unknown german police helmet?

**skippyroo1** · 11-26-2012, 11:21 AM

Greetings,

I have a helmet that I purchased a couple of days ago. I'm not sure exactly what style this is.
It is a "Civic one ear salt shaker vent helmet for sure, but is it an M18/M34 Police/SS SD helmet,
or an officer's parade helmet, am I wrong all together?

It has the original paint colour of a "semi-gloss pea green". It has a high grown as in an M18 with flat rivets for the liner, speaking of, which type of liner could have been in this one. It came without, only
the rest of the one layer cork and an orange/reddish liner part were the leather was attached to.

Strangely enough this helmet never had any decals?
A magnet sticks to the helmet, and it is lighter in weight than a combat helmet.

Could I ask of any opinions please to help me to identify this helmet.

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 11-26-2012 11:21 AM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**KradSpam** · 11-26-2012, 11:50 AM

It is an M34 civic helmet as you have said. I suspect the most probable use for this one was Luftschutz. It's not unusual for them not to have any decals. It was certainly used during the war as the remnants of the cork spacers around the liner rivet holes are square, not round. I'm not sure what you've done to the outside rim but I would have left it the way it was personally, and left the rivets in place. It looked much better before IMO.

Liner would have been something like this.

**Danmark** · 11-26-2012, 11:52 AM

Egadd!!!!!!!!!!
Have you stripped it down and bathed it in caustic??? why is the rim polished / linished??
Please tell us you didn't ............

**skippyroo1** · 11-26-2012, 12:57 PM

by KradSpam

It is an M34 civic helmet as you have said. I suspect the most probable use for this one was Luftschutz. It's not unusual for them not to have any decals. It was certainly used during the war as the remnants of the cork spacers around the liner rivet holes are square, not round. I'm not sure what you've done to the outside rim but I would have left it the way it was personally, and left the rivets in place. It looked much better before IMO.

Liner would have been something like this.

Thank you KradSpam

Yes, I know, I really had no other choice but to to clean it. The pics don't show it to well but the damage is bigger than it first appears, but the wurst of it is, that the helmet had a penetrating smell that was almost sickening coming from it that actually filled the room. I tried everything to eliminate this smell nothing helped. the helmet must have laid on the side in some kind of swampy water. The side you don't see in the pic was completely damaged and over rusted. I have no choice now but to try to restore it. Believe me it hurt doing it. I hate to do this with artifacts and I have a lot of them.

I do have another question if you don't mind. The thing that bothers me, is the one 7 hole air vent. It is not centered like other 7 hole air vents, this one is located more to the front towards the front rivet. I have only found two of this type with very very little description that went with it, giving me no useful information. It is for sure not a TENO helmet as some of these have a one 7 hole air vent, but they are all place centered. Since this helmet has the original first coat paint in a pea green color would you know if this is an early or later model. To my knowledge pea green was an early color, it still though could have been made later, just using an older paint.

Thank you

**KradSpam** · 11-26-2012, 03:45 PM

Hi,

Lightweight helmets are not my focus, but there are a massive range of M34 variants. I doubt a particular type was earmarked for a particular branch of service, maybe with the exception of the medium weight M34 'medium duty' helmet. It has vents similar to an M40/42 combat helmet and is a bit heavier than this model. That one seems to have been mostly used by SS SD and Field Police units, operating behind the front lines. A member here called cricketchris is very knowledgeable in this particular field and will probably have more insight.

**geelong** · 11-27-2012, 07:18 AM

i found one with the seven hole single vent called a m34 medium duty sd helmet. at, miltaria collection gallery. the one they have on this site is a dd ss helmet

**KradSpam** · 11-27-2012, 10:48 AM

by geelong

i found one with the seven hole single vent called a m34 medium duty sd helmet. at, miltaria collection gallery. the one they have on this site is a double decal ss helmet

I meant this variant, but they probably used others. I will check my Hicks book.

**geelong** · 11-27-2012, 11:01 AM

yea this is the image i got. m34 ss dd medium duty sd helmet. never even thought there was such a helmet in the ss

**KradSpam** · 11-27-2012, 11:03 AM

Might be a droopbill? It has a slight dip. The OP's helmet looks to be the same shell.

**geelong** · 11-27-2012, 11:18 AM

yea well as you have said kradspam m34 where used by a wide range services we may never no the helmets original calling but it looks to me in some of skippyroos photos there still or was a hint of green paint.