Article about: Evening all First time poster. In the early 1970's when I was about 11 years old, a mate of mine had what I now believe was an WWI era German Helmet, possibly an M16 but it was just a shell
In the early 1970's when I was about 11 years old, a mate of mine had what I now believe was an WWI era German Helmet, possibly an M16 but it was just a shell and a bit rusted from what I remember. Anyway I really wanted it and offered him everything I could think of to swap it with me, but he was having none of it.
Fast forward through to today, I'm a big collector of military medals, and while bidding at quite a number of auctions I have seen several helmets go through, various prices, some expensive and some cheap and it has sort of reignighted my interest and desire to own one. Having read a number of articles on the forum, picked up a little bit of knowlege I had not a clue over, and last week I took my first step at auction.
An M35 beaded helmet, stamped on the inner rim '4789' and 'ET66' with it's inner liner and strap.
I understand this was manufactured by Eisenhüttenwerke - Thale, Germany, (later CKL) Size 66.
My only concern with it is it seems to be a two tone in colour, with the outer being almost black, whereas the inside is more a green/grey, is this normal ?
Who would have worn this helmet, the Luftschutz Polizei perhaps ?
It came with a repro cam cover, which I actually don't mind as it protects it somewhat although this does have some age, 20-30 years perhaps judging on the condition of the material and draw strings
I enclose some photos and any comments will be gratefiully received.
It could have been repainted for post war use ( 70 yrs later its hard to tell ) but these were primarily worn by Luftschutz or other rear eschelon troops.
" I'm putting off procrastination until next week "
The beaded helmets were made so because of a defect in the original manufacturing process rendering them defective for combat duty. The beading was added to distinguish them from their combat counterparts. They were then used by a plethora of civil organizations including polizei. here is mine as an example
It came with a repro cam cover, which I actually don't mind as it protects it somewhat although this does have some age, 20-30 years perhaps judging on the condition of the material and draw strings.
Hello & welcome to the forum. The helmet cover you have is a post WW2 West German Bundeswehr's Amöbentarn pattern simular to this one.
Actually the colour does rather match the first photo of yours, Al, that’s a lovely example and I’d love one like that.
Regarding the beaded examples being ‘defective’, there seems to be two schools of thought on this subject, with one stating that test show they were specifically made to be like this and not repressed, but also arguing why would you make more effort adding the bead, as opposed to actually making them like this purposefully, but not to the strength of non-beaded examples made for combat troops.
Then the other school as you say, beaded added to defective helmets at production for non combat troops.
As a novice and from what I’ve read including several arguments on here, I find the theory the beaded examples were all made like this purposefully at production with a slightly lower spec to a combat helmet, a lot more compelling and believable.
Cheers
Last edited by BlackBuckOne; 02-13-2024 at 02:15 AM.
Having looked up German WWII camo patterns I realised this wasn't a repro of a contemporary style used, so thanks for that and nice to know exactly what it is. As I mentioned I don't mind it at all, it protects the helmet nicely and is likely the reason it is still in good condition.
Here's a full photo of it.
Cheers
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Last edited by BlackBuckOne; 02-13-2024 at 02:30 PM.
First Post and Buy - M35 Beaded helmet
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