M40 - opinions, please!
Just wondering what you all think about this helmet I’ve been offered. A friend thinks it may have been an SS helmet from the painted rank and name inside, but I think it was probably Luftwaffe, due to its colour. Also, it looks like it was a DD, with the decals scratched off, but wouldn’t a helmet with a heat batch number like this one has have come from the factory as a SD?
Hi, Hallibag.
A DD M40 is extremely unlikely. The paint and liner look good to me, Looks like a nice feldgrau as you would expect.
The helmet could have been a DD Polizei helmet, as they continued to put double decals on these even into M42 production.
as for the name having SS in it, Maybe an SS-Polizei helmet? just a guess, as this would be pretty unlikely
Alex
*Edit*
Looking at it again, the area with the decals look heavily scrubbed. The helmet as a whole looks to have been "cleaned" as it is very smooth. M40s should have rough textured paint.
Is that light green paint over or under the darker feldgrau?
"Please", Thank You" and proper manners appreciated
My greatest fear is that one day I will die and my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them
"Don't tell me these are investments if you never intend to sell anything" (Quote: Wife)
Looks to me like it is under. Now I'm really not sure whats going on with this helmet....by MAP
If under, I would walk away. Thought maybe it was over and someone applied it post war to cover the decal which then someone tried to scrub it away.
I'm not convinced by the "name" either.
"Please", Thank You" and proper manners appreciated
My greatest fear is that one day I will die and my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them
"Don't tell me these are investments if you never intend to sell anything" (Quote: Wife)
If you’re talking about the strip of green paint on the left side of the visor, it looks to me to be over the feldgrau. Speaking of which, the “feldgrau” is a very dark gray, with no green in it.
I have my doubts about the name, too.
Thanks. The helmet looks fine....but with those removed decals and green over paint who knows...
Were they original SS or police decals? Or did someone slap on fake decals (and at some point add some green paint) , which were then removed at a later time....
"Please", Thank You" and proper manners appreciated
My greatest fear is that one day I will die and my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them
"Don't tell me these are investments if you never intend to sell anything" (Quote: Wife)
It's just a messed with helmet now , the liner being its best feature. Paint looks good to me just unfortunate that the decals are gone.
I've checked Brian Ice's book on Lot Number's and for this lot the only recorded service is a SD Luft helmet, and would've been produced around 1941, early on. The colour is listed down as Rough Texture Blue Grey. This isn't gospel though, there were thousands of helmets per Lot#.
A Nesteby is a quite american name, could it be the name of the vet who brought it back? SS = Staff Sergeant?
On the wearer's left where the helmet has been scrubbed, it looks as if there was never a decal there, so could the LW decal have been removed in the field, then post war the helmet has been repainted, and a recent owner has tried to dig out a non-existent decal?
In saying this though, on the wearer's right it looks as if a decal has been there to me? A DD Polizei is possible then, and just not recorded by Brian Ice yet.
An M40 DD SS is incredibly unlikely, Brian Ice notes that the last SS DD Helmet produced by ET was early November 1940 and the lot number was 03, miles off of this one.
The front left liner pin looks loose, but the other 2 look very tight so I think the liner is original to the helmet.
This helmet has got me and everyone else very confused, I'd steer clear just for the difficulty of reselling in the future.
Regards
Harvey
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