Interesting Article

[ObKrieger]

Following brothers into battle 'right thing to do' | al.com

Take a close look at his helmet.

[zwerge]

What model is it? It doesn`t have any liner attaching rivets.

[ObKrieger]

It also has no air vents! It makes me wonder where exactly the vet "picked" that helmet up...

[DougB]

This article was discussed some time ago on another forum and the helmet is clearly a post war reproduction. My theory is some vets didnt get their war trophies so they picked them up postwar. I had an experience with one such situation where the son of a vet was selling off his fathers war trophies and there was some good items however there were some 1960 fantasy items in the lot as well. Turned out these items were added into the trophy case and the son didnt know about it but he did confirm it. I think this happened more than we think.

[ObKrieger]

I wonder if he tells people that he actually picked it up himself during the war? I also wonder how many people have told him that it's fake...

[DougB]

For all we know a member of the media brought it with him to add some character to the photo or he even knows it is not real but they used it anyway for the picture, after all it has a nasty swastika on it.

I wouldn't put it past the media to stage a photo like this. They are in the business of selling advertising after all.

[FJ5 chally]

Doug,

What about this helmet then??
No vent hole, but has liner rivets..
Sorry thats all the pics I can get from here, and looks to be in a book as well..
With the pic below the decal is the page where the helmet is in a book..
Is this a parade helmet??, or was this a private purchase helmet??

[noelh]

It looks like a picture I saw of a supposed West German border guard helmet. No rivets on that either. I suspect it's an early fake sold to unsuspecting GIs in Europe. I imagine he doesn't know it isn't real but he didn't pick it up during the war that's for sure. I wouldn't blame him for embrodiering a tale of how he got it.

The decal is so bad I wonder if it might be a film prop?

[ObKrieger]

I didn't know that they made postwar M42 helmets. I always thought that every postwar helmet was a Quist-made M40. I don't think the decal is original to that helmet though.

Could it be the elusive "M45"? Which brings me to this question: Was there really such a thing as an M45 or were they just M42's that were rushed out of the factory before they could be stamped?

[DougB]

Brian Ice has done a lot of research on M"45" helmets. It is available on WAF and some on GHW. This decal is a fake on this post war helmet.