single decal tricolour ???relic from D-day

[Danmark]

Hi all,
I recently got this from an English chap who picked it up many years back in the area of Ver-Sur-Mere, ( Gold Beach ) half buried in sand near an observation bunker. A nice story that I cannot prove or disprove but the helmet tells it's own tale. ( the salt air certainly got to half of it ) It is an early M35 with brass rivets and originally had an aluminium liner band.
My questions are... 1) why only the national shield and no arm of service?
2) the colour is a dark black/grey, not an apple green or field grey.... did battery troops have this colour / decal arrangement?
3) the painted number ( 53 i think ) is a garrison number?? - I've seen numbers on gas masks for when they were left in barracks but helmets??

Still, it has become my favourite relic lid!!
Any help or guidance would be great!

Thanks, Dan

[4md]

Hi Dan maybe the decal on that side was exposed to the elements it certainly looks more corroded.....my m35 looks dark as well but as i recently found out that when i photographed it it looks apple green in certain light

[Matt L]

I believe I've heard there was a formal order to remove the decals rather before D-Day, so that would seem to suggest the helmet could well have been lost much in advance of mid-1944; just because it was at the site doesn't mean it wasn't there prior to 4. June. And I agree about the paint- the decal photo above certainly appears to have a more apple green to the left, which was the buried part; the dark colour is the exposted bit and oxidation could well explain the change. That's a really neat piece...

[Danmark]

Hi guys,
Thanks for the comments. Here are a couple of close up shots of the missing decal side ( with flash & without ). I can now see the apple green colour in certain light, and yes, this side is the badly corroded side ( even the rivet has rotted out! ) BUT, I cannot see ANY traces of an eagle - there is still paint where it would have been. Given the glue / lacquer way of applying them I can't see how one could have removed it without leaving some residue???

Another mystery?

Cheers from down under ( wish I was closer and not have to buy this stuff from others )

Dan

[Schwerpunkt]

I believe I've heard there was a formal order to remove the decals rather before D-Day, so that would seem to suggest the helmet could well have been lost much in advance of mid-1944; just because it was at the site doesn't mean it wasn't there prior to 4. June. And I agree about the paint- the decal photo above certainly appears to have a more apple green to the left, which was the buried part; the dark colour is the exposted bit and oxidation could well explain the change. That's a really neat piece...

How was the order formulated then ? Please remove the decals before the Allies hit the beach ? I'm scratching my head here as you are kind of vague.
The only official order I'm aware of is the order of 1940 to stop using the national shield which as we know was mostly disregarded as evidenced by the multitude of M35's with tricolor in collections worldwide.
The other known order dates from 1943 and was adressed to the factories producing helmets to stop adding Wehrmacht decals.

This helmet is no big mystery , the decal is just gone , the other one survived. It happens even with helmets that survived above ground.

It's nice to see an untouched relic on here for once , most seem to want to do a Frankenstein on them.

[Danmark]

Thanks for the guidance Schwerpunkt, I have no intention of doing anything to this relic other than imagining the owner losing or discarding it 66 years ago. I have posted my fondness for relic helmets before on the forum but sadly you are right - there are too many frankensteins being created ....... so much so that even relics are now in question!!
A pity but as the prices climb, so more fakers emerge...

[Walkwolf]

Ditto to what Schwerpunkt has to say on this helmet.

I like it as well..........

It is interesting how one side is rusted quite badly
- even the vent lug has been lost.

[Matt L]

How was the order formulated then ? Please remove the decals before the Allies hit the beach ? I'm scratching my head here as you are kind of vague.

Uh, you do realize I wrote 'rather before D-Day', right? Clearly meaning a long time before not immediately before? LOL And if you know about the orders shouldn't it be fairly clear what I was referring to?

Just looking around I find the 1940 order was about basic paint colour and that the tri-colour national shield was to be removed or painted over (as well as to cease being applied). Certainly some helmets weren't altered, but if it was a formal order it seems fairly likely the majority were, no? And if the helmet's paint colour still appears to be the RAL7009 and not the RAL6006, AND the Germans had the area from May of 1940- 4 whole years before D-Day- doesn't it all add up to it being much more likely the helmet was deposited, as was my entire point, before the invasion?

[Adravor]

Although i´m 10 years late , just wanted to say nice helmet, the Story seems fairly reasonable to me, and coherent with the state of the helmet. In any case a special piece, half of it being completly gone, and the other half with so much paint and even writing remaining.