Pm helmet and Riot Police
Pm helmet and Riot Police
I've seen lots of lids with dubious paint for sale around Checkpoint Charlie and various tourist sites around Berlin, maybe this is one of them that has been "sexed up" to attract unwary tourists!...
I finally have what I can confidently say is a Romanian M50. It has both the triangular and rectangular Romanian acceptance ink-stamps, and has all the other characteristics I believe I should be looking for - brown liner pads, unpainted metal parts on the chinstrap, large unpainted rivets for the chinstrap.
To recapitulate what we're said before on this thread, it seems that the Romanians imported (or were given, or were compromised into buying) ssh40 shells from Russia, which were then fitted with locally made liners and straps. This explains why the shells have ink-stamps and stampings that are also characteristic of Russian-used shells. These were issue helmets up until the mid-1970s when the Romanian designed and made M73 appeared.
Now I have an unarguable Romanian I have compared it to several others which I *thought* were Romanian but lacked one or both of the ink-stamps. They are all identical. Now, there's an issue in which we know that *some* Russian ssh40 had brown liner pads (whereas I believe *all* Romanians do) so one has to be careful about accepting a Russian as a Romanian. One clue is the unpainted chinstrap rivets and end-tag, but that's apparently not 100-percent certain either, depending on the dates. Comparing the Romanians against the Russians I do find I see the Romanian helmets have a slightly darker and more matte green paint finish. But then there is considerable variation in the green of Russian ssh40....
I suppose I could satisfy myself with believing that if the helmet has *all* the characteristics of a Romanian M50 (even without the stamps) then it probably is. But am I living in a dreamworld? Information, please!
NB - Romanian M50 is on the right in the comparison picture.
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