Czech M34 with german decal

[Schwerpunkt]

and on an Austrian M17 shell.

[timothy]

Well I have seen a period picture taken late in the war with German volunteers wearing this same helmet it was on the Eastern front I have seen so many period pictures I wish I knew where I have seen it but they did exist I have no doubts. That decal is fine. timothy

[SteveR]

I also have seen period pictures of this model helmet with army decals. They were of a German soldier wearing a field police gorget that seemed to be directing military truck traffic.

[cammobunker]

Yeah, Doug has the right of it here. The decal he shows is a dead ringer for the one on the subject helmet, which is reissue, and a lot of them have registry errors, what threw me was the crappy graphics. Schwerpunkt, the decal you illustrate is actually one of the ones I looked at, which is head and shoulders above these other two, with relatively crisp lines and an overall better print quality, it's a quality grayline style with a slight registry error. In fact, I was looking to find a fake like this and I couldn't- they all had better print quality and crisper graphics. So I'll stipulate it's an original decal.
But.
When was it applied?
I'm still searching but have not found a picture of the Czech helmet in use with the WEHRMACHT. Obviously it got used by the police, and also saw fairly extensive combat use with the Czech/Slovak volunteer units, but those had the Slovak double armed cross and a blue stripe, not the Heer adler.
If you look at a lot of TR photos, (and I have, trust me) you notice one thing; German helmets went on German heads for combat purposes, and almost any other helmet they managed to lay hands on could be used for non-combat purposes, or could be issued to non-German units. It was considered "the mark of the German Soldier".

[DougB]

I am not 100% sure but this decal I don't believe was readily available in loose quantity for postwar application. This was typically seen on reissued transitional helmets and gave way to other decal manufacturers after the mid 1930's. Frank, Jim or Francis that is correct no?

[racmanjure]

tnx for the opinions...i am not so good in language, but iam going too try...iam not a expert for helmets, and decals, just a litle collector,who gaves the helmets last peace in my familiy home( wife not happy)...the m34 helmet was found on a old farmhouse, and a am prety shore that the old man who gaves me the shell was not a forger...but i am interesting too, whats the story about...
some more pics from decal and inside of the helmet for better discusion....

[Schwerpunkt]

I am not 100% sure but this decal I don't believe was readily available in loose quantity for postwar application. This was typically seen on reissued transitional helmets and gave way to other decal manufacturers after the mid 1930's. Frank, Jim or Francis that is correct no?

I have one Austrian double decal with this eagle (the one I posted) , it has a 1939 dated liner. I don't think I have seen many earlier examples.
The majority are found on reissued M35's with 1942-43 and 44 liner bands , all repainted, re-decalled and re-linered.
Here's one such example.

[DougB]

Thanks Frank!

[BOB COLEMAN]

I had three different Czech helmets with an Army decal back in the 1960's, long before anyone would bother making a fake of it. They were cheap as no one wanted them back then. Genuine German helmets were plentiful and cheap at the time. Those who think they did not exist in period are wrong.

[racmanjure]

Tnx for opinions...any ideas too say about the value of this helmet?