D-Bale on Ebay - Am I missing something here?

[christek]

G'day all,

Over 4 k AUD atm .... The liner is very rough... Is the shell really that valuable? What have I missed since concentrating on other militaria?


WW2 US Army M1 D Bale Steel Helmet With Liner Grandfathers | eBay

[IllinoisCornFarmer90]

I seen this helmet while browsing today as well. Seems pretty standard issue to me, although it has quite a history with the seller's family. Don't understand why you would want to sell your granddad's helmet...

[Gunny Hartmann]

AU $4,287.67 Wow!....

[christek]

I do agree Aaron although for this amount of coin when times are tough... Be very tempting!

[ruddersrangers44]

Where to even start with this one,when you take into account the severe rarity of a "D BALE",maybe one every five or ten years surfaces and most are usually within a particular collecting circle,its no surprise the interest this Helmet has attracted,whether it was the Grandfathers or not (buy the Helmet not the story)these things are hot,imagine if it was in better condition with the correct Hawley/St Clair/Inland Airborne Liner and Regiment markings to boot then you would be talking over the $10,000 mark easily,the age and wear to the Liner is consistent to the shell,looks to be good however i'm horrified how folk can bid in that price range without any hands on,just by pictures alone is enough to hand over thousands,I get it,seen BOB on TV now I can own the real thing,good luck to the winning bidder,and prey it doesn't turn out to be a stinker.

[NCA]

How come the chinstraps don't have the snaps for the liner?

[ruddersrangers44]

I never spotted that one,yeh how comes?heard of McCord fitting Airborne straps to Fixed Bale shells but not the other way round,maybe it is a stinker?or perhaps it had Infantry straps fitted during late war refurb depot,who know's rather them than me,I wouldn't be able to sleep shelling out that kind of cash.

[christek]

How come the chinstraps don't have the snaps for the liner?

Yeh, this may have been put together in the field late war - But with all the discrepancies, the liner and straps do not fit at all with this shell, I would stay away, at least from spending that type of coin.

[LizardKing]

Hello people... Please excuse my most likely stupid question but when you are refering to a D Bale M1 helmet you are refering to it's metal parts that retain the chinstrap? D Bales are the D shaped metal parts that are fixed and swivel ones are the ones that move... Right?
I'm very green on the US militaria so please enlight me.
A couple of years ago I found a M1 front rim helmet with fixed rectangular bales just laying in a huge pile of post war M1s. I bought it for like 10€!!

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Chris, you have it correct.

Cheers, Ade.