Hungarian M50

[ruddersrangers44]

Just added this little gem I honestly struggled to source an example here in the UK,been looking for what would seem a good few years and almost gave up looking when this popped up as a russian helmet as they mostly are.
nice faded ink stamp looks like 1958.multi coloured grey/blue pads.i believe this example is the matt dark green type.being there's quite a few colour variations,anyway well chuffed on getting this.I know some of the guys here have/had a ton of these but honestly their just seem so thin on the ground now days.

[James C]

Nice find Rudders on an early model M50 , i like the mixed liner pad combination

[Greg Pickersgill]

There are pretty definitive threads on the M50 (one of my personal favourites) here -
Hungarian M50 helmet
- and here -
Hungarian M50 - Some Comparative Pics

A notable Hungarian militaria collector - whose name I temporarily forget - was doing a book on all the Hungarian helmet, but they way things are it'll probably come out about the same time as Walter Jacobs' book on Belgian helmets. But *both* will be before Marcus Cotton's book on British helmets.

[ruddersrangers44]

Strangely enough i was only reading that first link from 2016 last week Greg and thinking why can't i find any,and almost straight afterwards i found my beauty,thanks for input and knowledge and yes a book would be top draw indeed,lets hope so.

- - ------- - -

Thanks James also for your positive comments.

[battle gear]

the M 50's are not as common as other Eastern bloc helmets , the multi color pads are interesting , looks good I use mine for Vietnam war displays , Im sure the PAVN would have had these too.

[Jack59]

Nice catch! I know the feeling of finding one of those oldies. I'm still missing the Romanian & Polish ones. Lately I've seen a few Wz50 for sale but they seem to have been put together, the rivets have been tempered, the paint is new & so are the liners. I'm passing until I find one with more character. Looking through the advertised Russian helmets is fun & surprising with the identification given to them & also a good exercise to identify the various models.
Jack

[Greg Pickersgill]

I'm not so sure the Hungarian M50 was easy to find, ever. About fifteen or so years back I got very interested in them and made a point of searching online or at militaria shows (not that I went to many, they were all too far away). I was aware there were differences (the exciting part!) so I essentially bought whetever I could find that wasn't absurdly priced. In fact prices were quite reasonable - I once got four at the Malvern fair for just £10 each, and sometime late bought eight (or was it ten?) from a fellow in Austria for next to nothing (plus a lot of shipping). Anyway, I ended up with 20 or so overall, and now have a reasonable understanding of the first and second series and the size variants. OK I know, this is all trivial knowledge but it keeps me off the streets! (I think the main reason prices were low for a rather uncommon helmet is that virtually all sellers thought they were easily-available Russian ssh40s.)

I haven't looked for any in the last five years or so - even I have some sense and twenty+ is enough - and I haven't been to any sort of fair for longer than that. Ran out of time and money really.

The Hungarian miliaria fellow I mentioned is Tamas Baczoni, and even though his book on helmets is yet to appear (so far as I know right now) he has produced other books on Hungarian militaria (there are English-language translations), which would certainly include info on helmets.

I don't recall whether I ever mentioned this before, but there is a pretty good article on Hungarian helmets here - https://newfront.ca/data/documents/M...PRING-2012.pdf - the link leads to a pdf, which is downloadable.
https://newfront.ca/data/documents/M...PRING-2012.pdf

The Romanian M40 is virtually impossible to find, even in Romania I am told. I did end up with three but it was a struggle, and not cheap, as the Romanian sellers knew exactly what they had. Not terribly easy to distinguish from ssh40 unless you can see good photos.

The Polish M50 used to be easy - I've seen boxes full of dozens of them. Whether that still pertains I dunno. I regret not getting a couple more when I had the chance, but really there's not a lot of variation so far as I can tell so not too disappointed. I always seemed to see them when I was more targetted on things like the French mle51, so thought I'd get back to them later, one day, soon maybe. It's amazing how so many helmets that used to be 'common ' and 'not collectible' (there's an asinine idea if ever there ws one) are now really hard to find. What a surprise, who'd have thought it.

[James C]

Your welcome Rudders ,i have two early examples and one of the later variants

[Trwade]

Finding Hungarian M50s in good condition can be very difficult! Probably the biggest portion of my collection on display would be the Hungarian M50s & M70s plus their respective covers. There's quite a good mix of them that were made, unfortunately, it's hard to keep track of them all and there isn't much info outside of this forum, and very few websites. I have a Hungarian book on post-WW2 & Cold War gear until 1956. There isn't much info on the M50 but it's nice to see a book finally cover such a helmet. I've included photos of some Hungarian helmets in my collection, (M50 on the left w/ the Raba cover & the 3 on the right being the M70) plus a Hungarian Ministry of Defense M50 with light blue paint. A very underappreciated helmet in my opinion, always awesome to see it getting some love!





-Jack