while working outdoors etc. Its when the wall came down that someone in the West first learned of these helmets and tropenhelms.

This debate reminds me somewhat of the Beehive cache of all the tropical gear and hundreds of tropical caps found not to long before these helmets. For years the locals new about the caps and gear in the train wreck. Some locals used the caps for insulation in their beehives etc. but one day someone with more business sense heard about it.
Some enterprising fellow's squirled away most of the caps for over 20 years, only releasing around 20 caps a year till just in the last few years when almost all the caps were released and sold to numerous dealers and collectors.

When these caps were first encountered some collectors doubted the originality on these caps from the "beehives' as well. "C'mon impossible story" right ? But incredible and true 100%

I have no doubt that the tropenhelms found in the depot are original from the War, very likely ss sunhelmets that were used in Greece and left in the depot when the solders were refitted with gray uniforms instead of tropical. As late as '44 according the veteran himself. Does this prove anything about the helmets themselves ? No but it does show what can happen when you connect the dots...

[90th Light]

Tim you make a very good point about this "Depot near Prague"

Here is another account of such a find/ situation at "Bielefeld" near the SS barracks at Augustdorf where they trained the Tiger II crews. I have posted this on other threads but it is equally appropriate that it also be added here. Just goes to show what was still out there, stored up and SS in the 1980's, 90's and into this century,

Chris

I think in the light of what is now being discussed about what collectors have or have not seen in their time or got directly from veterans that we all need to take heed.

I have copied and pasted something which I posted in another thread about SS M43 caps with HBT lining and also SS M43 caps with grommets. I feel that to add this to this thread has real relevance to the points being made and adds to what we are all saying here esp. given the way that any SS M43 with an HBT lining is automatically rejected outright, end of story but a WH or LW example is no problem and probably original. This just lacks comprehension that the one an only original SS M43's with HBT lining are those found at Dachau in May 1945.

This is the experience of a collector of many years of collecting Third Reich material so I ask that you all please take the time to read a day that he has never forgotten.

Many thanks, Chris

"EDITED AND ENLARGED VERSION:
> > My friend was in Bielefeld and saw some of the horde of
> > W-SS material taken from a farmhouse near Augustdorf in late 2001. This
> > led from the discovery by a German collector of a store of old W-SS
> > uniforms and field gear in a farm house that had been removed from the
> > nearby W-SS barracks at Augustdorf in early April 1945 when the base was
> > evacuated by the W-SS as the Americans advanced. Augustdorf was the base
> > on the northern edge of the Sennelager training area used by the W-SS to
> > train crews of the heavy (Tiger) tank battalions. Among the large amount
> > of W-SS Panzer uniforms uncovered in early 2001 were at least three black W-SS
> > Panzer M43 caps, all with single button flaps and a separate eagle and
> > skull insignia attached to the front of the cap above the single composite retaining
> > button. These three caps had linings of steel blue-grey herring bone twill
> > material. My friend remembers the caps very well. When he saw the pile of
> > W-SS Panzer material two of the three black M43 caps had been sold. He
> > could have bought the last one but dithered because he was short of money
> > at the time. He has regretted that decision since. For those who may not
> > have heard of this amazing discovery the material had belonged to the old
> > farmer who died in 2000. Relatives who came to clear out the farm found
> > one room with an old industrial sewing machine and piles of clothing- some
> > 50 intact W-SS overcoats, more overcoats that had been shortened and
> > converted to single button front, black wrappers that had been cut down
> > and re-worked into a single button front, dyed a variety of browns and
> > greens, other tunics cut up and in various stages of civilian conversion,
> > boxes of scraps of large and small pieces of uniform cloth, and luckily
> > for collectors there were still a number of uniform items that had not
> > suffered from the old farmer's scissors. Camouflage items, like
> > smocks, had survived presumably because there was not the same ready
> > market for converted camouflages clothing as there was for dyed and
> > re-worked overcoats and wrappers and tunics. The German collectors who saw
> > the room assumed that production in the farm house had stopped at some
> > time after the war when Germans were no longer buying converted military
> > clothing. But the point of this story is simply that among this material
> > taken from the clothing store of the W-SS barracks at Ausgustdorf there
> > were black M43 caps with a blue-grey HBT lining.
> >
> >This amazing story from Augustdorf is one of the great finds of "treasure" in
Germany in recent years.The big German dealers, fists full of DM, were all on the
scene with a day of word of the discovery leaking out. There was some fast and
furious bidding by the dealers to get their hands on the treasure trove. Among
this large amount of W-SS uniforms were camouflage items like smocks and panzer
wrappers, plane tree helmet covers, though only in very small numbers, two or
three of each. There were aparently none of the late war pea pattern uniform
combinations. Most of the top end items, like still intact black wrappers with
the insignia still attached (some of the uniforms had their arm eagles and collar
patches removed) were sold immediately to advanced German collectors without ever
appearing on a dealer's list. How did this material end up in a farm house? There
were two schools of thought among the German collectors and dealers who saw it.
One possibility is that the W-SS deposited the material there themselves before
evacuating the base, to protect and preserve it by concealing it in the farm
house. This is a distinct possibility, given that the material included a few
pieces of field gear, e.g. bread bags, gasmasks and canisters, ammunition pouches,
water bottles, belts and buckles, boots even. The other possible explanation would
have to be that the farmer himself took his horse and cart to the barracks and
made a number of trips between the barracks and his farm, which was only about 2km
from the base. Residents living in there in 1945 reported the base had been
looted, by local villagers and farmers, in the hours between the time the W-SS
left the barracks and when the Americans arrived, about one day later. Even
though there were American combat units close by they did not actually enter the
base for over 12 hours after the WSS had left. In this time people were seen
walking through the barracks carrying away anything they felt was useful. Most
local people came looking for food, but things like towels and kitchen utensils,
stationery from the office, small items of furniture were removed too. It would
have been possible for a farmer with foresight of the likely shortage of clothing
in a postwar Germany to have come in and loaded up his cart with uniforms. It is
however a moot point as to why he would have also taken an assortment of basic
field gear. From the evidence of production converting the uniforms for civilian
use over a period, and assuming much had been sold by the farmer, there must have
been a considerable amount of uniform left in the farm house in late March 1945.
One can only speculate what may have been stored in the farm house in
late-March-early April 1945 in total.

