When a helmet, let's say a Q, was to be reissued, would it be sent back to the Quist factory in Esslingen to be refurbished, or sent to another factory, or would it not be sent to any factory but instead refurbished in the field?
When a helmet, let's say a Q, was to be reissued, would it be sent back to the Quist factory in Esslingen to be refurbished, or sent to another factory, or would it not be sent to any factory but instead refurbished in the field?
Okay good, so I'm not the only one that doesn't know
I always wondered how helmets were repaired (liners, chinstraps replaced etc)...was this done in the field, were there stocks of replacement parts available to frontline troops etc...or did they simply pick up the first available Stahlhelm that fit? Cheers, Glenn
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My understanding is it was done many ways. Some were factory refitted. Some were field done. Probably had a lot to do with what point of the war it was and how far they were from the factories. Wouldn't make sense to send helmets all the way back to the factories from the Russian front. Just my theory.
This is what I thought as well.
It would be interesting to know how the whole process went. I don't think a helmet would be sent back to a factory just because of bad paint, and definitely not because of a damaged liner/chinstrap. If a chinstrap or liner was messed up the soldier could just fix it himself with replacement parts.
My theory is that some helmets were refurbished in the field, as explained above (those with minor defects: chinstrap, liners, etc), including those that were repainted due to regulation, but the majority were reissued in the factories (not sure which factories). These factory reissues were helmets belonging to soldiers who had been killed.
Corey
As far as repairs go I would say most minor things were done in field. Grabbing a replacement strap off another helmet, or using some string to replace a broken drawstring. If you think about it, there really wasn't anything a helmet HAD to go back to a factory to fix, except damage to the steel itself. Need a new liner? Find a helmet of the same size and pull the liner out. I'm sure as the war progressed the logistics of sending helmets back to factories was not worth the hassle and not a priority.
I should think some field supply/depot usually or even repaired my themselves,I know US M1 depots carried boxes of spare liners and chinstraps and just grabbed what was to hand first hence why different mis matches show up,the brushed painted helmets have to be field applied looking at the roughness of the strokes and the way its unevenly layered.regards minnie.
I agree with both of you. So it seems that two logical reasons a helmet would be sent back to a factory would be a) if it was severely damaged and could not be fixed in the field, or b) the original owner was killed. Interesting to think about those helmets that were reissued 3 times or more.
I owned an SS helmet with 4 SS decals on them, and 4 layers of paint. It was quite unique.
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