Snow Camo MKII

[tankfreak]

Hi Guys

I would like to show my latest MKII. A snow camouflaged MKII helmet with chocolate brown paint on shell and covered with a white painted canvas cloth and white painted net on top. The shell nor the chinstrap lugs have any markings, the liner is however marked 7 1/4 TTC (Teddy Toy Company) 1941. The chinstrap appears to have remnants of green blanco and one of the springs is showing. The canvas cover is broken in some places and the netting has some holes as well as flattened Knots as well as a musty smell. Overall it does give a sense of everything having been together for a long time.
As I have never seen any wartime pictures of this kind of camo arrangement in use I would like your opinions.

thanks

Ian

[Mark K]

Hi Ian I am positive I just seen this helmet for sale in the last few weeks was it an Ebay purchase ?
As to the snow camo I do not get a warm fuzzy feeling inside I feel it lacks natural aging wear and patina to the exterior and something with the liner looks incorrect from these images it does not seem to match the interior of the shell for age and fit.
Just my to cents worth

Regards Mark K

[Jerry B]

A difficult one to make a call on, but I tend to agree with Mark on this, it looks to have been a recent creation.

[Mark K]

Ian And Jerry I do hope I am mistaken but feel much better images would be needed to convince me other wise.

Regards Mark K

[tinlid]

Very hard to find pictures of British troops with any type of snow camo, be it white paint, bed sheets cut up to cover the helmet or made for the job white helmet covers. The Germans & US troops seem to have got it off to a fine art but not the Brits.
When your helmet & net were put together I don't know, but the chin strap lugs are the Mk2's which would date the helmet at 38/39, or could be Canadian, the liner is dated a few years later 41, which is not nescessary a bad thing, but.

[cricketchris1944]

I also would have to agree does not look right to me.
chris

[Steelhead10]

the liner looks like the civilian ones used with the red liner bands to determine if the liner has been changed could you get a picture of the liner retracting bolt?

[Adrian Stevenson]

The thing is with all snow camo helmets is how come they would survive to this day? My thoughts:

German ones could be taken as war souvenirs or lost in action and later ground dug.

Allied ones are a much tougher call. Just WHY would they survive? Kit would be recalled and reissued if the soldier survived the war. I am certain a white painted helmet would have been repainted green. British soldiers had very few chances to bring home any kit as souvenirs or mementoes and this would date from the winter of '44/'45 at best.

As Aarron has said, Brit soldiers rarely seem to have painted their helmets.

Cheers, Ade.

[tankfreak]

I do agree that the probalility of this helmet surviving the war intact is nearly impossible but I am not convinced it's a recent creation. First of all there is no new paint smell and the canvas cover has crazing paint. I do agree that the liner might not be the original one as indeed the chinstrap lugs do look the same as my CLC stamped Canadian helmet. The main problem I have with this being faked is to what end? I mean I bought this helmet on ebay uk and it cost me £42 plus postage. Now I don't think it is worth going through all the trouble of making this very well made "fake" for £40 on an ordinary British Tin Hat. I would understand a German one, any type of para helmets or ones with divisional insignias. Then it most probably would be sold via a dealer site with an elaborate background story and a highly inflated price in order to maximise profit. I wll try to take better pictures though I don't have a macro lens that would do a proper job.

in the meanwhile here is a picture of the liner retaining bolt/nut.

[Mark K]

I seen this helmet listed on E-bay and did not bid on it for the simple reason I did not feel it was period authentic and rest assure if I noticed it many other collectors did as well .
It very well could have some age to it but IMO not 60+years.

Regards Mark K