This is the reason why I like these little Austrian gems so much!!!! most of them I have bought online, being "pot" luck (sorry) ..and now to coin a phrase from the film ...kind of anyway.. " Austrian stalhelm are like a box of chocolates ....you never know what ya gonna get!!! " thanks Forrest couldn't have put it better myself!!!
I have heard that German Soldiers were known to beg, steal or borrow to scrounge up camo covers from other country's while on training ops ....as they didn't get there own issue until very late.... could you then make the jump to making mutual swapsies or even just the ole switcheroo for the whole helmet!!?? which then got refurbed, sprayed new chinstraps etc. with the rest of the pile of M1 shaped worn shells!!!?????
Last edited by austromunga; 11-04-2014 at 11:14 PM.
Hi all
went to a local militaria fair Sunday .. found some really nice genuine Austrian army made Dot camo helmet covers (the trader had a box full of 30 odd) I picked 4 of the most interesting ones.. conversation to purchase said covers went a little like this.......
"How much for your post war Austrian dot camo helmet nets mate"!!!!!
"Those SS German ones.... oh.... so you know what they are then"!!!.... yes unfortunately I knew better!!
so anyway I picked 4 of the most interesting ones!!! (and in the process done him a favour as I removed the only date evident pieces) ...one is made from a parka hood (still see the shaped stitching!!!) one has the sizing marks and HBA stamps (1970) from a cut up parka!! one is a nice named piece "Bulldog Morth'l" i really like this one!!! and the last is made from an old Austrian Zeltbhan and is reversible to sumpftarn pattern!! all in that lovely worn-in condition I like!!!! pics below and few pics of them on helmets just for shape... also picked up one U.S. woodland pattern for my 56 Quisk West German pot!! posted here Bundeswehr steel helmets. oh... almost forgot i picked up another M58 Austrian lid!! posted here Early Austrian M58 liners
all in all not a bad shopping trip!!!
nice haul mate and great when you can put a seller in his place
Regards James
Quite often I get the old " its WW II elite german pattern camo" from sellers for Austrian dot camo stuff....i bought a really nice parka at this years War and peace revival for £15!!! ... later whilst viewing another on a different stall ... the seller had quite a few genuine items dotted around his display ...interspersed between the brand new modern U.S. bdu pattern Austrian dot shirts... Austrian mock camo I like to call em!!! ..anyway I asked him the price... "erm that one is a rare WW II German SS.... its dated 1945!!" ... "and its £70 best price!!!".... I politely pointed out the Austrian HBA mark...it was a smudged but still readable 1975!!!!! but the seller was having none of it!!!.... so I said thanks but no thanks!!! and I started to walk away... just then he spotted my previous purchase!!!...
" how much did you pay for your one then???"... "if you don't mind me asking" ...he asked ....."no I don't mind at all" I answered "my POST WAR... AUSTRIAN.. dot camo parka .....cost me £15 MATE!!!" he shrugged his shoulders, turned and walked back to his seat shaking his head and muttering all the way!!! "... I think a lot of these traders do know EXACTLY what they have!! .. but are more than willing to "play dumb" if it means they can earn few extra quid!!!
so BUYERS BEWARE!!!!!
Hi all
have sorted out some of my M75 helmets .. these ones have some interesting details!!!
first up (front one in the first pic) is a nice U-SCH-82 dated shell with matching dated liner ...nothing unusual there you say!!! ...except for this little stamp under the front rim, which looks to be a manufacturers mark!!!! which itself pre-dates the printed one inside!!!! ( a U with a dot in it... and the date 81/01 or Jan 81'????? ) I have seen lots of M75 shells over the years but I'm yet to find another with this stamp!!!! however I have seen similar stamps on refurbished Bundeswehr helmets!! but the date is usually much later then the original printed one???!!!!perhaps the manufacturer stamped some late shells in this way??? or perhaps another possibility is that it's some sort of a prototype!!!?? and the number does not correspond to a date but rather to a trial number,
i.e.
1981 / first trial
Hummmm......
I'm sure now you'll all tell me that all your late shells have this mark!!
Last edited by austromunga; 11-11-2014 at 10:45 PM.
second up (right rear in the previous post first pic) we have my unissued M75 helmet
shell dated U-SCH-79 liner is by maker M.P. FRANKENBURG (whom had only a limited contract) and dated 1974, leather is in the largest size I've seen and barely fits in the liner!!! and its unissued and minty!!!! the liner chinstrap is brand new also but it has some banding...which is not present on any of my other examples..once again maybe all late type are like this!!! shell chinstrap and hardwear all brand new standard fitment OLC but... clips seem to be made of two different metals... one brass like the other steel....(think all my others are brass) now....this liner is extremely loose in the shell!!! (hence the camo cover and net with the white band!!!this came already fitted in the original used helmet net.. one I bought on Austrian eBay !!) would this be from the alleged batch of undersize liners.. and therefore possibly be the answer to the limited contract!!!!!.... certainly...it could be a reason for not being issued!!! or could even explain why some shells were later modified with the liner clips to accommodate for this !!!!
