Why more Luftwaffe Helmets than Heer?

[bigmacglenn]

I was watching a documentary last night about the end of the war in Germany, as US Troops were occupying towns...it was mentioned that GIs would trade cigarettes and other scarce goods with the town's children for "anything with a Swastika", lol...
cheers, Glenn

[wpheaton]

Great response guys. I am really enjoying hearing this information. It all makes perfect sense when explained.

Now, I would like to find an M35 DD Heer complete and not messed with. Anyone have one?

William

[MAP]

Great response guys. I am really enjoying hearing this information. It all makes perfect sense when explained.

Now, I would like to find an M35 DD Heer complete and not messed with. Anyone have one?

William

I do....but they are not for sale....snicker snicker

But seriously...a mint M35 DD Heer will set someone back a lot of $. You can find nice, not mint ones however on most of the dealer sites for a lot less but still not cheap.

[wpheaton]

I do....but they are not for sale....snicker snicker

But seriously...a mint M35 DD Heer will set someone back a lot of $. You can find nice, not mint ones however on most of the dealer sites for a lot less but still not cheap.

Nor Cheap at all. I found a nice M35 DD Luftwaffe unmolested for $750 last year. It was a bargain. Heers in that shape seem to be double, $1500.

William

[Wagriff]

As Glenn said!

[TrondK]

Also, the bombing was done by the new way of doing warfare- luftwaffe. So bring home to UK the symbol of your former "Bomber-terrorist" must be a sign of a soldier doing his duty.

Or, a luftwaffe eagle is more beautiful than a Heer eagle.

(only speculating in human emotions)

[MAP]

Nor Cheap at all. I found a nice M35 DD Luftwaffe unmolested for $750 last year. It was a bargain. Heers in that shape seem to be double, $1500.

William

Full blown Retail dealer prices for mint DD M35 Heer lids are $3k and even up to....wait for it...$6k. But clean ones are in the range of $1.5k and up. They ain't cheap but oh so satisfying to own if you can snag one.

[asterperious]

I also would conjecture that the army units surrendered enmasse more often and turned in equipment into heaps around POW camp areas away from where larger allied occupation army formations were stationed, and were more likely to be salvaged versus picked over for souvenirs. As opposed to things left in situ in more random locations occupied by allied soldiers mentioned previously in this thread. Although I really don't believe there are more luft than heer helmets available, probably about equal, but luft will be typically in better shape.

Below a surrender pile at Lehrenfort May '45


I found this in a similar thread on the fedora lounge - a fun observation below:
" I once talked with a former British Ordnance Corps Captain from WW2. He was in Germany during the occupation right after the war ended. He was tasked with getting the local industry back on its feet and he found a place that had made insignia for the German military. They had all the stuff they needed, all the former employees were around and the town had electricity, so he started producing more insignia, sending a truck every week to Antwerp to sell their stuff to allied soldiers leaving for home, as their last chance to get something German if they didn't have it. He laughed and said, "Of all the iron crosses and Nazi party badges out there today among collectors, I bet I had many of them made myself!"
A pal of mine who collected German stuff was with me at the time and afterward he said no reference books mentioned this at all and he was shocked to hear it directly from the vet.
This Captain also told me that he stopped on a few locations on the weekly run to pick up other stuff, like stacks of helmets (nobody wanted the paratrooper ones, he noted, because they didn't look 'German' to the GIs), daggers and such. He suspected some of these items were probably being made new except for the helmets as he said you could find one of those in almost any ditch in Europe at the time.
But knowing that, I have zero reason not to accept that someone could have been making German plane sections like this, and the buyer wouldn't have a clue either way..."

[Danmark]

I wonder what the Canadian asked the German to look for at the top of the pile??

[IllinoisCornFarmer90]

I wonder what the Canadian asked the German to look for at the top of the pile??

Find me an SS helmet will ya!