Italian M33 RSI Helmet

[BOPHEAD]

Hello Guys,
This is my second post. I have another helmet for your comments.

Its an Italian M33 that is finished in its original Royal Italian Army Grey-Green both inside and out. The outside however has had some additional lighter green camo effect sprayed on. It has had this for some time as there is rust bleed through to both colours of paint on the exterior (this is particularly visable arround the front Anchir stencil). It has the Grey-Green leather chin-strap. and the 'Z' stitched liner with 8 prong vent rivets.

It has a large Anchor stenciled on the front. Rust has bled through the paint finish on the front but not where the paint was thicker on the stencil.

There is a stenciled Tri-colour to the right hand side.

In my opinion this is a nice aged piece with nothing that appears suspicious.
Does anyone know what unit ? San Marco perhaps ?
Chris.

[James C]

hi bophead is it me or does this look like a bulgarian m51/72 i could be totally wrong though

[GIZMO8Z]

I'm not sure if it is an Italian helmet or if it is just pretending to be one... maybe it's just the way the pictures were resized...? The side profile picture doesn't look right to me.

If it is an Italian lid, the size of the vent pieces tell me that it's a Post-WWII helmet.

What shape are the bales? Rectangular would indicate WWII production. Trapezoidal would indicate Post-WWII production.

An anchor and camouflage would indicate San Marco, but is it a reproduction?

Here are pics of my Post-WWII M33 restores as a WWII era Alpini helmet:

[BOPHEAD]

Yes, Its a genuine M33. With a Genunine Grey/Green M33 Chinstrap.
Cant find any evidence of reworking on this one (The best place to look for evidence of postwar paint is arround the liner frame and bales. No 'AT' Stamp on the chin-stap suspender (the other helmet 'Antisom' has).
As for the rivets. There is much debate arround these. I read an excellent artical by an Italian collector years ago (cant find it now).
The general jist of it was. Small hole domed vents = early producton, Pre war.
Could have Eight, Three, or even Two prongs on the back (to secure it).
The 'Bell' shaped with the stepped rim pre-war to war-time production. Always have Eight prongs on rear.
The domed with the larger hole. War-time Through to post-war production.
Interestingly I have a domed rivet with a larger hole (Looks like the type used into the post war period) Yet it only has Three prongs on the reverese. I was told, and from what I have researched that this also is a early pre-war helmet. All-in-all I have seen arround six - seven different types of rivet. I would disagree that only the bell-shaped rivets are 'wartime'. There are simply to many variations. Yes, these are the easiest to spot and catagorise as wartime, Maybee... but there were certainly all of the others mentioned above in circulation.

[magicdutchmen]

Could it be the article written by Michele Tagliavini. If so, I posted it here
--> Warhelmets -articles
There is also an excellent thread on the blitzkrieg militaria forum about the various rivets.

[BOPHEAD]

Yes, I do belive it was Michele Tagliavini, He had a website that isn't there any more. Thanks for the link.
Chris