SS-Polizei Helmet?

**GIZMO8Z** · 09-13-2011, 08:57 PM

Can anyone offer any information on the layer of field gray/apple greenish paint over the luftschutz blue on my helmet? Is that authentic at least? If so, what could have this helmet been reissued as?

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 09-13-2011 08:57 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**DougB** · 09-13-2011, 09:19 PM

The paint does not match with the feldgrau re-issue paint used by the Germans from 1940 on. This most certainly appears to be an overpainted factory Luftschutz helmet. Paint looks postwar to these eyes.

**GIZMO8Z** · 09-13-2011, 09:37 PM

by DougB

The paint does not match with the feldgrau re-issue paint used by the Germans from 1940 on. This most certainly appears to be an overpainted factory Luftschutz helmet. Paint looks postwar to these eyes.

Aww poop... I was hoping at the very least it could be something similar to the reissued beaded police helmet that I saw for sale on ww2germanhelmets.com not too long ago.

Either way, at the very least I have a free helmet that I can use at ease in my high school history classroom.

**DougB** · 09-13-2011, 10:44 PM

Yes you do have that and congratulations for that! Looking forward to pics of the decals still.

**GIZMO8Z** · 09-13-2011, 11:00 PM

by DougB

Yes you do have that and congratulations for that! Looking forward to pics of the decals still.

I promise to post them up as soon as the helmet arrives. Tomorrow I hope!

**helmet2id** · 09-13-2011, 11:10 PM

For what its worth, I think this was originally a beaded Luftschutz lid, probably repainted dark blue to cover the L/S wing on the front (or the front decal was just scraped off), and then fitted with police decals, in the set back and reversed configuration. I agree with Doug that the green paint looks like a post war color. The liner is definitely period. It is a very good piece to use as a show and tell fr your students, and again, the price was better than right! Keep your eyes open, you are preserving little pieces of history each time you save one of these from the compactor! Cheers, Jim G.

**GIZMO8Z** · 09-14-2011, 09:50 PM

Here are the pictures as promised. This helmet is starting to give me a headache... ontop of all the previous drama surrounding this helmet, it appears that it was cracked while in transit via the postal service. I'm sure being damaged in the grinder didn't help... but MY GOD!

Closeups of the "SS" decal (These pictures gave me more trouble than I thought they would... please let me know if higher quality images are required):

**Sir Payne** · 09-14-2011, 10:27 PM

This helmet looks to me to have been painted 3 times. The first time it was painted dark blue, probably as a beaded Luftschutz, beaded police, or beaded Luftwaffe. Second overpaint was the color that is shown now, the tanish gray. The third time it was painted over was completely black. If I remember correctly, you removed all the black paint with just a few small traces of it left as shown in the picture. If my theory is correct, the original decals...if they are still there, or ever were there, are under the tan/gray paint. The party emblem and SS decal were probably added post war after the helmet was painted with the tan/gray paint. The reason I think the decals are not original is because of their location on the helmet and the fact that I have never seen a beaded SS helmet. I could be completely wrong, that is just my theory. I am interested to see what others say.

**Sir Payne** · 09-14-2011, 10:29 PM

Also the chinstrap is a civilian chinstrap

**Mark K** · 09-15-2011, 03:45 AM

I have read this thread with great interest and it has touched on many possibilities and this particular helmet does seem to be unfortunatley not an SS Polizei helmet or any variation that we have seen as the decals would appear to be applied over the repaint and as stated are in the wrong location just to mention a couple of things so this particular helmet is what it is and is still a very nice find regardless . But this does bring us back to the question of application errors and decals applied to helmets in unconventional locations and some very early in the war. In my case as early as 1940 with my own Q-66 M-40 Luftwaffe Helmet that has a miss applied Adler and it was allowed to pass inspection and to be issued to a soldier .Or another recent example that was posted just a couple of weeks ago was a M35 beaded helmet that had three Heer decals applied to it .(M35 Beaded Helmet Triple Decal Volksstrum Used ) This was very unushual but there was never a debate as to its authenticity . It does seem thoe that we mention the letters SS and it does turn a lot of heads and not just with helmets this would seem to be so with all SS issued TR items do we hold them at a higher standered are they to be scrutinized more so than all other TR, Is this because of the abundance of forgeries in the market place, Are the quality of SS items that much higher than all the other services, Or are there items that much rarer that we need to scrutinize them all the more these are question that I have been asking myself for a while now and it does seem like an appropriate place to bring it up considering the recent debate over this helmet.

Regards Mark K