“Camo” M40 KM

[Giants77]

Hey guys I’ve seen this one for a while on virtual Grenadier at first what mostly turned me away was whatever was put on the right side of the helmet which seems to be a swastika but also wanted to get other opinions on the helmet as a whole. Thank you guys!

[AndyM35]

Hello Giants,

Its a nice helmet with character. When I first saw that shape I couldn't help but think that it reminded me of something with its unusual diamond shape. To me the shape is reminiscent of the Hitler youth symbol perhaps painted or some form of decal however I can't find any examples so this is pure conjecture. I'm sure someone will have the answer.

A

[Giants77]

Thanks Andy! Now that I think of it, it does remind me of a hitler youth decal to but what would that be doing on a m40 Km helmet very intriguing.

[Alex5k]

Hi Canyon,

Looks like a good KM Thin winged HJK to me.

I would guess most of the wear to the paint is from poor post war handling.

Alex

[Giants77]

Hi Alex thanks! And definitely poor post war handling I would think too!

[AndyM35]

The more I look at it I now think it may have had some type of swaz and not a Jugend symbol. See the example below which is in a diamond rather than a circle and would fit the area perfectly. But who knows?

Whatever it was it was removed a long time ago as the patina in the diamond area is the same as that where the paint is missing elsewhere.

[Giants77]

That would seem to be a better fit but what on earth is it doing on an m40 maybe even painted on vet art? As I zoomed in you can see blue in some places the scraping missed.

[Schwerpunkt]

These are the most tough decals to tell if KM or not.
Decals on EF already have a tedency to tone all by themselves and combined with how they age the patina can become KM toned even. Check out the half and half toned one on my website.
If the color is evenly spread over the decal and is more gold than brown it is probably good.
But from photos making a judgment on a thin wing KM decal is hard.
Kriegsmarine vs Toned Heer decals – German Helmet Vault

[Giants77]

I just checked them out thank you! It is definitely scary how gold those heer decals can tone.!

[Giants77]

Here’s a close up not really sure now after looking at how close those toned decals are to KM’s