M35 Stahlhelm Wehrmacht battledamaged reissue(?)

[Oberschutze]

Hello,

A helmet from my collection, which i aquired from a battlefield "archeologist". There is very little information about helmet itself. The helmet supposedly was found somewhere in frontline positions of "Courland pocket", which could be truth since i had met the guy who found it in person and we both live in Latvia. No idea of exact location though, because generally most of relichunters don't reveal exact locations. From what i understand it is M35 helmet used by Wehrmacht, it was double decal- at one point, untill it was repainted, the reinforced aluminium liner band seems to indicate that helmet was manufactured/ assembled after 1938(?), unless it was replaced later on. The shell seems to be damaged by fragmentation from artillery shells. Interesting that for camouflage purposes to break the siloute/ outline of the helmet by attaching vegetation, someone has installed a german field phone wire, not sure if that has been done during wartime though... The helmet has remains of the owners initials, because of the rough cleaning methods using either sandpaper or dremel tool by the digger it is impossible to see any factory markings and spell the initials. Shell size seems to be larger than 64, could be 66. Right now the i have applied wax coating on helmet.

[Oberschutze]

Sorry, i somehow managed to delete photos.

[M38]

Helmet looks believable but the wire not so much. It looks like a very recent addition.

Cheers
Terry

[Oberschutze]

Thanks for Your opinion, i was not so sure either, not that the wire is not correct- i had found them often in german positions, but what sort of bothered me was the way it was tied around the backside of the liner band itself- unless it was sticked through leather. Speaking from my experience wearing helmet for prolonged periods of time is uncomfortable, and then there is that wire that pushes against back of the skull?

[AndyM35]

The wire does look like very much a post war addition. It would be a big stretch of the imagination to think that the steel could be pitted while the plastic coating the wire is untouched after more than 70 years. Also, the arrangement of the wire particularly at the rear where it is wrapped around the liner band would not have worked. You would have needed to put a hole in the rear of the leather liner and this would have made no sense. Would have been easier to strip the plastic coating from the wire at the ends and feed it through between the band and leather.

Still, a nice relic to have in the collection.

[TheGoon]

I have a similar wire on one of my old ground dug helmets but it’s yellow.

[Oberschutze]

They happen to be in various colors.

[TheGoon]

Some sort of electrical wire

[Oberschutze]

I think that these wires were used for field phones, typically the wires with isolation layer in black color are found in Soviet army ww2 positions, but one does not exlude another- it seems- after all soldiers didn't mind to use captured equipment judging from what i have found.

[Schwerpunkt]

I think that these wires were used for field phones, typically the wires with isolation layer in black color are found in Soviet army ww2 positions, but one does not exlude another- it seems- after all soldiers didn't mind to use captured equipment judging from what i have found.

There is no doubt that wires are used , the question always is is the wire period applied. In some case it is easy to say yes in many other cases it is not so easy to see and often done post war.
This one may have suffered from cleaning destroying all traces of age , that is something you need to take into account when cleaning ground finds. It just does not look as if it belonged together for +70 years.