Fallschirmjager battlefield pickup

**Witt** · 05-29-2023, 03:12 PM

I know that this is a very old thread but I have found some information to share. Still assuming the helmets were accepted and no information on the original veteran was known.

Name: Erich Blatt
Rank: Jäger
Unit: 1. Kompanie/Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 3
Date of birth: 19.10.1922
Place of birth: Herne
Death/missing date: 01.09.1942
Death/missing place: Deir el Shein

Gefallen: artillerie geschuß voltreffer

Erich Blatt would have fell during the fighting at the Battle of Alam el Halfa (30 August - 5 September). The Lehrbataillon/I. Bataillon of FJR3 under command of Hauptmann FA von der Heydte was apart of the Ramcke Brigade. Deir el Shein was a desert area maybe 20km south of El Alamein.

The nature of all three camo helmets makes me think that the veteran that acquired them was in the British Eighth Army. There were many opportunities for them to collect helmets such as these while passing through North Africa and the boot of Italy. If the M38 was a Ramcke helmet, that was named to a Blatt, and received shrapnel damage then I think this is a real possibility. Couldn’t a direct artillery hit like what befell Erich Blatt produce such fatal damage to a helmet like is seen.