Netherlands m34 - unusual civil modifications

[Greg Pickersgill]

OK, I'm not great on Dutch helmets, even though I've got two books and some websites bookmarked. I *think* this is an M34 that has had some sort of civil organisation use.

It is quite unusual - to me - in that it has a four-lobe liner, made from grey leather, as is the neckpiece.

The chinstrap is brown leather with a claw buckle, very different from normal Dutch straps. There is a grey felt liner (which I forgot to photograph...) beneath the four leather lobes which is sewn to the liner band.

There are no markings of any kind on shell, liner, underliner or chinstrap. As far as I can tell the original paint is the grey, visible in patches, and the green is an overpaint. There is no undercoat beneath the grey paint. All the paint seems to have been there for some time, no recent changes.

In a sense this is pretty straightforward, Dutch civil with odd liner, but I'm hoping for a little more detail. (Like why repainted green again?)

[Greg Pickersgill]

I'm almost going to answer my own question now; comparing some features of this - the chinstrap (but not the buckle), the form and cut of the liner and neckpiece (but again not the buckle), the chinstrap loops - with a Romanian M73 show a lot of similarity. I'm pretty sure the way the very basic felt underliner is sewn to the headband is the same as well, but I am going by not very detailed photos (I do have two M73 but not able to, um, find them at the moment (anyone who knows the way my collection is organised will understand...).

So possibly Romanian use. Completely relined at some point. But what about the paint? I dunno boss.

[Greg Pickersgill]

Well, there we are then. I made the effort and found my Romanian M73s. And amazingly to no-one the similarities are obvious - the cut of the liner lobes, the grommets for the adjustment string, the felt underliner, the chinstrap loops and more - all pretty much the same, even if not identical.

The underliner, for example, is obviously an economy version, and the chinstrap is the same, as are the buckles. So, obviously Romanian in use. But questions remain. What is the grey paint scheme? Why repainted green later? Is this a long-lived relic of the original Dutch purchase or later supply by Germany as beute-helm? I mean, really, what why when and where. And so on.

[emileverbunt]

Hello Greg,

Indeed Romanian. A M38 I would call it. The grey colour baffles me. Possibly civilian use after WW2 and pressed into service again, when Ceausescu got the M38's out of storage in the early seventies before the M73 became available. The war time helmets were used extensively when the Soviet M40's were pensioned off.

Cheers,
Emile

[Eagle mtn]

Excellent detective work Greg haha. It seems like you just needed a sounding board to figure it out

[Greg Pickersgill]

OK Emile, good to hear from you! I am sure you're right that the shell is undoubtedly an M38, and I am very interested to know that these shells came back into regular use sometime before the M73 was introduced widely. The question now is, why? The Romanian M40 was a perfectly serviceable and arguably better helmet than the M38. I have some of them and I think they are the only case where the USSR supplied shells and the host country liners and straps. Of course the Ceausescu regime did make a big play of not being part of the Sovoet sphere (instead instituting their own brand of wonderful) so image was probably a lot of it. Anyway, my thinking was that the Romanians went direct from the M40 to the M73. So, new information, that's good. (And now that I have looked for it, I see the usually reliable WWH specifically makes your point re the phasing out of the M40 and the M38 as an intermediate before the M73.)

[emileverbunt]

Hi Greg,

I have seen photographs of these reconditioned helmets in use. Also many of these helmets are offered for sale on ebay. Same reconditioned liner or variants thereof.

Cheers,
Emile