Croatian Einsatzstaffel der Deutsche Mannschaft M40 helmet

[Ben Evans]

They also have specialy made belt buckles which are also very, very rare !!!
Perhaps Ben woud now more abouth Croatian SS buckles ?
D

I only collect Heer buckles but I wish I had one, they are indeed very rare (and expensive )

[Schachbrett]

I agree, this is also the first time I see one of those. Do you have any idea how many there are still in existence?

MAYBE few! My wild guess is like 4 or 5. Croatian helmets are in generaly extremley rare, even in a very poor condition.

[BOB COLEMAN]

Ade-
That is one heck of a rare helmet. Did some of these forces surrender to British troops? I am asking the question as I wonder how your helmet got to Britain. Any German helmet with a foreign country shield is very rare.

[Davidh]

that looks a very nice and rare lid that would look great on my shelf rgds dave

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Bob, British troops were in contact with Tito's Partizans, with various special forces (SAS, SOE etc ) being attached to them as advisors. By 1944 the Royal Navy was landing them supplies. I think the 8th Army made contact with the Partizans too right at the end of the war.

There is an interesting account here:
BBC - WW2 People's War - Dalmation Islands, Yugoslavia

I wish I had the full story of how it ended up here too. Very frustrating. The guy I got it from did not bother to record the details.

Hi Nick, I have seen two in books, but I have never seen another one in real life which I considered as original.

Hi Guys, these decals are also widely faked, like everything else. The "runic" decal on the fake does not match in quality and the design is not quite correct. The measurements are way off Like with many fake SS decals the metalic and layered quality is missing.

Cheers, Ade.

[Schachbrett]

I'm dissapointed...
Anyway, it looks good!

[Schachbrett]

oh, and for contact between British and Croatian troops... Complete Croatian army wanted surrender to the western allies because they were affraid of revenge of comunists. One small part managed to surrender to the British in Austria, and even smaller part was kept by British. Most of them were returned to Tito's partisans.
Unfortunately, partisans killed about 300 000 soldiers and civilians. No one couldn't know what will happen.

[Demien]

I belive there is a small misunderstanding, the helmet posted here is a real deal, the decals are original but as with all German decals they are faked !!!

The units worn this helmets had nothing to do with Croat Ustaša and domobran army, they were German minority living in ex Yugoslavia ( members were from German familles from Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romunia, Hungary ) and later on they were all transferd to 7th SS Division "Prinz Eugen" and other Waffen SS divisions !!! Members of SS Handzar also had helmets with SS decal and croat national decal and i believe that majority of SS Handzar manage to surender to English forces in Austria but later on they were tricked by the English and send back to Yugoslavia and certain death!!! Members of "Prinz Eugen" surrender to the partizans in Slovenia and were almoust all killed in mass killings that occure immediately after ther end of the WW2 in Slovenia ( Yugoslavia ) !
My Grandfather who was also a member of "Prinz Eugen" was one of the lucky ones and manage to escape from the camp located near Slovin town Celje ! But that is another story !!!

D

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Schachbrett, opps sorry for the mis-understanding! This helmet and decals are 100% original.

I just wanted people to know that the decals are now faked.

Cheers, Ade.

[Schachbrett]

No, I should be apologizing! Sorry.