Nice collection James!
Are there still a couple of M.1 clones that you're looking for?
Excellent. A collection of Euroclones is a wonderful thing. These are much overlooked helmets, and contrary to popular opinion they are neither all the same nor exact copies of the US M1 - as of course you know! Mind you, personally I would *not* count the one-piece Bundeswehr helmets as Euroclones at all; in my book it has to be a two-piece helmet to qualify.
hi magicdutchman the list is quite vast i would imagine ,i really like the austrian stahlhelm 1 and 2 also a nice danish m48 or a norwegian m58 top of my list would be a west german m1956 helm 1 and greg i see what you mean all the clones ive posted are of one piece so the only one that truly qualifies then would be my belgium airforce T 21 i suppose i should of said m1 profile copies i could then include some of the composite iraqi m80's and 90's i wonder if the israeli m1 would qualify as a clone mmm food for thought thanks for your interest ,james
Great grouping as always James.... I see what Greg means in a "TRUE" M-1 clone being a 2 peice helmet however, I think, in general most people bundle the 1 and 2 pieces together making use of the term "clone" to the general shap of the lid, not so much the entire helmet/liner configuration.
James, like so many of our helmet collecting similarities, I too am trying to amass an example of at least "most" of the clones, not limiting myself to just the Euro lids, and like yourself the eye is on the prize of the West German Zweiteilige Stahlhelm. The other project I have going is putting together a bit of a reference guide of sorts, for all the M-1 clones. Didn't know what I was getting in to when I started gathering notes, it's turned in to quite the undertaking and every turn opens up a new list of unanswered questions. But hopefully, in the end, I'll have put together something useful to help us all to be better able to ID these clones the come from a significant number of countries. Russ
Oi oi, I'm really sticking on this one! I genuinely believe that if we're talking Euroclones here we have to stick to the basic premise of the two-piece helmet as originated by the US M1. Otherwise *anything* that has a remotely similar shape and came into service after 1941 (or whenever it was..I am perversely *not* a US helmet collector!) is a Euroclone. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to drag in damned near anything once you cross that line.
Not that this is particularly restrictive when building up a collection; we have AUSTRIA, BELGIUM, DENMARK, FRANCE, GERMANY, NORWAY, NETHERLANDS and SPAIN to deal (have I missed anyone, maybe...). And it is far from being just one example for each country either - a reasonable set of Austrians would require ..ummm...certainly four or five helmets. OK, there's just one - the actually quite hard to get M56 - for Germany (unless you fanatically collect each manufacturer), but if you dig into the French Mle51 you'll need a whole room just for them alone.
And once you've got all those - and good luck, some of them are genuinely rare - you can move on to the already mentioned Israelis, and then to the much harder to find South Americans.... Personally I'm staying with the true Euro-Euroclones, and hoping to get a genuine Danish-made M48 before I die. Chances are not high.
oh dear i never thought i would start ww3 on the basis of a discussion on the european m1 clone but seriously though i understand it would be a huge undertaking to collect everyone with greg just mentioning mle51 it brings home the enormity of the project it is far beyond what my wallet can stretch and space is at a premium for my displays as it is, hence why im grouping en masse ,im going back down into my bunker now till this boils over cheers james
No need to go putting on that Battle Helmet yet James....LOL
Certaily I do agreed that a TRUE US M-1 clone is exactly as Greg states.....a copy of the 2 piece US M-1 helmet, the rest are mearly similarities in shape which certaily does cover a whole mess of post war NATO stylings and such. As I grow as a hobbiest, amongst the vast sea of collectors, with the help of so many here, I am quicly learning of all the watered down white washing of terms that have been adopted, such as Ne44 the BW M56 and so many others including the word "clone" as it is refers to the good old US M-1 helmet. I think at this point it would be impossible to make the correction and get long time hobbiests and collectors to stop with the incorrect referance and to stick to its truest form of the meaning. My personal opinion is that the term should be used in it's truest form so as not to create more clouds of ambiguity amongst collectors and more so, nubes like myself that spend significant amounts of time sourting through the long extablish acronyms and mis-adoptions of identifications and terminology's to hopefully arrive at the "truth" in the end.
That all being said, the fact of the matter is that the majority will still make referance to helmets such as the Belgian M71 as a clone just as they will an Iraqi M80 and about 3 dozen other 1 piece helmets that bare an outward resemblance to the US M-1 and so, at least for my own useful referance, I will likely continue to bundle these helmets all under the same genaric term of "M-1 clone" still knowing, from a true collectors perspective that they are not.
Russ
Last edited by MySonsDad; 06-30-2012 at 03:37 PM.
im popping my head up to see if ive got the all clear lol russ i agree with greg also from a purists point of view and also i agree with you ,very diplomatic i know but to me any m1 style shell is a clone in my book from a distance anyway the profile all look to be m1 how the liner is made is a different matter whether separate or directly rivited in and to fully appreciate the helmets i guess i should be removing all the coverings ( camo and netting ) but i do love all the different design patterns thanks for your input i always enjoy a good banter cheers james
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