M17 battle damage or no battle damage?

**Anon** · 03-21-2022, 02:35 PM

Hi,

I posted this helmet a few days ago with the question if you could repair these dents.
Now I’m not too sure anymore if these dents are battle damage or not. I did go through a lot of pictures of real battle damaged helmets but I am still unsure so I wanted to ask for extra opinions.
One thing that’s missing for battle damage in my opinion is that there is no centre to the dent which would indicate something small hitting it like a bullet or shrapnel. I will add a picture of a helmet I found where you can see this centre in the dent.
I would be happy about some feedback

Anon

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 03-21-2022 02:35 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Brett** · 03-21-2022, 08:33 PM

There are other things flying around in the height of battle besides bullets and shrapnel. Have you given a thought to the fact that the damage could possibly be caused by rubble, bricks etc? You expressed an interest in your other thread about this helmet to try and panel beat the dents out. A big no there. The metal is now stretched. Even if you could raise the dents without cracking the steel, you would have to heat and quench to try and shrink the metal back to its former size. Why ruin a good helmet? It is what it is!

Regards
Brett

**Anon** · 03-21-2022, 09:09 PM

Thank you for your feedback. I did think about stones or other stuff but to be honest before that I would think it’s more likely that it was damaged outside a battle. But I’m no Expert and can only imagine what could have happened. For me it’s a big difference in desirability of the helmet if the dents are battle damage or normal damage.

Best regards
Anon

**HARRY THE MOLE** · 03-21-2022, 09:35 PM

As I told you before, if you try and remove the dents you will be tampering with history. The best thing you can do is to leave battle damaged helmets - or indeed any helmets with dents alone. Find yourself something with no dents, and then you can wonder if it was ever used.

Steve

**Anon** · 03-21-2022, 09:57 PM

Yes I know what you said but I don’t even own the helmet and I am not trying to get it to remove any dents. I was just wondering if it’s battle damage or not.

Anon

**HARRY THE MOLE** · 03-21-2022, 10:14 PM

For what its worth, both dents are low velocity impacts. High velocity would either pierce, fracture, punch a hole through, or remove a piece of the helmet. - as in the last picture you used.