Svenska Frivilligkåren tunic

[Rami S]

Hi,

IMO the helmet is finnish M40 (or M37 difficult to be exact), but it has the extra remowable leather piece at chinstrap. It is finnish addition.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Thanks Rami, that makes sense.

Cheers, Ade.

[kradman]

Sorry Rami but the removable leather piece on the chin strap is found on both Finnish M40 helmets and swedish m37 helmet ,it all comes down to when the photo was taken if Winter war and looking at the uniforms worn and helmets worn it looks to be a Winter war photo it is most likely to be a Swedish m37 as Finland brought many of these helmets from Sweden and as the Finnish m40 helmets was strated to be made in 1940 and the Winter war was nearly over by the time the M40 was being issued with the war finishing in March ,I have posted a Finnish M40 helmet from my Collection and it doesnt have the extra chin strap part ,maybe it was removed or there was never the extra part i will never know and if you look at swedish M37 helmets you will see they all have the extra chin strap part you are talking about, If the photo is later 1941 to 1944 it could be a Swedish m37 or Finnish M40 as both were in use with the Finnish army

[Rami S]

Hi,

Yes, kradman you are right, both has extra piece of leather. It is impossible to say from black and white images which one is M40 or M37. I have had five Wartsila helmets and 4 of them had extra leather piece. It is very loose part and slips easily away and rather annoying piece of leather too. The SA-kuva image is from august 25th 1941.

Below is photo of two of them. Both are Wartsila made with red decal inside.

[Hans N]

The swedish m/37 also had a extra leather piece on the chinstrap

Swedish Helmets : M37