Austrian (Bundesheer ) M-58

[Greg Pickersgill]

I think the helmet has been refurbished. The plastic shell is scratched, but the liner straps are new.

I have been suspicious about that from the start - I'd really like to see how those straps are attached. That's the main reason I've even thought about buying it!

[Jack59]

Refurbished, the more I look the more I agree.The cradle is of post 1964 style, remove the front to back strap, it would look like it. The A washers seems brand new. I digged in my reference books & a few web sites without finding anything. Still a good exercise without having it physically in our hands ourself. Myself must be more precise when asking for photos.Thanks guys.

[Greg Pickersgill]

This might be a good example of distinguishing between whether something is what it actually is or what we want it to be. I have several particular helmet types that I have particular interest in, so I have always been looking for variations from the norm. Usually this is done just by looking at photos, as is the case here, and a couple of times I have outsmarted myself, seeing things that aren't there, *wishing* a different detail into existence.

I did this once (once only, honest!) with a helmet actually in hand, in front of my eyes, at a militaria fair, convincing myself it was a really hard to get early original Danish M48 and not the later Civilforsvaret version. No excuse for this as I already had several CF helmets so should have known what I was seeing, but I had a wrong thought and carried on with it, despite the evidence.

[Jack59]

Now let me conclude this short saga by presenting you my Austrian M75 ("Stahlhelm Type 1").

The colour of the helmet is a green khaki "Braungrau" matching the new khaki uniforms of the "BundesHeer", "Feldanzug 75".


This bale was repaired roughly, maybe a refurbished M58 shell?










The updated liner lost it's left side grommet.


This model manufactured after 1983 is reinforced by two large straps crossing from side to side.


The cradle was manufactured by SCHLUGA in 1996.


The liner's marking tells that is was produced by Heinrich Ulbrichts Witwe in 1985

[Ocad]

Interesting helmet indeed and puzzling. Could have been a quick depot refit solution.

[Jack59]

Interesting helmet indeed and puzzling. Could have been a quick depot refit solution

Hi, thanks for your obseration, I would think the same also, specially that it was painted the same colour as the shell. The switch from the M58 to the M75 helmets started slowly, in the 60s a German inspired chin strap was adopted including the "break free" clip! In 1975 when the time came to really go forward it was brutal! Old M58s were refurbished, including a few older M1s, older liners were refurbished as well. Often old cradle parts were left in, the new one put on top of them! The former liners rivets hole were not always plugged. Rivets were also used to attach some chin straps on the shells & so on. Everything was reused, so now for us collectors, former Austrian M75 are sometime amazing!

[Reibert]

I do really like our "old", "worn down", "Peppie´s".

Here´s an example of Ulrichs Witwe, Schwanenstadt

[Reibert]

...

[Reibert]

Austrian M75

m1975 stalhlhelm 1

[James C]

Thanks for jumping onto an existing thread Jack ,one of my pet gripes and this is not aimed at you in the slightest as you have added to an ongoing post but we have multiple threads on the same subject and it seems to be an ongoing problem as valuable information on the same subject is lost as more posts stack up ,from your post i can see the head liner band looks to be typically Austrian although the webbing is quite different from the norm i must admit