1944 dated cotton tan tropical Mosquitoe cover

[Mark K]

I have waited a long time to add an example of one of these tropical covers to my collection and never see them come up for sale in the market place and the few I have seen have been messed with or altered by having the netting removed.
The practice of removing the mosquitoes netting from the covers can as well be traced back to war time as many of these were altered by soldiers in the field by removing the netting when it became damaged and or to be used as straight desert and or tropical camo covers by cutting it free.
Purchasing one of these tropical covers that has had the netting removed that has not been resting on a Mk II for eons and or with out direct providence from a vet and or the family of the vet would be a wee bit of a crap shoot though as the thought would always be in the back of my mind as to when the net was actually cut free and of course not to mention the fact that the example has been altered and now is not in it's original configuration.
I have opted to photograph this example as it would have been worn by the soldier serving in the field with the netting tucked up in side the liner and ready to be pulled down at a moments notice if needed to fight off the swarming attack's of the blood thirsty little bastards .
The cover is nicely ink stamped with the manufactures name,date, broad arrow and the war departments stamp and as well would appear to have hand written lettering on the exterior of the cover next to one of the four sewn panels of cloth thanks for looking all comments and opinions are welcome.

Regards Mark

[tinlid]

A nice mint example, as they all seem to be. I wonder if they ever got issued in great numbers, & if they did,was it only issued to troops out in the far east?
Has anyone seen the type which must has been before this one, that like the Mk1 gas curtain, only covered the brim & not the whole helmet?

[Mark K]

Hi Aaron I have some images on my laptop of the style you are referring to worn by Canadian troops in Italy I will post them up a little later.

Regards Mark

[tinlid]

That would be great, only need to find one now, but I think I might be flogging a dead horse.

[Jerry B]

A nice pick up Mark and good to see one still with the netting and not being flogged as a camo cover. That said about 10 years back I could have bought have a dozen of these for £25 each, all mint and untouched, not sure what they fetch these days if you can find one.

[Mark K]

Thanks Jerry I have been after one for some time now I would also love to find a straight tropical camo cover as well to add to my collection but IMO they are quite scarce and hard to source.
As to the going rate in the market place Jerry I can only tell you what I paid for my example which was 40 GBP .
Hi Aaron I have suspected for a long time that the covers worn in these two images below could very well be the tropical tan covers you mentioned above and have been miss identified as the Mk I gas curtains and the images being taken in Italy to me only reinforces my thoughts on this but we shall see I am interested to hear what your gents thoughts are on the subject.

Infanteers of the 48th Highlanders talking to a padre at Regalbuto, Sicily, 1943. does the image show a No.1 anti-gas curtain around the rim of his Mk II or is it one of the above mentioned tropical covers.

The Pioneer Platoon of the Royal Canadian Regiment water mules used for transporting supplies note that four of them are wearing what appears to be anti-gas curtains around the rim's of there Mk II helmets or are they tropical covers Regalbuto, Sicily, 04-Aug43.

Regards Mark

[Jerry B]

Thanks for the heads up on the price Mark. I saw one recently which apart from the removed netting was in mint condition and it was sold as a tan camo cover and went for £80, I pity the fool who bought it.

[Mark K]

I thought the buy it now price on E bay was quite reasonable Jerry for what it was as to condition there is definitely some heavy mothing on the hbt reinforcing that runs down the sides of the net but it is an intact example so I just opened up my wallet and paid the man.

Regards Mark

[tinlid]

Thanks for those pictures Mark, at a guess I would say they are the early helmet mosquito nets. Just covering the brim like the Mk1 anti gas curtain did.So are they called the Mk1 helmet, steel mosquito net?
As for tropical camo covers, apart from hessian made covers either soldier made, or at unit level like the one you showed on your other thread. I have seen no written evidence to prove they were ever made.
But now I've said that, one will appear somewhere (sods law).

[Mark K]

That is always the way Aaron I will contact a friend and fellow collector here in Canada whom I believe has a tropical cover in his collection that just covers the the rim of the helmet and see if he can shed a few more details on the construction and or maker if one exists.

Regards Mark