Bulgarian m36b

[steel helmet stan]

Hello all, it's my first time on here, I've just bought a bulgarian m36c, i have an 'a' and a 'c' also. I paid UK £30 for it on ebay. I just have a few questions, first the decal it is not horizontally marked as most of them seem to be, the paint I would imagine is post war as is the red star, the liner is 9 tongue and I can't find a similar one anywhere on the Internet, the liner rivets are loose, could this mean a non standard liner fitted to it, it does have age and the leather is really dry, could it be a ww2 variant?. Also there is soldiers graffiti/name on the back, the poor light you cannot make it out and it is in black paint but it seems to be in the Russian type alphabet/ sorry cannot remember the correct term. Any info would be great cheers.

[steel helmet stan]

Hi all again, I'm having real trouble uploading the photos of this helmet, anyone out there point me in the right direction, I seem to be able to upload them but I can't find how to put them in a message, cheers

[Composite]

It can be a bit confusing. Select Reply to Message, then click “go advanced”.....then the Paperclip button....then click Add Files.....then “choose files”.....then find and select your photos on your device (sadly you can only do one at a time)..then click the “upload” button - your pic should now appear in the bottom of the box....and when you’ve done all the pics click “insert in line” and then “done” and you’ll go back to you message. You can write in front of or after the photos......and you can Preview Post before you finalise it.......all this is how it works on a PC...I’ve never done in from a phone where it may differ....

[MAP]

Here is a visual guide. Just double click on the photos to expand

Visual Guide to Upload Photos

[steel helmet stan]

[steel helmet stan]

Ha ha, after an hour and nea Ely giving up the will to live....here are the photos, thanks for the info on how to do it, and any info on the helmets ,cheers

[Greg Pickersgill]

These helmets were in service with both first and second line troops up until quite recently. Maybe still are with some units. There are a startling number of different liner types; we can reasonably see that there is an original liner type, but that could well have been replaced in any given helmet, perhaps more than once. So hard to date on that basis.

As regards the national shield, the impression I have (details are not easy to come by) is that the diagonal representation is pre and during the 1939-45 war and the horizontal later; but even this can't be taken at face value as there's no reason to suppose all helmets had the shields on anyway, and likely weren't systematically changed after the communist regime came to power.

That said I think - though would not bet on it - that yours is in original state. Loose rivets don't necessarily mean relined - just age-related defects. There's isn't really a good site on the Bulgar 36 at the moment, but Bulgarian collector Ted Muhovski did have one - not really online now (it takes forever to load and may defeat some browsers) but I do have a copy which I will check -

TedM says about the decals -"All the M36 helmets originally had the 3-color decal with black border on the side. Decal - not painted, but real decal. Postwar, after repainting, decals were painted by hand, also red stars or sometimes rampart lions painted on the front.

Here are several pictures of postwar painted decals. The shape and color varied a lot, because the repainting was made mainly in "field conditions" /in the military bases to which the helmets belonged/. Most postwar painted 3-color 'decals' had horizontal /not tilted/ color bands - simply because these were easier to make. The first decal of the pictures below is most carefully made - the paints are sprayed, black border appled. As you will see, this was not always made so..."

Also he believes that the shells for the A and B were imported and fitted with liners at Bulgarian army depots - which may explain something...

TedM's website is at Bulgarian Helmtes' History - it is exceptionally slow loading for reasons I do not understand (it isn't big) but give it a go. Wait and wait and then wait a bit more.

[steel helmet stan]

Thanks for that info, I will give it a go, cheers

[steel helmet stan]

Thanks again, I went to the site and as you said...wait...wait....wait, I didn't bother clicking on the individual photos after the first one as it took so long to get back to where I was !!!!!. Loads of info on there, basically the helmet could be any umber of things, but I'm quite happy to know that the paint scheme and decals are post war, as I suspected, the liner on the other hand. ...if it wasn't in such bad shape and I could clean it up more, but it is really dry and fragile....thanks again ������

[steel helmet stan]

Thanks again, I went to the site and as you said...wait...wait....wait, I didn't bother clicking on the individual photos after the first one as it took so long to get back to where I was !!!!!. Loads of info on there, basically the helmet could be any umber of things, but I'm quite happy to know that the paint scheme and decals are post war, as I suspected, the liner on the other hand. ...if it wasn't in such bad shape and I could clean it up more, but it is really dry and fragile....thanks again