Luftwaffe M18 Helmet

[spandau]

Hi,

This helmet came my way this week and I would welcome any comments as I'm new to helmets and usually stick to Army..............

It is a M18 helmet shell with 1931 liner and chinstrap, it's been painted Luftwaffe blue grey and appears to have had a single decal at some point.

Trying to work out if this is a re-issue wartime helmet or a pre war issue lid. It also has some stamps inside the liner...........so I was hoping someone can shed some light on whether this is a good or bad sign.

The markings are: maker BF size 64 batch number on inside of the shell is R2031N. I'm happy that this is an M18 original.

The liner is not something I'm not that knowledgable with. The stamp at the front is difficult to read but may be some kind of unit stamp ? Back of the liner has a stamp : B 58 II 11 (maybe).

Chin strap is brown leather and the end of the fixing strap is missing.

Any feed back appreciated. loads of pictures..........on some you can really see the rust coming through....this is definitely original

cheers

Tony

[Neil Hever]

I think we need a better photo of that stamp. I can barely make out Flug.... in the second line. NH

[spandau]

Thanks Neil. The stamp is well faded in places and hard to get a clear picture of. Will try tomorrow if we have some daylight as opposed to cloud and rain.

cheers Tony

[Neil Hever]

It appears to be a stamp identifying an Abt. or Abteilung in some location. I can only make out what appears to be this:
Abt. ??/Lech?? Unter?? Flug?? A better photo and someone familiar with the method of identifying Luftwaffe units might help. NH