DD M40 Dutch volunteers Wolfsangel decal original???

[Irish1965]

Hi everyone,

This one is for sale. I know these are rare and faked more than original were issued. The helmet looks good but what can I say about the decal. I'm in uncharted territory here. I learned that this militia called the WA (Weer afdeling) was swallowed up by SS division Wiking and was meat grinded at the Narva front.

Maybe could one of you shed his/her light on the matter.

Thx and happy new year all.

Paul























So what do you think?

[Vocht]

Never seen these shells before. The WA was more of a Dutch SA. It is true some joined the SS early in the war into Standarte Westland as a part of Wiking.
This is a very complicated story since the majority of the Dutch National Socialists supported the local NS leader Mussert who was against the SS stealing all the WA men.
The more radical elements of the party ( the Volkse group) wanted to recruit as many as possible for the SS and had the most German backing in the form of high SS and even Himmler.

Towards the end of the war a lot changed. The WA men were pressured from all sides into the SS Landstorm Division. By then it was already to late to make a difference. I doubt any ever wore these helmets. I would love to be proven wrong.

[Danmark]

Too bad you cant read any stamping - to have a square corner Alloy bail & band means it MUST be an early M40 only and a lot No would help with that ( as the liner to me looks a bit more like the later pigskin type?? ) As for the decal, I think I see pitting under it - especially on the left side.

[Paul D]

Wiking never fought at Narva but the Nederland Brigade did but not wearing Helmets like this !!

[Vocht]

I already stand corrected:



image screenshotted from NSB Nationaal Socialistische Beweging Mussert - NSB bezetting40-45!. Hope Jan doesn't mind to show his image for this one time. All credits go to him.


Seems this was used. However, still cannot comment on originality.

[Schwerpunkt]

There is almost no information on these decals other than 99,9% being fake.
The few accepted ones (by some collectors) have not been investigated with a USB microscope either.
So there is zero concensus on what constitutes an original decal.

[Irish1965]

I did some reading and checked also on WW2forum.nl where a similar helmet was discussed. A member there wrote that the helmet was faked for some decades and that this was easy recognizable when you look at the dimensions of the central vertical bar. All fakes are apparently copied from the first fake. He states that the central vertical bar is to thick compered to the one published in the book of Ludwig Bear. (Even on the published one he had doubts)

I would like to put in the picture but I don't have copyright. I think most of you will own a copy of history of the german steelhelmet 1916-1945.


This one looks like a early fake (the seller told me he bought the helmet some 30 years ago) and I'll pass on this one.

And PaulD you so were right about the involvement in Wiking by the WA. Thanks for correcting me. The WA (Weerbaarheid Afdeeling) were as stated before he Dutch SA and most likely never saw action at the front.

It is still irritating that still no original is studied as a benchmark.

Cheers and thank you all (Also LDO of ww2forum.nl)

Paul

[Willmore]

There is one for sale on the WAF.

Quote - “For sale 100% original Dutch Landstorm NS 62 single decal Woof Hook/Angle. $7,500 USD or possible trade for SS PZ item? Open to reasonable offers/trade offers. Feel free to contact if interested...?”

Any Dutch Volunteer Collectors? -

Wehrmacht-Awards.com Militaria Forums

Whether it’s original or fake I can’t say because it’s not my area of collecting.

[Vocht]

These helmets look pretty cool and if real are very rare. Considering the SS Landstorm only had a few 1000 men in them. Wearing a ragtag of gear since it was a late war regiment and brigade. The messy surrender in may 1945 must've had most of the Landstorm items destroyed and missing. All the cuffs, collars etc are worth their weight in gold.

[Schwerpunkt]

The one on WAF I would expect a Heer decal under the Wolfsangel runes for starters.
All auxilliary helmets have this trait , Nskk , Rad , foreign SS.

It's a giant leap of faith this helmet.