Ss dd ef64 m35(3441)

[Brian]

Brian I recently visited with a high end Imperial collector who purchases raw rolled steel for his business and each roll has a stamp traceable to the foundry. He says this hasn't changed since wartime and the lot number represents the steel roll, a theory I brought up a while ago. (and maybe you've heard before that as well)

Doug, that makes perfect sense, a foundry mark that identifies the roll from which helmets were made; probably also used by quality control inspectors for the two tests later performed; the first to see of the lot was even fit to be formed, and the second ballistics test. Failures here probably meant lot rejection.

Maybe that is why there doesn't appear to be any manufacturing relationship between a helmet's lot number and it's paint/decal configuration; the same lot number (same maker/model) is found on different sized shells (also standard and ET custom sizes), different configurations (Heer, Luft, etc..), and even different shell types (re: M40 vs. M38).

So as a result, it appears that original helmet factory documentation likely did not contain information such as: lot #1201-1400 SS Helmets, #1401-1800 Heer helmets, #1801-2000 field police helmets, etc...) The lists we have show just the opposite, lots, shell sizes and configurations thoroughly mixed, for the most part.