M1 question; need help!

[fireguyfire]

Had a look at the liner and it has the third marking in your examples; (CA AC in a cross pattern). I decided to take a quick shot at the steel helmet with soft stripper, and there is a really good proper green underneath that still retains the proper "sand" finish; I also removed the major insignia( it was a pin that was bent over through the holes) and found a third hole (see photo); maybe the major pin was added? If so, what would have been on original, as there are 2 holes directly vertical of each other;
I will strip the steel helmet to the original paint, and post some other pics. I know it was repainted as if you look close, you can see some scrapes, etc that removed the "sand" paint, that were the same color as the helmet, hence being repainted over.
I guess I did all right for my $25.

[Panzer 3]

hi,

Thats a damn shame some idiot went and done that to a good helmet, you will find officers helmets were made with a small indented hole for insignia. These were done in the factory not by the men themselves. the insignia were screw back and damaged the liners by scraping them, so they changed liners, when needed.
I would just flatern the holes and fill them, take those metal strap hangers off and you have a very nice late w.w.2 helmet. and for $25.00 they gave it to you. lol.
dave.

[NickD]

this one so the liner isent ww2 ???

but for $25 i would pay that just for the shell so yeah you did well

MODEL 1951/1952 LINER

Manufactured by both Capac and Westinghouse (Micarta Division only) these M-1 helmet liners are identical to the WWII liner except that the internal HBT cloth is a dark green olive drab #7. These liners are identified by two types of manufacturer stamps, on set of "W" and "CAPAC" are embossed into the crown and the other is an ink stamp of the word "MICARTA" that is attached to the interior of the liner.

[fireguyfire]

Nick; the mark is the same as the one you isolated; a's and c's in a cross shape with a 5 and a 1 on each side of the one leg of the cross, and a w in a circle. Tried to take a picture but it is really tough to get it to show well.

[packin9]

I must rectify one of my comments of the previous post. The liner seems to have a PFC rank insignia painted on the front that I have overlooked. This means that the liner is from a different helmet than the outer shell. (Outer shell belongs to a Mayor and liner to a Private First Class).


Regards,

Gus

I concur with gus. You can see the PFC fairly well.

[fireguyfire]

If the helmet and liner do go together, then I know the "Audacia" connection, and the name printed inside the liner. Are there any resources out there to research who this guy was? Has anyone ever had success finding out details from a name off an item/ helmet?

[NickD]

Nick; the mark is the same as the one you isolated; a's and c's in a cross shape with a 5 and a 1 on each side of the one leg of the cross, and a w in a circle. Tried to take a picture but it is really tough to get it to show well.

that does mean the liner is not ww2 but the shell is if they do go together then its a post war reissue but me personally i think they dont i feel the emblems on the liner were painted over & added to this shell to sell as complete ww2 helmet which its not as for finding out info on the name inside the liner is almost impossible with the name alone but someone here may be able to dig something up ya never know

[Nige H]

The shell a mid to late WWII, and has as you said been reissued, by adding the late style safety helmet chip strap, with metal releasing clips, plus a re-paint in light O.D.3 and textured sand. The original finish would have been Mid O.D.3 Olive with textured cork, and helmet straps which were stitched directly to the swivel loops using a "Bartak" sewing machine. The liner again as stated is the first post war production style, I heard rumour that some of the late WWII style high pressure plastic liners with both sets of makers marking were in fact WWII Westinghouse production shell, which were not used. These were then used up in the first production run in the 1950's by CAPAC. Or the Capac liners were made using the old WWII late Westinghouse tooling and so have both sets of marking.

As to your helmet, if you so wish you can restore it back to full WWII spec, as there are a number of companies that offer restoration kits for M1 helmets, I've restored quite a few to both sell on and also keep and I've always got my parts from J. Murray, INc, 1944 - M1 Helmets as his stuff is about the best of the bunch. As to holes, a couple of the M1 shells I acquired had stress cracks (which is quite common) I opted to braze these using Oxyacetylene and was very pleased with the results, and once ground back and painted this was an invisible repair.

Nige

[fireguyfire]

Nige;

Thanks for the info; ironically I ordered all of the pieces I was missing from J Murray last week; should be here soon!!
I did strip the helmet back to it's original paint and it looks great; it has some wear and tear, and has a white vertical stripe or "1" faintly visible on one side.
Did you age/ distress the straps, etc for your helmets, and if you did, how did you go about it?? I would like the new parts to match the "patina" of this great helmet.

Also ironic, I have found locally a front seam fixed bale helmet in original paint with a soldiers name in it; the guy wants $180 for it; is this a decent price for a fixed bale front seam??

[NickD]

i would say $180 is a bit steep for the shell only the most ive ever paid i £50 but i was unnamed but on the other hand original fixed bail helmets aren't easy to come by these days & named as well but still i would not pay that amount but then i am a cheapskate