Just picked up the helmet from Sydney, cost me $110AUD,it has never been in a collection before and came from the estate of Australian Naval lieutenant Commander GWT Armitage, it must have been a poor show at the auction because I purchased some of his naval material, memorabilia, that did not sell at the auction, goes back to the 1920’s, bullion English Naval sword belt , uniform coat, English battle ensigns, ship emblem crest things,presentation dish etc, this helmet is the only odd item in his collection of naval stuff, he was captain of a vessel HMAS Koopa stationed in Queensland and going to PNG during WW2, point is, the USS Flying Fish 229 visited Qld twice during the war, I am certain this helmet is US Naval and from the USS FF, there is no other possible reason that an unmistakable flying fish could end up on a US 1943 helmet, coming from this Naval estate. The auctioneer is going to ask the grandson of the Lt C but seeing he has sold off all granddads stuff for pennies I don’t expect he will know much. will post new pictures for those interested tomorrow morning, any ideas on clean up, thinking of using a teflon cleaning pan pad and WD40 on the rust in the inner outer shell, and proceed gently??
cheers Mark
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