Fallschirmjager battlefield pickup

**wicksy** · 08-19-2013, 10:08 AM

Apparently they were picked up and bought back during the war, but unfortunately have spent the rest of their lives in a damp garage!! The Fallschirmjager helmet had all the front paint blasted off and exposed the bare metal to the elements in a dilapidated asbestos garage. Mike used to run about with these on his head as a young boy (he is in his early seventies now) The Luftwaffe DD DAK M35 (which I will hopefully add pics of) presumably fared much better because it had a lot of newspaper around it.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 08-19-2013 10:08 AM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Danmark** · 08-19-2013, 10:12 AM

by wicksy

Apparently they were picked up and bought back during the war, but unfortunately have spent the rest of their lives in a damp garage!! The Fallschirmjager helmet had all the front paint blasted off and exposed the bare metal to the elements in a dilapidated asbestos garage. Mike used to run about with these on his head as a young boy (he is in his early seventies now) The Luftwaffe double decal DAK M35 (which I will hopefully add pics of) presumably fared much better because it had a lot of newspaper around it.

wow, Sussex is damp after all.... LOL ..... fair enough, I wouldn't have guessed that much rusting happened in the years since.
Would have loved to have seen them back in the 50's!
Cheers, Dan

**wicksy** · 08-19-2013, 10:22 AM

The last of the 3 helmets

**thorne83** · 08-19-2013, 10:55 AM

Hi guys,

there are 121 'Blatts' under the German War Graves responsibility, which you can, at least, narrow down somewhat.

Gräbersuche Online

Unfortunate the helmet doesn't have his initials on it!

Cheers,

Tom

**Nitram** · 08-19-2013, 11:18 AM

by wicksy

Hope these Malta helmet pics load!!

Hm, can you confirm that it's just paint over the standard green finish? The 4 examples I have examined locally all had a textured finish, with sand/mud mixed into the paint or sand/dust sprinkled over while the paint was still wet. Sorry to derail the thread.

**wicksy** · 08-19-2013, 01:57 PM

Hi, holding the helmet as I type, it appears that it is just paint over possibly a green finish.. If there was anything mixed with the paint, it could only have been a very fine dust. I think the photos of the rear clearly shows the brush strokes. I wasn't too sure whether the green was added at the same time or was the original base coat. Unfortunately only the back and part of the decal side obviously has the original painted finish.

**timothy** · 08-22-2013, 03:12 AM

Nice undesputable original helmets I like these unfortunatly the big boys in this hobby would tell you there is little or no collectiblity to them. Not my opinion but that is what you would run into. Failing to relize not everyone has ten to twelve thouand to lay down for one in its original state a ridicilous price in the first place. I think they hold a place in collections. timothy

**wicksy** · 08-23-2013, 10:09 PM

Hi Timothy, How right you probably are.. I certainly haven't got thousands to spend on a helmet, like most collectors.. The "big boys" as you call them, will probably never get the chance to acquire any of these anyway, because I couldn't bring myself to sell these as they were "donated" to my collection. I was just very lucky to have been in the right place at the right time!! Just nice to know what sort of interest they create and whether there would be a way to narrow down the wearers. I will have to have another word with the chap (Mike) who gave them to me, to see if he could remember exactly what Regiment etc his Uncle was in and try to trace his movements. However, that's only useful if "he" was the person picking up these helmets... He may have swapped them with someone for anything you could think of......
121 Blatts ??? I did have a quick look at the German War Graves site and didn't find it that easy to research (there again, you are looking at a hopeless computer illiterate user, as I am, getting out of his depth!!!) but will have another go.
I wouldn't be telling the truth if I said that I didn't want to know what sort of monetary value they had.. I think that we all want to have some idea.. for your own reasons.. even if its to pass them onto the next of kin etc