Slovakia & Bohemia-Moravia VZ 32 helmets
As you may know Slovakia participated with Germany in the invasion of Poland in 1939.
For the invasion of Soviet Union in 1941 Hitler did not ask for help from Slovakia,
the Slovaks decided to send an expeditionary force anyway.
The Slovak Army group was attached to the 17th German Army.
From 1942 to 1944 only the Slovak 1st Division was kept on the front line,
fighting in the Caucasus area and later in southern Ukraine.
4,000 Slovak soldiers were casualties in the fighting on the Eastern Front.
To avoid friendly fire because of the similarity of the Slovak & Soviet helmets, Slovak helmets were clearly identified.
Witch side is the front of the helmet?
On this side the pad is directly on the forehead (rivet). Its the more often side seen on photos.
On that side pads meet in the middle of the forehead. Seen less often on photos.
My VZ 32 as a lot of unknown history as you will see, a grey/green was painted over the original colour.
A small fire inside the shell destroyed most of the pads.
In the bottom of the shell an "e" was cold stamp, ?
The Protectorate of Bohemia-Moravia also received ex-Czechoslovakian Army VZ 32 helmets.
President Hacha was authorized in October 1939 by the Germans to rise a small army of 8,000 men to maintain order.
Those men (11 battalions out of 12) were transferred to Northern Italy in 1944. Many of them deserted to join the anti-fascit resistance,
explaining why many of those helmets are now in Italian collection.
The crest on their helmet is the Bohemian Lion.
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