War trophy Ssh 39 helmet

[Marcel Banziger]

With what is the handwritten text written? A pencil? A felt tip marker?

Very nice original helmet!

[Jan]

Nice copy Jan.
The liner originally belongs in the helmet. The first production batch of the Lysva factory (ЛМЗ) of the SSh-39 helmet from 1939 had a white leather liner.

Thank you so much for the information Asjemenou. I will add this to my archive.

Best,

Jan

[Jan]

Hello,
I think i have never posted in the USSR subforum, but seeing this helmet made me do it...
What a cool helmet with well preserved liner, red star and also with nice markings and handwritings...i'm not exprerienced in Red Army collecting even if i own several WWII items, so i can't judge or ID things like markings, but in my eyes this helmet as an almost perfect example of early WWII examples, it has every criteria required to be a war trophy of which the condition did not change since the war and the time it was seized or found on the battle field. Of course i can't say if the story of war trophy is true or not, no one can i guess, but the helmet speaks for itself in my opinion. The few real "war trophy" german helmets that i've seen in my collecting life, the ones i'm certain that they're not made up, not pimped to resemble to something else, all these helmets looked the same...good condition, sometimes with a slight battle damage, bright markings, handwritings from the soldier and/or from the person who found or seized the helmet, usually lightly used on the field, well stored or displayed to preserve the item and with no traces of heavy manipulations over the years, as they've been seized or found last year.

A friend of mine collects Red Army artifacts and i've seen in his collection at least two steel helmets that had white colored linings.
I did also see white linings in a serious article of a magazine about WWII soviet helmets, i perfectly remember them.
That's not very useful, sorry.

In my opinion, if you don't receive any bad comments about a feature of the helmet, if markings are correct for this time of the war, if the chinstrap, liner, paint, lot or serial number, red star, are correct, there would not be reasons not to believe the story of the war trophy. I agree that i know nothing, but what i see here is a great and well preserved witness of the early steps of the Great Patriotic War.
Thanks

Thank you so much J.Philip, I agree to everything you wrote. I will go and get the helmet next week and display it with pride.

Best,

Jan

[Jan]

With what is the handwritten text written? A pencil? A felt tip marker?

Very nice original helmet!

Hello Mark,

At the moment I don´t know. I will ake a very close look when I have the helmet in hand.

The helmet had stayed in the family of the guy who brought it home from the war for 70+years so its entirely possible that he had added the writing sometime after it was brought home (so people wouldn´t forget where it came from). There are some faint initials underneath the text too (possibly "S-V U" or "S-V J") I will try to figure them out too.

Best,

Jan

[bourguignotte]

Hello

Interresting helmet.
More information can alos be found on World War Helmets - Casque Ssh 39

I am a little suprised by the stamps as it shows a 1
To my knowledge only 1939 had a full year but without LMZ

Bruno