M1C helmet found in Magdeburg in germany with decals

[Kohima]

It is certainly an old repair/modification, though the temptation to claim it ‘airborne’ should be resisted. As already alluded to, by Mark in particular, this is an alteration that could equally be affected by anyone, for any purpose and, indeed, at any time (an improvised bucket used by a local farmer, perhaps?).
It seems difficult to believe that a replacement helmet could not be easily found by its original owner...

The white box marking appears to be the remnants of an NCO stripe, while there seems to be a black-outlined, red diamond at the side (above the bale), more akin to that of the 5th Division - though I do not suggest for a moment that this is what it represents and may well be something altogether different.

Bob

[BlackCat1982]

Forgot to add in my last post (I was on my way to bed!)

The vertical cracks are stress cracks from the normal manufacturing proces and are common in M1 helmets especially earlier shells. Caused by the single draw f the forming of the shell and probably by the composition of the steel in combination with the particular shape of the shell. This was later improved by forming the shell in a double draw process. If the cracks were within set parameters the shell was passed as acceptable which is why stress cracks are so commonly seen in issued helmets.
In this case the cracks have been opened by corrosion and the rim was likely lost either before or during the same time.

Hope this makes it more clear.

Regards

Mark

Only my hypothesis for this particular lid. Believe me, I've dug a few M1 lids with stress cracks and I am very familiar with the processes of metals re-shaping themselves over time. After all these things started life flat.

[earlymb]

Drilling holes in hardened steel helmets is not easy and not something a normal GI could do unless he had a workshop at this disposal. Repairs to bales would usually have been done by the greater unit's repair shop, where they likely had access to welding equipment so a fix like this is highly unlikely to have been done in the military.

Another possibility besides a poop scooper is a flower pot.

[Bavarian]

Hello
Poor for info it cant be a poopscopper or a flowerpot because I found it under the earth with other things
Regards
Bavarian

[BlackCat1982]

If I were you I would be going back to that dump spot and detecting it some more!!

[Watchdog]

Drilling holes in hardened steel helmets is not easy and not something a normal GI could do unless he had a workshop at this disposal. Repairs to bales would usually have been done by the greater unit's repair shop, where they likely had access to welding equipment so a fix like this is highly unlikely to have been done in the military.

Another possibility besides a poop scooper is a flower pot.

Well, it is very difficult to make a hole in a manganese steel shell without proper tools but field workshops which would include armourers, vehicle fitters and engineers had the ability to work case hardened steel such as that of weapons. Welding was one solution but was usually very crude when done using the kind of equipment available which would be either brazing torch at the lower end or acetylene at the higher end (likely to blow holes in the thin metal of helmet shells) but the other solution was the one we see here. Remember, the factory method was electric spot welding not available in field conditions in Normandy.

Sorry for the crappy picture but I am having a scanner problem so this is a picture of something very similar effected on an M2 helmet taken from page 129 of the excellent (mostly) pictorial reference "American Paratrooper Helmets" by Michel De Trez and published by Histoire & Collections to whom full credit is accorded for the image.

There are several other pictures in the book that show this type of repair, another using a grenade ring and the crude welding I mention.

The US Ordnance Corps did recover many shells with damaged bails which were repaired in base facilities but this kind of repair did occur at formation level and it is perfectly possible that a GI in the field was not able to just wander off to the QM store for a new lid. Being in the field on ops in just a bit different than being in barracks



Regards

Mark