runes (wrong direction) and paint just pain horrid.
Morris
runes (wrong direction) and paint just pain horrid.
Morris
The gates of hell were opened and we accepted the invitation to enter" 26/880 Lance Sgt, Edward Dyke. 26th Bn Northumberland Fusiliers , ( 3rd Tyneside Irish )
1st July 1916
Thought shall be the harder , heart the keener,
Courage the greater as our strength faileth.
Here lies our leader ,in the dust of his greatness.
Who leaves him now , be damned forever.
We who are old now shall not leave this Battle,
But lie at his feet , in the dust with our leader
House Carles at the Battle of Hastings
sorry my friends i mean design. (iPhone auto)
Morris
Hi all once again. Thank you for you your constructive opinions and information. To be quite honest I had no doubt in my mind that this was a repainted or sprayed shell for some fire service or other and that both decals were spurious. However, perhaps I was wrong. Following up on the suggestion that the party decal looked possibly right and that the SS decal was entirely wrong, I decided to have a play with the offending decal and following a very light and sensative clean with an abrasive. I know, you should never attack a tin hat with abrasives!! But what the hell, I came up with a nice Police decal complete with swastica. Please see photos. I could attack the helmet again and try to bring the police decal out a bit more but it would be a pitty to spoil it. Please, please, please don't tell me that the police decal is wrong!! With thanks once again to all.
Regards and best wishes Michael R
It possible IMO it could've been an period ("field") conversion from police to ss. The fact it's police only adds to the possibility, once again, IMO. I am by far no expert, and not an helmet collector by any means, but do you have any photos of the ss decal better the cleaning?
Hi, Thank you for your imput and opinions. The general concensus is that the decal (SS) was wrong in any event. However, having served 30 years in the military, I have seen some pretty strange altereations to kit and badges so your opinions are probably quite justified had the decal been right to start with?
Thank you once again and best wishes Michael R
Thank you sir. My thoughts are what if a soldier made the decal himself, just to explain my position a little more. By this I mean, the soldier took some white and black paint and created the decal himself after an transfer, etc. Just a thought and my opinion. As you said, there are some crazy alterations out there and I've seen some crazy examples in period tr photos.
It was a real Police helmet. The SS decal was 1000% bad. There were C.A. Pocher SS decals abundantly available until the end of the war, so I wouldn't put any stock in the field converted theory. This was NEVER a reverse decal SS helmet. If it were mine, I would have someone with experience remove the balance of the bad decal and if the paint is bad, that as well. This one could be salvaged, but only if the decal is unearthed with care and suffers a minimum of damage in the endeavor. Just my 2 cents, which my wife tells me aren't worth a penny. Jim G.
Both decals are reproductions. Reverse runes/party decals were known to be used by foreign volunteers.
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