Swedish M21 helmet with green decals?

[Bartimaerus]

Hello guys,

Ive stumbled upon this swedish made M21 helmet and while Im still learning about the subject to my understanding the M21 helmet was fitted with blue three crown decals on each side during WWII as identification. The helmet Ive got however is fitted with green decals on each side.
You can see traces of the blue decal underneath tho. I have never seen these green decals, is there any one out there who has seen these before? Also the helmets paint is chipped in a lot of places and you can see a brighter color underneath. Is this some sort of primer or were the M21 helmets at one point repainted during their service life?

Also, if this was some original color underneath, would you try removing the newer paint to get an older version of the helmet or just leave it be?

Thanks a lot,

Bartimaerus

[Greg Pickersgill]

This is interesting! I am a fan of all Swedish helmets but I have never taken much notice of the decals (or the helmet covers...) so this is a New Thing for me. I have never noticed any colour variation in either books and articles covering these helmets or in my own collection, and would probably have put it down to manufacturing variations or colour-change through time and weathering.

But your seems quite distinctly *green* so I started a but of fact-checking. The most useful so far has been the World War Helmets site (World War Helmets - Casque Modele 21 ) where they show the attached with the note which might (maybe) explain things -



You can see (well, I can anyway, it might be just me) that one of the versions - third from left - has a distinctly green tinge.

As to whether it is worth removing the paint for any reason, I'd say more trouble than it is worth. The M21 is a lovely thing in any state. And getting harder to find in *any* state.

NB I've had to screenshot from the WWH site as they have done things to their code that makes it very difficult to copy any text, This is extremely irritating especially if you are not a Francophone. WWH is a wondeful thing in many respects but they have made changes in the code of the website over the years that makes it increasingly difficult to use in any practical way. My next task for the day is going to be researching a way of forcing 'copy' on a website that actually works.

[Estonian]

I have noticed in Swedish auctions that sellers claim it to be a wartime decal.

[Greg Pickersgill]

The decal - or the earier stencilled version - was introduced in either 1940 (stencil paint) or 1942 (1942). What is more difficult to ascertain is when it was phased out completely. One source (Casques do Combat Tome 3) says that the M37/70 did NOT have the decals. So apparently stopped by 1970, at least, if not earlier - though I have some doubt about this as I have more than one M37 shell with the later liner which has the decal (possibly not completely refurbished when relined). there's a bit of a gap in knowledge here. (Jesper, are you reading this?)

Without a reliable source this end-time is hard to pin down as these helmets were in service for a long time both with the military and the civil defence services.

[Bartimaerus]

Thank you all for your insight and have a great sunday!

[Estonian]

Some M21 decal samples:

[Jack59]

. Also, if this was some original color underneath, would you try removing the newer paint to get an older version of the helmet or just leave it be?

Hi Bartimaerus, IMO the varnish of that old decal could have turned yellow overtime, yellow & blue gives some kind of green. The only time I yould maybe try to strip a coat of paint on a helmet is if somebody did a terrible mess with the helmet. This process requires a lot of patience. Your's is nice as it is, remember this helmet as been in service for more than 100 years. It was probably painted & touched up many times during its career.
Regards
Jack

[JesperS]

Yes, I'm reading

I am mostly leaning on Anders Skötte here as he is my go-to guy on Swedish helmets.

The decals on Swedish helmets were decided in General Order no. 1979 on May 20th 1942. They were to be put on all helmets on October 1st 1942.
Earlier painted decals exists but they are very rare and none of them (to my knowledge) looks like the decals from 1942.

The decals are all blue with 3 yellow crowns, but on some of the newer decals, the blue color has faded/oxidised/whatever to greenish hue. The Swedish helmets were re-issued over and over and most of them have received several layers of paint. I have attached a picture of the decal on one of my M21 - high helmets, where at least one of the older decals are seen underneath and the newest decal has faded into almost green.



/Jesper

[Bartimaerus]

Thanks Jesper, so im not alone with my horribly disfigured M21