Named and attributed Japanese helmet with 1st pattern/Manchuria cover

[MAP]

Wonderful helmet and canteen. It's salty on the outside but still nice on the inside.

[Speakeasy101]

Wonderful helmet and canteen. It's salty on the outside but still nice on the inside.

Thanks for the kind comments , it’s sure seen a lot of field use

[Nick Komiya]

Sorry, but I posted this article in the Axis forum instead of the Japanese forum. Have asked Alan to shift it for me. Proving Absence of Bogus Specs and Fantasy Items

[Speakeasy101]

[QUOTE=nick komiya;2034398]Sorry, but I posted this article in the Axis forum instead of the Japanese forum. Have asked Alan to shift it for me. Proving Absence of Bogus Specs and Fantasy Items[/QUOTE


Hi Nick

I think You got Proved wrong on another helmet cover thread by saying “it never happened” etc. I guess things did happen outside of a spec sheet.

I think the write up is a very rigid view if I’m honest and doesn’t allow for any thing to happen out of your blueprint sheets. It’s all good to live by an 80 year old spec sheet and say “this never happened” etc because it’s not on a piece of paper but the proof is here on this page for you.
The pictures do the talking and prove this cover existed and shows the signs of it.
Time frame of the cover, who knows but it being sent home from Guam in 1941 should help a little.

Once again thanks for the post and I hope to learn more about these.

[adachi]

I'm curious how a Seabee would have managed to not only capture a helmet cover during the Battle of Guam in 1941 but then keep it after they lost the battle and the Japanese occupiers took over.

[Kohima]

Just because you lose a battle, does not mean you have to lose your souvenirs...
Many British soldiers brought home souvenirs from Dunkirk, including German and French helmets, and even a French officer’s sword!
(Evidenced from original photographs - despite the TV-generated myth that they came home with next to nothing).

Many Seabees (and others) got their souvenirs in trade, rather than directly from the battlefield. Frequently embellished with a ‘got that off a dead ...’ story, for the benefit of their families.
The stories that enshroud such items often took shape at the time.

Either way, it’s a splendid example.

[Speakeasy101]

I'm curious how a Seabee would have managed to not only capture a helmet cover during the Battle of Guam in 1941 but then keep it after they lost the battle and the Japanese occupiers took over.

Hi Adachi
Also just to add And clarify, he was at Guam in 1941 more than 8,500 Japanese were killed or captured on Guam between August 1944 and the end of the war in August 1945. He served the full length of the war so he could have Picked them up or been given it then between those dates.


Thanks

[Speakeasy101]

Just because you lose a battle, does not mean you have to lose your souvenirs...
Many British soldiers brought home souvenirs from Dunkirk, including German and French helmets, and even a French officer’s sword!
(Evidenced from original photographs - despite the TV-generated myth that they came home with next to nothing).



Either way, it’s a splendid example.

Thanks Kohima it really is,
Through speaking with other collectors they did say that many would have never seen this type of cover and would therefore say they never existed, he was right.

2 have been shown here on this thread so far and I’m
Sure more information will surface.
Looking at my example and the many field repairs on it I would think the photos are enough to say this has seen tons of field use, that with the bring back inspection tag and the history of the seabee, also the inside inscription by the Japanese solider should be enough to warrant learning more about these covers, not shutting them down because they are not on a spec sheet. . Clearly they exist and clearly this has been used in the field in WW2.

Thanks for the post Kohima


It really is

[Speakeasy101]

Some shots of the liner which I believe is army.

[Speakeasy101]

Some More