just waiting on the mail... SS Relic on the way.

[FranzJon]

Shipped in December but Estonia has a hold on all US bound packages over 400g til Feb. 7 according to the official Eesti Post site.

So basically I'm waiting... staring at the pics. And it's in a box in a storage room somewhere in Estonia.

[FranzJon]

can anyone tell by the location of vent holes or shape the MFG? And M35. M40 or M42?

[helmet2id]

Rolled edge so it is either an M35 or M40, and with the appearance of the vent in the middle picture I think more likely than not an M40. Good luck with it. Jim G.

[Franz1944]

I think it m40, but it hard to see the vents

[FranzJon]

thanks guys...

[Panzer 3]

Hi i would think M40 as M35 are more pronounced, nice helmet.
Dave.

[FranzJon]

I don't think I'll do any restoration efforts on it... at least not a full helmet attempt. If it's do-able maybe some limited efforts to remove surface junk from the decal. But I'd be afraid to damage the decal. It's interesting how you can see the mineral deposits and rust layering over and across the helmet and over the decal. I don't think it'd be possible to fake that kind of relic.

[FranzJon]

well... good news and bad here.

The package came and that's great. And I'm an SS lid owner, YEAH!!

And the helmet came in fairly damaged.

It's in very poor condition, literally faling apart. There were handfuls of rust dust and metal chips in the shipping box. I knew it was a relic but it sustained damage on the way so now it's MORE relic'y.

Now the interesting thing is... this helmet already intrigues me. It has a lot of interesting characteristics. Like the liner rivet things. They're not smooth they have these little slits on the outside of the head of the rivets.

On the inside, they're appears to be some layered material on the flared part next to the rolled edge. At first I thought it was rust/dirt/crud... but it's distinctly layered??

And PLEASE!! What do I do about this SMELL? It has this VERY pungent rusty-rot smell. I'll try to get some pics.

[FranzJon]

here's a couple pics. It's doesn't look this good in real life, just looks orange. I need to see it in daylight I guess.
It actually makes me very sad. This is history that is on the verge of disappearing, literally. This helmet was found on the Tannenberg Line, part of the "Battle of the Blue Hills" in Estonia.
So logically this lid belonged to either 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Nederland or 20th Waffen Grenadier Division (1st Estonian SS) or 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland.

[davejb]

Well firstly, you describe the unusual points but your not showing them in any photos, secondly im afraid that if you leave the helmet as is you will have nothing left other than a pile of rust in a very short time, the damage obviously caused by the posting is irrepairable, however were you not informed of the very fragile nature of this helmet, and was it insured by post, i cannot in all honesty ever remember seeing any type of liner pins with slots, except FJm38 bolts, please post better clear and close up shots for a more informed opinion, regards dave