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Re: Battle damaged M-40 (Headshot)
Years ago, I met a U S Army vet who drove a truck from Normandy to the front lines. He would bring loads of helmets back in his empty truck to sell to the guys in the rear. Price was $10 for a standard helmet and $25 for one with a bullet whole. Needless to say, he would stop along the way on his return route and have some target practice. If there is no sign of a fatal head wound, this may be one of that man's handiwork!
BOB
LIFE'S LOSERS NEVER LEARN FROM THE ERROR OF THEIR WAYS.
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06-13-2011 04:55 AM
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Re: Battle damaged M-40 (Headshot)
by
BOB COLEMAN
Years ago, I met a U S Army vet who drove a truck from Normandy to the front lines. He would bring loads of helmets back in his empty truck to sell to the guys in the rear. Price was $10 for a standard helmet and $25 for one with a bullet whole. Needless to say, he would stop along the way on his return route and have some target practice. If there is no sign of a fatal head wound, this may be one of that man's handiwork!
Hi Bob, Your vet was quite the business man. I met a vet who was a quartermaster, and his prices were more reasonable, $5.00 for untouched helmets and $10.00 for ones with bullet holes. He, too, took some target practice on the way to the rear, and increased his profits by 100%! Jim G.
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Re: Battle damaged M-40 (Headshot)
Normally seen examples which has been shot trough the head has definately not just a hole, the powerfull hit to the helmet will brake the liner, even brake the rivets, the liner will "sunk" to the side where the bullet will go away, even the leather part in that case will be hardly damaged and got a lot of stainings. Most of the souvenirs was damaged during the period of the collecting of trophees to give them more valuable stories, like" The helmet picked up after I shot my first enemy"
In the ex USSR, the hemets became valued in the past 15 years, before and even I was a child and being my vacancy from a school and during the berry collecting with my grandpa in the forests, that was not a rare bird to find the helmet on the trees used as a target for black diggers, who's interest to dig in the forests was the weapon and jewelery only, all other stuff like a belt buckles etc was just like a garbage on the places where the diggers dug-up holes. Even I remember the time in the beginning of 1990's when the collector's market was born in the ex-USSR, Heeres buckle was approx a 3 USD and the dugup, but very good helmets even 10 years ago I bought from a man who was collect them in the forests for approx a 3-5 USD each
Regards,
Dimas
my Skype: warrelics
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Re: Battle damaged M-40 (Headshot)
by
helmet2id
Hi Bob, Your vet was quite the business man. I met a vet who was a quartermaster, and his prices were more reasonable, $5.00 for untouched helmets and $10.00 for ones with bullet holes. He, too, took some target practice on the way to the rear, and increased his profits by 100%! Jim G.
One reason, without some physical evidence it was worn when struck, I won't buy bullet shot helmets unless real cheap. Now shrapnel hits are a different story even though it may not have happen when it was being worn, at least it was damaged in a combat action.
Here's a Japanese helmet I posted on the relic thread that I have with a minor shrapnel hit that caused a bit of bleeding both on the liner and exterior. That's what you would like to see with any helmet hit. Scroll down to the end
https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/battl...-finds-784-19/
Scroll down toward the end of the thread. Ray
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Re: Battle damaged M-40 (Headshot)
Hi Ray, im not sure that i fully understand your reasoning for battle damaged helmets, you say you wont buy unless there is evidence of human injury, then go on to say that you like to see blood on the liner and interior and thats what a battle damaged helmet should look like, im afraid that sounds a little macabre and somewhat callous, although you can find these helmets with blood staining and evidence of injury the main criteria for collecting them is the historic content and not the human misery , we all know that the probability of any helmet found may have been the result of a human being dying ,battle damaged or not and that should be viewed as the terrible consequences of war and not a sole reason for collecting them, i hope im reading your statements wrongly and if so i apologise, perhaps it may be the wording
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Re: Battle damaged M-40 (Headshot)
I think you read more into what I said.
I only said that unless there is some other physical evidence along with a bullet hole, the bullet hole alone doesn't mean it was done by enemy fire. But you don't need the same evidence for a helmet with shrapnel damage.
It just so happens that the Japanese helmet I posted the link to above has both, physical evidence and damage. But even if it didn't have the blood evidence, just the shrapnel damage indicates it was most likely damaged in a combat and not just used for target practice afterwards.
Here's another example of a helmet with only a shrapnel hit but no blood damage but you know it was most likely damaged in combat or enemy fire. Ray
Last edited by RayG; 06-14-2011 at 03:34 PM.
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Re: Battle damaged M-40 (Headshot)
The war is allways blood, the stuff produced to kill, and to be worn by the cannon meat. There a hundreds cut off insignia on the market- most part of this insignia is taked off from the death soldiers. Only one way to get a clean examples without the smell of the war is mint items or the fakes.
Regards,
Dimas
my Skype: warrelics
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Re: Battle damaged M-40 (Headshot)
awsome awsome awesome helmet!
in my humble opinion though some clever glog dealers think by sticking a few bullet holes in items like these makes them more desirable!
I bet this one was sitting in someones attic for years as a 'trophy' or something...you can just tell??
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Re: Battle damaged M-40 (Headshot)
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