10th. Greniders of Savoi I think. Rich A. in Pa.
1969 Shelby GT-500 King of the Road
Knowledge is power, guard it well.
Well, this is an iconic Mod. 28 pith helmet, mainly issued to the troops deployed in the African T.O. It bears the badge of 10th rgt Granatieri di Savoia, as Rich has pointed out, which for what I know is of the correct type for a pith helmet. That Regiment saw action in North Africa and was disbanded after the Cheren battle (March 1941). Now, I have to say that two versions of Mod.28 exist: one has the internal lining green and the other kakhi, as your helmet has; there are some disputes about, but it seems highly probable that the kakhi version was a late war one, maybe never issued to African soldiers, due the defeat of Axis there. If so, it would make difficult that badge and helmet were together in 1941... And I have to say also that put - together pith helmets are fairly common, since it is not too difficult to find surplus, original parts. One tell tale of (possible) originality is the color of the canvass under the badge: if way darker than the rest of the helmet’s surface, it is at least a good sign that it has been used (or exposed) under the sun for a while: but it means that you have to partially unstitch the badge.
Morning to all,
here is the variant with the green interior, mentioned by ziomanno; this early example belonged to a veteran of the 11th "Monferrato" Artillery Regiment, who used it during the Ethiopian Campaign in 1936.
The badge is that of the Heavy Field Artillery.
Note also that there were examples covered with thicker canvas (like my example), or with thin canvas (like steelspy5' example).
Regards
Roberto
Have to agree, nice pith but unlikely it was used wartime with this badge
Regards,
Jerry
Whatever its just an opinion.
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