MkIV steel. A true Cold War veteran!

[Watchdog]

Good morning gents,

I mentioned this lid in a previous thread and it is one that causes me great anguish evry time I see it

When the MkVI was introduced and issued to my unit I was serving in Germany. Once the new helmets were issued it was normal British Army procedure for the obsolete items to be backloaded for disposal. As these were "unit stores" rather than personal issue like the MkVI it was done under the auspices of the QM by whichever troops were available at the time as it involved stripping off the hessian / scrim and removing the liners.

On this occasion it fell to my section to do this as we had "nothing better to do" on that day

Most of the lids were nothing unusual being either the original factory crappy brownish colour or thickly hand applied NATO green. However some were a bit of a surprise. Being a bit of a magpie and being the "gaffer" I squirrelled away ten (yes 10!) marked from LCPL to Maj. I carted these around for some years until the nagging of "her indoors" about keeping this "rubbish" caused me to junk all but this one just to stop the earache. Oh how I wish I had been deaf. A salutory lesson I feel

These helmets to my knowledge from the records held and my own experience of the system would have been factory fresh when they arrived in Germany probably in the '50s or '60s and never left theatre until they were backloaded so had "lived" through the entire Cold War albeit covered in hessian scrim for almost all of it!

Anyway at least I still have this one and I hope you like it.

Regards

Mark
PS There was meant to be a pic of the left side too but it did not upload properly and for some reason it appears as an unopened attachment at the bottom of the post which might not be noticed. However the left side is the same as the right and in the same condition.

[Mark K]

Nice example Mark and with out a doubt worthy of a place on the shelf .
Knowing the provanance is a big plus I have a few Canadian Police,MP and RP helms in my personal collection so have a bit of a soft spot for these.

Regards Mark

[Steelhead10]

Very nice Mark(ahh two Mark's in one thread this will end up being confusing)

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Hi Mark, that one's in a great condition, I have not seen many MP helmets "full stop", but this one is the best by miles! A great save, the only advice I could give you is to buy a fake hearing aid and pretend not to hear a word the wife says in future!!! Leon.

[Watchdog]

Hi Mark, that one's in a great condition, I have not seen many MP helmets "full stop", but this one is the best by miles! A great save, the only advice I could give you is to buy a fake hearing aid and pretend not to hear a word the wife says in future!!! Leon.

Beieve me I have tried and have reminded her of this many times since

Imagine it though, the other nine were pretty much all in the same condition which is why I bagged them

Oh well, worse things happen at sea (apparently )

Regards

Mark

[James C]

that sure is a great looking shell mark and highly polished compared to the combat turtle i started a little refurb on a similar turtle myself of which im yet to finish ,interestingly this was also a bare shell ,it was coated in an olive drab overpaint of which ive carefully tried to strip back ,as for fitting a replacemet liner im unsure if i can because the center ltd pin is missing ,if there is a way around this id be glad to hear it ,hope you dont mind me sharing a few pics of it in progress ,thanks james

[Gunny Hartmann]

Great lid to have in the collection!...