Frankenstein or Vietnam era...

[TheDecider]

Greetings forum members, I Have a variety of helmets but my M1 collection is still growing. That being said I recently bought three helmets and two were M1 helmets. One appears to be an Austrian variety from the 70's but this one confuses me and I seek advice.

Heres what I can tell about this one:
-It is not WW2 or Korea
-It has a bad repaint job on it that someone did at some point
-Swivel Strap mounts
-No markings on the liner other than US17 or US15 i dont recall which
-The markings on the webbing is very faint and hard to read looks like the liner may possibly be 1969?
-Came with a bad helmet cover which i dont know what country it came from
-Under the brutal interior paint I found a name and service number? Does that look like an American service number???

Im guessing but I feel like it is a 60's or 70's shell

-Was this a good buy for 17$??

It might deserve a bit of a restore im not sure.

What do you think this is please see pictures:

[MedicalAmmunitionCrate]

I can say the cover is a 1970s ERDL, don't think it was used incountry. Chinstrap is late 1970s-1980s Grenada era. Liner itself is likely 1960s or early 1970s. It's a frankenstein in my opinion.. Either way, I'd be on cloud 9 and over the hills if I paid only 17 bucks for this! The liner itself is probably worth 20-30 on its own, but then again, this stuff is scarce in my area.. No matter what, 17 bucks for any M1 Helmet with a liner, cover, shell and even an inner tube band is pretty decent. You did good with this one!

[christek]

Hello,

I am not so sure it has been 'put together' or is a 'Frankenstein' but of course we can rarely be 100% sure with M1's. The chinstrap and paint work on both the liner and shell look fairly convincing of being of 1970's or early '80's vintage. Although the style of the liner makes it certainly 1960's era there is always a possibility it was issued well after manufacture. I have had both styles of M1 helmets that IMHO were issued at the time; contemporary 1970's/80's liners with clean shells and helmets using far older components with 'over-painted' shells.

There is a good chance this helmet was last issued in the 1980's.

For a Vietnam era display, you could easily install some T1 straps (shown) and a Mitchell Pattern cover.

[TheDecider]

Excellent info so far it’s appreciated.
I was able to expose some of the heat stamp marks on the shell which include the following:

483A
S

Trying to narrow down the production age for this helmet.

[earlymb]

Front seam Schlueter, which makes it WW2 production (early to late 1944 timeframe I think). The paintjob might be done in service and as such part of the helmet's history. The chinstraps are late 1970's-early 1980's. The liner is the transitional type with the 'new' suspension and old fiber shell and will probably date from around 1965 or so.

What is the date of the cover? ERDL covers were introduced on a trial-base in 1968 I believe, although most will be dated post-Vietnam.

[christek]

Front seam Schlueter,.

Your eyes must be better than mine, I can't see the seem at the front. I was thinking it's a rear seam Schlueter.

[earlymb]

Well, I think I see a seam in the first pic but it might be covered with paint.... or just a scratch in that paint

[TheDecider]

Well, I think I see a seam in the first pic but it might be covered with paint.... or just a scratch in that paint

Yes there is a rear seam. The helmet is going to be restored it’s had layers of paint on top of paint.

Unfortunately there is no markings on that cover. It likely didn’t come with this helmet. I bought it with a lot of two other helmets. I took the chinstraps off. I’m thinking I will put Vietnam style ones in as pictured with a previous is post.

My understanding with the rear seam and marks is that it is a late war helmet shell that yes has a Vietnam era liner inside it.

[christek]

My understanding with the rear seam and marks is that it is a late war helmet shell that yes has a Vietnam era liner inside it.

Hello, yes you are correct. Cheers

[BlackCat1982]

A bit of a bitter, but well found for $17! The colour of the shell looks darker green than ww2 buy closer to Korean War reissue or later. But you did very well for sure and won't be out of pocket of you decided to move it on.