Lastly we have (left rear in the previous post first pic) my M75 matching shell and liner also by limited production run manufacturer M.P. FRANKENBURG both dated 1976 apart from that all standard fitments (apart from the camo under the net.. just some leftovers I had from another Austrian helmet project!!)
your thoughts invited... more than ever please!!!
This is all enormously exciting! I got fascinated by these Austrian Stalhelms a couple of years ago and bought a number in a frenzy of activity (and then ran out of money). All on Ebay of course as there's no militaria sales place within a hundred miles of me. I am guessing you may be having a rather easier time getting hand and eye on to get the Good Ones - I scrolled though endless Ebay entries from all over Europe. Goggle eyes, indeed.
Anyway, I am finding your reports very very interesting, but haven't had the time to get out my litle collection for a couple of hours compare and contrast (I live in a very small house full of stuff and finding *enything* is no small task) though I assure you that you have re-fired my interest no end. For a while I thought I was a very lonely person taking an interest in these particular helmets.
Anyway anyway, rather than have this posting just about me, here's a few potentially useful notes passed on by German collector Olaf Thiele some years ago -
regarding the spring clips on the later shells - "these "Federklammern" inside Austrian M1 shells were indeed meant to hold the liners in as those Austrian liners weren't fabricated precisely enough to fit into the shells as tightly as US products or M1 clones from other countries. Austrian M1 helmet assemblies show this tendency to have their liners falling out and downward when held out. Quite annoying, but also quite funny. This seems to have been a problem with the Austrian M75 (Stahlhelm I) only. Shortly after the introduction of the new M75 liner, the one that looks so very much like the Bundeswehr FJ60 liner (Helm 1A1 - M59), the Federklammern were added (around 1976) and helped to keep the liners in, but were abandoned again after a short period of production. I don't know exactly, why; I assume that the next generation of liners had a better fit."
and regarding the numbers of them - "this is hard to say as I don't know how many of them were produced. I had by chance bought one in 2003, that was when I found out about them. Last year I tried to get some more of these helmets for some collecting friends in the US and finally ended up with three pieces from the wholesale dealer I got mine from, having one of his employees searching through piles of hundreds of Austrian M1s. I estimate the rate being 3 out of 300 or more helmets, if we take this as an empirical ratio perhaps we might say that about 1 percent of Austrian M1s had these spring clips. Not very convincing, I know, but this is all I can say."
Of course you do know that you have yet to get one of the paratrooper shell/liner combos....
Hi Greg
Glad I've rekindled your interest in your collection of Austrian stalhelm !!!! the exiting thing for me about them is all the variations to be found!!! and that the standard ones are still relatively cheap for the beginner to obtain!! This being the case and the sheer numbers floating about on the army surplus market, means that most people just junk them all together as identical post war m1 clones and therefore common!!! which too is great because... unlike say some other types of M1 helmets.. with some pretty overhyped prices i.e. (Vietnam pots just lately on eBay!!!)...real bargains on these Austrian m1 clones are still be had!!! nothing I like more than spotting a pile of "post war M1 clones " at a fair and getting stuck in and seeing what turns up!!!!! sometimes its nothing !!!!..... but then there's the shear thrill of when you find a little something out of the ordinary or one of the pieces you've been searching for!!! and this thrill still comes at such a cheap price!!!
I think I have been fairly lucky in finding some of my more unusual pieces!!! judging from some of the informative and helpful comments made buy yourself and others on here!!! (Thanks Guys!!!) the most any of these have cost me is £35 top's!!! the average is usually about 20-25 quid!!! but I have paid as low as a fiver!!!! (nothing special that time... but at a fiver who could say no)
eventually as with all finite things, a time will come when the supply of these will dry up on the surplus traders stalls, and then inevitably prices will begin to rise!! albeit at a reduced rate to some of the overhyped stuff!!! which will surely even out or maybe even fall some to a more realistic price.... for now though i really have no interest about the price my collections worth in financial terms... apart from its affordability to my budget!! as it will always be worth a lot more to me in the enjoyment factor it brings!!!!!( in the discovery, research and display elements of collecting old army helmets...and not to mention the tactile experience of handling and even wearing some on occasion too!!!)
all I hope for is that I manage to get every type and variation I wish to get before all the good ones have disappeared!!!! or even become out of reach of my price range ...presently ,happily, unlikely, for the near future anyway!!!
so all this seems to me represents real value for money for my little hobby....and for me anyway...... it is just that.... a very enjoyable (addictive at times!!!) hobby!!!!
happy collecting all!!!!
Similar Threads
Posting Permissions
.
Bookmarks