German helmet I found in my grandmothers basement.

[Angustino]

Hey guys!

I need your help to identify this helmet. I´m guessing it´s a M16 but I could be wrong because I´m not very familiar with all the different types of helmets the wehrmacht used during WW2.

She kept the helmet together with the bread bag and the cantine of the soldier but I guess those things are interesting in another part of this forum.

I think the outside of the helmet was painted black either during or post war. On one of the photos you´ll see a coat of arms hidden under paint.
Anyway. Sorry for the "not so good" quality. It´s a bit dark already.

If you need better pictures just ask.













The Coat of arms which was painted over by somebody.

[Walkwolf]

M-16 from WWI. Too bad it's been painted, as it
looks to have been a nice one. It's also possible
the black paint could be removed. You'd have
to try acetone on a very small section first.
Still a cool piece, IMO.

Welcome to the Forum, Angustino.........

[Angustino]

Yeah..it´s a shame that the coat of arms is lost.
Well I am planning on selling it so do you think trying to remove the paint would do for a better price?

[Walkwolf]

Yes it's possible to get more out of it, but it will
always show signs or traces of being stripped
back. Maybe best left to the next guy who
owns it to attempt.........?

[Nathan362]

It might, or you may get over zealous and mess it up. I'd like to see a group shot of all of the items, or links to their threads. Neat find, and it may be a relatives. Maybe a little study before you part with it?

[asterperious]

A heat gun used outside the house with good ventilationwill often remove dissimilar paints like this with no primer between them.There are good citrus based cream strippers that used in small ares will often lift one layer at a time. Acetone is pretty volatile and will evaporate quickly before releasing such old paints.

[Angustino]

Sure thing.
Yeah maybe I shouldnt mess around with it myself.

I don´t really know if any of the items belonged to a memeber of my family. My grandmother told me it belonged to a friend but she might have been lying.
My father told me that my grandfather served in the "SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler" as a Stug driver at the end of the war before he was captured by the russians in Berlin.
Maybe he kept those things during his time in russia and brought them back home after 10 years in the camp.
Sadly I can´t ask my grandparents anymore since they passed away some years ago.

The paper in front was in the bread bag and guess what..it´s and old paper bread bag.









Tell me if you need better pictures.

[MAP]

I think that bread bag is from WW1 and not WW2. These are not my expertise but I assume the BA stamp is the give away. Happy to stand corrected.

I doubt that your grandfather brought anything back from a Russian POW camp. Especially after 10 years and more so a helmet. Almost everything was taken away from them. I knew one Luft Pilot who was in a camp for 5 years. They took his shoes almost immediately when he arrived and was under 100 lbs when he finally got home.

Others here probably have more knowledge of the camps. I think most soldiers did not make it back, especially SS.

Regards,

Michael

[Alexander]

I think that these items were probably left there in the dying days of the Reich by a member of the German 'Home Guard', or had perhaps even been used by a civilian in those final weeks.

[oradour]

The helmet is a Model 1918 not an M16, as its metal liner band has the chinstrap bales directly attached, the leather chinstrap will/should have the carbine clip fastener type, but that part appears to be missing in the image................looks like nice original WW1 feldgrau paint underneath, as the bread bag is probably Imperial (would need to see the front to confirm, only one "D" ring present for waterbottle fixture on an Imperial bag) most probably Great Grandads from the first war, as most soldiers went home with their kit ! However that said, the water bottle is much later......the bread bag is marked with an Imperial Army Korps clothing depot stamp "B.A.IV"................
"IV Armee-Korps" was the General Command of the Duchy of Saxony (Generalkommando im Herzogtum Sachsen), its headquarters was in Magdeburg and its catchment area included the Prussian Province of Saxony and the adjacent Saxon Duchies (Saxe-Altenburg, Anhalt) and Principalities (Schwarzburg-Sondershausen, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, and Reuss). The Corps was still in existence at the end of the war in the 6th Army, (Heeresgruppe Kronprinz Rupprecht) on the Western Front. The Corps was disbanded with the demobilisation of the German Army after World War I.
The helmet is marked "W66" which is the maker mark and size, "W" is the maker "Hermann Weissenburger & Co., Stuttgart-Canstatt" the marking on the inside of the crown is a heating lot code will indicate where the steel was milled/rolled...... "R" indicating steel milled by "Stahlwerk Röchling,Volkingen".
Prost ! Steve.