Italian M33 - Wartime repaint??

[MAP]

I always find these difficult to identify but I think it has a chance of being war time, the lack of Z I think is a good thing but I thought there should be two lines of stitching if there was no Z.

Excellent observation Steve, in fact the lack of stitching above the junction of the leather ("Z" or "two parallel lines") is an uncommon and interesting thing.

Glad you both brought this up. I mentioned this same thing over on another site. I've never seen an example without the Z or two parallel lines. So it's uncommon but OK for a war time helmet?

[OldSteel]

Glad you both brought this up. I mentioned this same thing over on another site. I've never seen an example without the Z or two parallel lines. So it's uncommon but OK for a war time helmet?

Hi Micheal,
actually the reinforcement stitching should be in all M33s, both war time and post-war, so I can't say why they miss this helmet.
In a prevalent way it is said that the stitching parallel lines of both the war and the Z one is post-war; but I own M33 of the WW2 period both with parallel lines and with Z, and with reinforced metal eyelets but also not.
In the same way I have post-war helmets with regular Z stitching, but also with parallel lines because they reused WW2 period leathers.
In this case the majority of the elements make me identify this helmet as WW2 period.
On the large quantities produced of this helmet, something could have escaped during production, or the leather could have been replaced later by the Spaniards using spare parts in stock, difficult to say.

Regards