END"

[90th Light]

90th Light (#301): I was around in the 1960's, 70's, 80's, and can remember what relations with governments of the former Warsaw Pact were like. These were not sold by the CZ government of the time. It was highly illegal to sell this stuff to the West. One could even be taken to task for owning it. What happened was CZ government officials had to be bribed to get these out. That is how things work then and do even now. The other way was to smuggle them out via the under world. Today it is a lot easier to export/ import to the CZ.


Hi 90th Light: That's not quite true. Here in Czechoslovakia was 60, 70 and 80 years, several large military sales. Here the army was selling old military parts - the old uniforms, camouflage coats, boots, hats, flasks, but also for bonding various sets of boats and thousands of other things .. a lot of these things are old Czechoslovakia 50 years, but also German. Prices were one type of canvas = 5Kcs ($ 0.10 / piece). These things then for many years lay in the bazaars, which were in every major street in the larger cities, and nobody buy it.
Camouflage uniforms or shoes bought mostly just tramp or people like working clothes ..
Personally, I was a little boy (9 years) in one of these huge sales ever in 1977-79 ?? in the center of Prague on the Coal Market. There were thousands of boots and camouflage uniforms (I do not know if also German) but I remember that CZ army there sold hundreds of sets of cutlery with swastika! Yes, it was the entire collection of cutlery on which the swastika for 10Kcs (0,20 USD)/set. There were other clothing or uniforms no swastikas I have not seen, only these metal cultlery, if I remember ..
In Czechoslovakia at the time (50-80's) there were no Nazis (perhaps only a few exceptions) .. here started up nazi-skinheads sometimes at the end of 80 years (87-88) ..

These foreign traders to buy in CS goods and exported to west without any problems. I reckon that the price for a helmet could be so up 5USD apiece. They only had to get permission from any foreign trade (Tuzex, Omnipol etc ..) There was at that time only problem with the export of antiques (furniture from the 1850's, paintings, coins, old signs, ..) but definitely not German helmets or uniforms ..

Hello bubble,

I know the CZ was selling items in the 1960's, 70's & 80's. But this was to other governments. As a collector, it was very hard to get items from the former USSR & Warsaw Pact. There were people here in NZ who were serious collectors of Cold War items.. USSR & WP Militaria was very hard to get and commanded good prices. That all changed just before and after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. Prices have never recovered to those pre-89 levels.

As far as German WW2 or WW1 items from the East before 1989, they were virtually impossible to get. We knew they were there but no one from the West ever got to see them. If a citizen of the USSR or Warsaw Pact got caught trying to sell them to the West, they were in big trouble and all that went with it. Of course those with a lot of money who could bribe people had some success but even they would not have been able to go behind the "Iron Curtain" to negotiate or collect the items. Things had to be smuggled out illegally. Again in the period leading up to and when the Berlin Wall came down, it was all on. The race was on for who could get there first and collectors like George.P. had great success for example, finding one of the biggest hoards of panzer wraps & caps to date. Then there is what was came out of the Statni studios.

However, before 1989 for collectors of Militaria in the West, it was both difficult and dangerous but some stuff found its way onto the market in limited quantities,

Chris

[NickG]

There is no contract of helmets for Egypt in any Czech or Czechoslovak articles, on web, or books, no mention anywhere (!)

Really I would be very interested to know where this information comes from..

