Only just identifiable relic Mk2 Tommy Helmet

[Reg]

Hello Gents

Ive seen some gleaming examples of Mk2 helmets on here, so I thought ild put on this on as an antedote. Its been a while since I posted anything so here goes...

It was found near the village tip some years ago. Its not in the display cupboard but still earns respect for what it is...er...or was. just a bit of fun.

Cheers
Reg

[gaz232sqn]

Hello Gents

Ive seen some gleaming examples of Mk2 helmets on here, so I thought ild put on this on as an antedote. Its been a while since I posted anything so here goes...

It was found near the village tip some years ago. Its not in the display cupboard but still earns respect for what it is...er...or was. just a bit of fun.

Cheers
Reg

Hi Reg.

Blimey ! your not joking about this one are you, that is a classic example of what a relic,should look like


Nice find too, I would have been well chuffed ,if I found this at my local tip

Thanks for sharing this one

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Hi Reg,
A nice one! I used to have one recovered from the Somme by a friend of mine, it had an exit-hole just above the brim. Here's a couple of pictures of my most prized helmet. It's a Mk 1 Brodie that my eldest daughter brought back from Ypres for me when she was on a school trip to Sanctuary Wood over 15 years ago. It was in a bit of a mess, and I took the decision to kill off the rust and repaint it - just to please my wife who has a dislike of rusty 'junk' in the house. If I remember rightly, she got it from a shop called The Shell Shop. She also nearly became a 'casualty' of the great war. She fell into a deep water-filled shell hole and had to be dragged out.

Harry,

[Reg]

Cheers Gaz

Nice relic there Harry! ive got a gap in the collection for a Brodie! Thought I had one coming in December but it turned out to be a mint Mk2, ill post that sometime. Looking at yours though the rivet in the top seems very similar to mine, I wonder if mine is actually a Brodie after all! I have been wrong before! LOL

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Cheers Gaz

Nice relic there Harry! ive got a gap in the collection for a Brodie! Thought I had one coming in December but it turned out to be a mint Mk2, ill post that sometime. Looking at yours though the rivet in the top seems very similar to mine, I wonder if mine is actually a Brodie after all! I have been wrong before! LOL

I have made it a personal crusade of mine to be wrong just for arguments sake!!! There was a man by the name of Frank Coppard who was in the MGC in the great war. He wrote a book called... With a Machine-Gun to Cambrai. In it is a description of how he came upon a large crucifix lying in a ditch by the side of a road.

An old friend of mine used to frequent the battlefields a lot up to a few years ago. And one day in the late 90's he went to this spot that Frank referred to, the crucifix was still there in the overgrown ditch, and that is where my Brodie with the bullet-hole came from. At times, I could Kick myself for parting with some of the things I have had!

Harry.

[Reg]

Hi Harry, I read that book about 15 years ago and have been looking for a copy since! I think the IWM printed it first. A good book. It was one of the few books at the time to be published that was not written by an officer!

I identified a rare tractor steering wheel a few weeks ago on here....er....well... it was the frame from an 80s speeker. Neck fully wound in!

Cheers
Reg

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Hi Reg,
I think it's amazing how we can convince ourselves we have found something good, when all it is is a piece of scrap! My friend who walked the battlefields used to give me all kinds of stuff. I still have a brass food tray that was dug up on the site of Moquet Farm on the Somme. he once gave me a cardboard box which contained a German helmet. Inside were bits of hair, and on the top were the remains of the soldiers cuff off his tunic.

My friend had been on the Somme for the Nov 11th ceremony. He and a group of others were gathered outside a bar having a drink when a freak storm broke out. A bolt of lightening hit a tree on the other side of the road and knocked it over. When they walked over to have a look they saw the remains of a German soldier in the bottom of the hole. His skeletal arm was draped over the top of the helmet. He took the helmet home and kept it for a while, but his wife (who is French) claimed that she had 'bad feelings' about it and made him get rid of it. I kept it for a few weeks, and I have to confess that I also felt uneasy about it. So I ended getting rid as well!

[Reg]

Spooky stuff Harry, that could be an interesting new thread! I always wonder if any new addition to the collections could bring "bad karma" (Besides the wife finding the reciept)

I had to get rid of a relic MG08/15 due to the wifes bad feelings about it (very arty type) Great story about the helmet.

Cheers
Reg