£24 Ebay find

[Ryan D]

Hello!

I have been following these forums for a while now and have recently decided to get into collecting M1 helmets :). I thought I would share my latest acquisition with you guys.

I found this bargain while browsing for M1 helmets on eBay after clicking the 'new listings' tab. This is an image of the sellers page i took after purchasing it:



And these are the images provided by the seller:



After the helmet arrived I inspected all of the details. The liner is marked US 32 in the crown area and the chin strap fittings are steel with a stamped anchor symbol, I can't quite put a date on the cover (which has certainly seen better days) and am wondering if someone could help me out based on the pictures below. The scrim band is marked "Band, Helmet Camouflage US".



After inspecting these details, i moved on to inspect the shell. Initial inspections revealed that the helmet was a rear seam swivel bale with a manganese rim and the heat stamp number 511A. The paint is Vietnam era green with a rather poorly applied sand texture. After this, i put the helmet back together for display and left it for a week or so.



This is where things took an unexpected turn. Yesterday, I thought that I would compare this Vietnam era lid with my other early 70's one and noticed something quite interesting. Comparing the two side by side revealed that my new helmet had a different profile than the other one.



I then decided to compare it with my WW2 era McCord shell and found that they were the same height but a slightly different shape. This led me to believe that it was very likely I had found a Schlueter example. Sure enough, after a bit of light sanding under the peak, I found the 'S' stamp.



I hope you enjoyed reading this and I look forward to your feedback :)

thanks, Ryan D

[sandgroper]

G'day Ryan and welcome to the forum mate. I don't know anything about these helmets but it looks like you've had a great find!

[ruddersrangers44]

Welcome and a good buy overall,can't really go wrong for that money,think it helped the time the listing ended when most would be at work,yes you did ok on this purchase,well done.

[James C]

hello ryan and welcome to the forum ,i think you have done very well there ,you must have a good eye for these judging by your pairing ,shame about the sanding bit you mention though cheers james

[SteveR]

A good buy for a good helmet.

[Wagriff]

Well done and well found!

[FALLSCHIRMJAGER]

Welcome Ryan, a real bargain mate, well done, you would be hard pushed to get the Mitchell cover for that these days! Leon.