Thanks for the info from Prague Bubble! Me too. At least somebody is making an effort to research this! Wish I knew the language!
I would also like to know how these rumors were spread! Answer most likely: assumptions, lazy "research", caused by some pictures from the 70's (shown here) depicting
some Cairo riot troops wearing W.German surplus helmets?
+ some story about a Warsaw pact era arms deal going there, linking these "Sand" colored helmets to that export order?? (but canceled?) Now that is thorough research!

Again why would the strongest army in North Africa with close to 500,000 troops (including reservists in the 1950's) have a need for approximately 3000 (RAL code colored)
reconditioned helmets using exclusively WW2 parts ? Do the doubters of these being war time production have an answer? I really want to learn why! Please enlighten the believers
(and the fence sitters)!
We want to get to the bottom of this and learn the truth!! Btw I don't own such a helmet because I was also suckered into this lazy explanation combined with the unimaginable excellent condition
(shelf survivors) and inexpensive pricing offered ...Consequently the "too good to be true" alarm bells went off...like with everybody else...all reacting like sheep....Declined en mass by most serious collectors! Poisoned by the story... but my eyes opened + internet views changed things for me! I believe in these much more than I don't so would love to get a concrete explanation on
"why not WW2"? Really why not? Is the Prague depot explanation too far-fetched? Look at the mint sun helmets, look at the mint Saharianas, Italian campo parkas etc...All from the same location
where the Polizei Division vet received his Greece occupation deployment helmet, later turned in! Far fetched? Tooth fairy, Santa Claus nonsense? Really?
Btw I still want to do a poll! Can that be set up? Crickets....

Btw The Polizei Division (where these images came from) was deployed to Greece for occupation in 1943 (helmet pins dated 1943) and stayed there through August 1944 (late war paint farbe!)
Yes these helmets are referbs (stripped, painted, liner refurbs... M35,M40 and M42's all mixed but reconditioned for (POl.Div) Sud Front service with replacement 1943 dated liner pins coming from local German parts contract sources in Sudetenland area where the reconditioning took place. Too hard to believe it could have happened?
Polizei was recalled and redeployed to deal with the Belgrade battle front in 1944 turning in their Saharianas and helmets and these stayed behind in the Depot to be discovered by the locals after the war and reassigned for civil emergency use. They used what they found not spending any money on these other than black over paint for their fire service and post war repairs after issuance to include Czech chin straps! So mixed parts...war time reconditioning + post war repairs after use...
mixed bag...many remained in untouched condition but deteriorating RBNr chin straps meant that many came with out these, otherwise fine!

Btw I am NOT trying to convince people, just sharing my and other viewpoints...I actually want to be UNCONVINCED, tell my why this is NOT plausible? That is all!

[kevinpre45]

Lot Numbers

Hello
Are the lot numbers on the M-42 pretty close? That might be a clue!
Kevin

[NickG]

Here's a true Czechoslovak Egyptian delivered helmet. Huge amounts were delivered during the suez channel crisis. Totally different time frame.
Note CZ armed forces crossed swords stamp, now with Egyptian overpaint. You can also find German parkas in Italian camo with such Czech army property stamps. Not found in these German helmets.

If these German made helmets were overpainted to meet an Egyptian standard it would have only been the outside probably...and done locally in Egypt...had they been delivered, had a delivery contract really existed for these war time produced helmets.

http://brendonshelmets.weebly.com/egypt-vz53-cont.html


.

[NickG]

Hello
Are the lot numbers on the M-42 pretty close? That might be a clue!
Kevin

Lot numbers no doubt all over the place...since these are all refurbished. Hence the earlier style helmets also being found (with later war inner components).
The question is are these war time refurbished or post war refurbished, which is the topic of this thread.

[kevinpre45]

I get the Topic!

Hello
I understand the M-35s etc but was wondering if any M-42s were sent right to CZ if so the lot #s might be close. Just a thought.
Kevin

[NickG]

Hello
I understand the M-35s etc but was wondering if any M-42s were sent right to CZ if so the lot #s might be close. Just a thought.
Kevin

I see! That could be the case, not a bad thought after all!
If they are in sequence its a war time order (for the M42 portion of what was found) and not refurbished mixed left overs
Here's the one from SV militaria...hard to make out...
This was his opinion:
There has been much debate over these helmets over the last 15 years. I first discovered these helmets in Prague before the wall came down around 1985. The Germans used Prague as a depot for tropical uniforms and equipment. The Germans had planned great offensives in southern Russia with the goal of eventually linking up with the troops from Africa. These helmets could have been part of the tropical stuff for those planned operations. All these tan helmets, I have observed, were always made with German war-time parts and made to German specs. Some collectors have made some statements about them being for an order to Egypt after the war, by the Czechs. I am not sure. Perhaps they were rebuilt after the war, but why? In any event it is excellent plus and all German WWII parts. Yes, I have one in my collection too.

[NARVIK1940]

Is it possible that these helmets received a primer coat with the other intent that they would receive a second coat, and that did not happen? So they got issued with liners as is?