WWII USMC Frog Skin Helmet Cover
Here is another couple of items I've had for a number of years. I was fortunate to be able to obtain 2 of these from a friend who was a picker. While on his weekly Aloha Swap Meet travels he ran into a family selling what amounted to their mothers belongings she had stored under her house in a water tight locker. Only 1 is shown here.
Fortunately water did not get into the locker as the 2 I have are new & unissued. There are no stamps anywhere on either of the 2 I have. There is a couple small black smudges that are barely discernable that looks to have bled through on the beach and tropic side of the cove. Not certain what it is but my friend obviously went through the lot he had, pulled the ones he wanted to sell and kept the rest for later sales when that time comes. He is not presently any where near retiring so for those who want to ask I can't advise when that will be.
Apparently there was a cottage industry during WWII on Oahu close to Marine Base Hawaii (what used to be Kaneohe Marine Corp Air Station) where seamstresses who worked out of their homes were contracted by the Marines to produce these cammo items. At the close of the war their contracts ended and she had who knows how many remaining. My friend advised me he obtained hundreds of them. He was really tight with what he had, he advised me your looking at my retirement savings so he had little interest in selling more. I was able to get these because I was able to find a WWII Maui Defense patch for him which is quite rare.
So here is 1 of the 2 I was able to obtain. At this time both are NFS. I display one beach side out and the other jungle side out. Now all I have to do is find an original era USMC cammo uniform. No small task indeed.
After doing some research on these covers I've conclude that this is the 3rd type with the slits in the tounges that were tucked between the helmet shell and liner. If I am incorrect, please advise.
I am not certain why slits were in the tounges but was this done to permit the tounge to be used to insert foliage to add further cammo effect where the tounges were dropped down to aid in neck concealment??
I posted this over at the US Military forum but wanted to post this here too for convenience for those who have interest in these & so as to not go back and forth for collectors here to view.
.
Bookmarks