M35 battle damaged helmet

**Bonecollector** · 05-05-2023, 04:02 PM

Hi

I found this one in Normandy about ten years back. It has the remnants of the Heer decal and entry, exit holes.

**Bonecollector** · 05-06-2023, 02:36 PM

I would imagine that the damage is probably caused by shrapnel?

**Bonecollector** · 05-08-2023, 08:48 AM

This helmet was found near Forêt domaniale des Andaines.

**Danmark** · 05-08-2023, 10:31 AM

by Bonecollector

I would imagine that the damage is probably caused by shrapnel?

Yes, there was seemingly a lot of it about .......

**Bonecollector** · 05-08-2023, 10:53 AM

Indeed

**Pauls1970** · 05-08-2023, 11:14 AM

When you consider the weightiness of these M35s.....this illustrates the force that shrapnel strikes !
Paul

**Bonecollector** · 05-08-2023, 12:33 PM

It does. It looks pretty nasty, even this gives little protection.

**Teck 147** · 05-08-2023, 04:27 PM

Found the Counterpart. (This one must have been an Officer)

**Bonecollector** · 05-08-2023, 04:35 PM

Wow that's really something. Steel helmets didn't really provide much protection did they but I suppose that it was better than nothing

**TWS** · 05-09-2023, 01:23 AM

by Bonecollector

Wow that's really something. Steel helmets didn't really provide much protection did they but I suppose that it was better than nothing

Steel helmets of both WWI and WWII were not intended to provide protection against a directly striking rifle or machine gun bullet. The mass of steel required would have been impractical - too great for a soldier to bear, in other words.

They were fairly effective against some ricochet bullets or bullets fired from such a distance that their kinetic energy was mostly spent. But they were mainly intended to provide protection against a fairly wide spectrum of, but certainly not all, shrapnel.

I have in my collection a German M40 helmet that the US Army veteran grandfather of a childhood friend brought back. Some years after the war, they put it on a post and shot at it with .22 caliber rounds. Those dented the helmet, but did not penetrate, aside for one round fired that hit right where the visor meets the shell and managed to produce a crack. That one may have been fired from foolishly close, but I don't know. Of course, a .22 round does not have the kinetic energy of typical rounds fired within their effective range that soldiers faced on WWII battlefields, but it is interesting to see how they did not penetrate the helmet.