East German NVA M56 helmets

[battle gear]

This North Vietnamese Guard appears to be wearing a late M56 helmet with the adjustable liner with foam rubber padding.

[JustAGuy1250]

Huh.. but if this late liner was first used in 1976 (hence M56/76) then it was made after Vietnam...?

So why is the name M56/76 then?

[battle gear]

the name or model number is something made up by collectors, the wartime photos are evidence the adjustable liners came out earlier than 1976

I have a M56 large size III with the year 71 stamped in the shell and it has the adjustable foam liner , unissued condition, these would have been the same lots supplied to the PAVN

it's a Vietnam War era piece

[reneblacky]

Check the liner too as it may have a date code!

[Watchdog]

the name or model number is something made up by collectors, the wartime photos are evidence the adjustable liners came out earlier than 1976

Exactly right, the plastic cradle liner was introduced in 1966 which resulted in the M56/66 ie early shell with blanked off rivet holes which appear like rivets from the outside and new fixing nipples added on the inside. I too have one that is of the M56/76 pattern with a shell stamped 73 yet the shell is pure "late pattern" and not the M56/66 transitional type of older drilled M56 with blanked off rivet holes and internally spot welded fixing nipples for the plastic cradled liner.
So, a possible hypothesis here is that as the liners and shells are from totally separate production runs there were manufacturing stocks of shells in the system when the new liner came into the supply chain. We know that shells that were already drilled had the holes filled before the new liners were fitted as per design specification ie M56/66. At the same time it seems a reasonable assumption that at some point (in peacetime helmets tend to be produced in batches to contracts rather than continuously as in wartime) there were also residual stocks of shells that had been pressed and therefore date stamped but had not gone as far as the drilling of the rivet holes. That process was now deleted and these shells now continued down the production line ending up in the same "stock reservoir" as newly pressed shells. They may have gone through in date related batches as one lot was used as later shells followed down the line but the further through the supply chain the helmet goes the less relevant the shell date becomes. The shell date indicates when the shell was produced not when the helmet was actually assembled.
So, as the plastic cradle type liner was nominally in use in 1966 and fitted to modified M56 shells it is perfectly feasible to find this type of liner in shells dated before 1976 in what collectors know as M56/66 format. It seems likely that it is the M56/66 type that appears in use during the Vietnam War and because of photographic technology of the period the blanking rivets are never visible on film. I am sure we also have photographic evidence of the older M56 in Vietnam as well but I doubt that the M56/76 appeared there. Of course it's possible but in my opinion at least unlikely.

As for "collectors nomenclature" it happens a lot especially with helmets but also with things like awards or badges when you encounter phrases like "six rivet", "flat back", "half hollow back" "broken stem" etc etc. If it doesn't have an official name we have to call it something so we know that we are all talking about the same thing!

I hope this helps.

Regards

Mark

[ogpsycho]

Here are some helmets from my collection. From when the new liner system was used and how long the old helmets were produced.



Kind regards
Basti

[BlackCat1982]

Getting to be a habit...





Spotted this sorry looking lid and had to rescue it. Unfortunately the foam pads are solid and crumbling. The helmet is named to an Oberleutnant Loch. It’s had copious layers of paint over the original grey. He top layer being a light green.

The shell has 6 rivets on the inside as far as I can see, not much visible to the outside due to the depth of paint.






Markings are II over 8? Nothing else visible. Comments or commiserations welcome.

[Watchdog]

Yes it does look like it has been around the block! No rivet heads (that I can see) on the outside and the plastic cradle liner so it is the M56/76 (not an earlier shell converted to take the later liner) and it's condition suggest it is probably a very early example of the variant.

What is visible of the stamp ie II over 8 indicate a size 2 shell production moth of August. There should of course be a further 2 digit element for the year which is perhaps feint and covered by the layers of re-paint over time.

A "salty one" for sure! Makes me wonder where it came from. Is it ex-DDR or was it exported further afield?

Regards

Mark

PS The stamp in the liner bears the date code for the 4th quarter (Oct, Nov, Dec) of 1969 so if the shell was produced in August that could match by the time the shell and liner were put together as they were from different production lines.

[toot]

were these ever used in AFGHANISTAN? or any other conflicts?

[BlackCat1982]

There three visible heads on the outside that I can see peeking through the thick exterior paint but I'm sure there are 3 more there somewhere. I found it locally, which was a nice surprise!