Named heer m40

[BattleOfTheBulge25]

I’m looking for help in finding out what happened to the German who owned this helmet. The bullet hole might look bad for the chances at first but I bought it directly from the US veterans family and there’s a story behind the bullet hole. To sum it up the US veteran Was on a patrol and saw some German foxholes and this helmet was sitting on the edge of it so he shot it, which made the Germans so scared the popped up and immediately surrender. It has the Germans name in the liner and some sort of unit marking that I cannot figure out. I believe it is 52/53 but I can’t find anything as to what that could mean. The Germans name was Karl Schults and I want to know what happened to him after he was captured. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[BattleOfTheBulge25]

[BattleOfTheBulge25]

Almost forgot to add that the helmet is a size 60 so Karl Shults was probably very young

[PotatoDigger]

First of all, what you have there is a very nice M35 SD reissue, you can see the original factory apple green beneath. Nice early liner, too
52/53 will be the head size stamped in the helmet when it was reissued.
Best way to look if he survived is if you look at the Volksbund database and search his name.
If it was sitting at the edge of the foxhole, the helmet may have just been sitting there (hopefully)

Very nice helmet you got there by the way.

Luis

[BattleOfTheBulge25]

Thank you very much for the information. What is the volksbund website? I am new to researching germans thank you once again

[Adravor]

I love this helmet, a fantastic pice of history, congrats to you purchase! The story with the Helmet lying on the side of the trench may be true.
It looks like the soldier who shot took time to aim. The bullethole is exactly there where the swastika of the decal would have been, i dont think that was a coincidence, and whoever shot, aimed for that.

The Volksbund website is this: Grabersuche-Online but i tried the name, and found nothing.
Wich would be good news, as the website only lists fallen people.
I´m not 100% sure if u read the name correctly, could u make another pic of the name, where we could see it better?

[BattleOfTheBulge25]

Thank you for the response. I hope these will help in finding out who this German was and see possibly what his unit was. This find has made my year in collecting but if we can find his information it would be without a doubt the best piece I have. Thank you!

[BattleOfTheBulge25]

I used a picture editor and filled in what I think are the letters. I haven’t heard of a last name being schultship before.

[BattleOfTheBulge25]

That’s the original picture I used.

[Schwerpunkt]

Nice BD reissued M35. Don't let helmets sizes fool you in guessing an age.
It's an M35 so it was made before the war for at least someone old enough to be a soldier.