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Swiss m18-40 with red cross/medic markings

Article about: What we have here appears to be an M18/40 in its pre-1943 form. That would be good in itself, but there are issues which I'll get to in a moment. More obviously, we have this white band with

  1. #1

    Default Swiss m18-40 with red cross/medic markings

    What we have here appears to be an M18/40 in its pre-1943 form. That would be good in itself, but there are issues which I'll get to in a moment.

    More obviously, we have this white band with red crosses. Apparently a first-aid/medic insignia, but I have not seen this or anything like it before. So first question - is this an Army or Police helmet? And is it authentic?

    Next question - in the nape of the helmet I can make out, under a layer of green paint, numbers in the same size and form as found on many Swiss M18 series helmets. I can't make out the whole string but it seems to be a five digit number (488x9). Even under the brightest light and highest magification I cannot find any letter above the number line. The numbers appear to be white rather than the red used in military or police helmets. Obviously the helmet was painted (repainted?) after the numbers were applied. I see some evidence (perhaps and maybe...I'm not sure) that under the green is black; could this be a repainted Fire service helmet, which would have had a number applied in white.

    The paint of both the basic green and the Red Cross markings is obviously of some age, as is the liner and strap (broken by wear at the carbine clip end). Inside the liner pads I found some folded newspaper which is part of an issue of the Berner Tagblatt published in 1970.

    So what is going on here? I feel things may not be as they first appear.

    Swiss m18-40 with red cross/medic markings

    Swiss m18-40 with red cross/medic markings

    Swiss m18-40 with red cross/medic markings

    Swiss m18-40 with red cross/medic markings

  2. #2
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    Greg, that's a nice helmet, as you probably know more about these helmets than rest of us combined. Civil repaint would be the most likely scenario but the green colour is definitely odd a sit looks like it was repainted with the liner fitted.

    Steve.

  3. #3

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    Quote by Tinhat View Post
    Greg, that's a nice helmet, as you probably know more about these helmets than rest of us combined. Civil repaint would be the most likely scenario but the green colour is definitely odd a sit looks like it was repainted with the liner fitted. Steve.
    Unfortunately it does seem that on this forum at least I am one of a very few with an interest in Swiss helmets, and I probably do know more than most. And I think I know next to nothing. The real Swiss collectors are for the most part, unsurprisingly, in Switzerland and I haven't yet found any channels to communicate with them successfully. (There is Gordon Craig in the US, but in this case he can't help.)

    The green repaint - for that is what it must be to cover the paint-stencilled serial number - is complete; the liner was definately removed and reinserted afterwards. Any change in shade inside the bowl is down to my rushed lighting and photographing. The green is as near identical to other pre-shadow-black Swiss helmets I have as to make no difference.

    I've had my USB microscope out and examined in painstaking detail the area above the numbers. No sign whatever of a letter, which might have helped identification. That being said I am becoming more and more convinced that this is an M18-40 that was originally issued to the Fire services (black paint finish, white number stencil) and was at some point in the past repainted into what we see today (quite a while back going by the seemingly genuine wear, scratches, and fading of the white band - and who on earth is going to fake a Swiss helmet...)

    I did get a response from Claude Sorgius of WWH which was shorter on detail than I'd have liked, but the upshot was that he believed it was not either an Army or Civil Defence marking, and that at best it was something done by an individual, likely in some medical service, Certainly not 'official' anyway. But why would they have chosen the original Swiss green? All thinking in that direction leads to it being more fanciful than real.

    Which is slightly depressing because it cost me a lot of money, about one third of my monthly income (I have a fairly small pension). I was offered it by a collector (who kept saying it was an 'interesting' helmet but strangely didn't want to keep it...) and started off my email response intending to refuse, but by the end (Swiss, unusual, genuinely interesting) I had talked myself into being ready to Paypal the money. Actually the biggest lesson for this is to do what I have always done in the past and *never* pay 'collector prices' which are invariably absurdly higher than anything would fetch in the open market. On Ebay I mean, not in some ill-informed and money-hungry militaria shop.

  4. #4

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    Hello,

    I don't think you're one of the few interested. I think rather many simply have no idea about the matter to be able to contribute something. Like me. Nevertheless, read the articles with great interest.

  5. #5
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    Hi Greg,
    My mistake on the liner I thought I saw paint on the band, but after a second look it’s a shadow.

    I can’t comment on what you paid for it but I don’t think all is lost, for the simple reason you stated, “who is going to fake a Swiss helmet” at some point it had relevance and a use and from what I see the variation in Swiss seems never ending.

    On the WWH website there is a M40/43 in the same colour attributed to the Geneva Police with a 63 liner

    World War Helmets - Casque Modele 18/63

    Steve

  6. #6

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    Quote by Tinhat View Post
    I can’t comment on what you paid for it but I don’t think all is lost, for the simple reason you stated, “who is going to fake a Swiss helmet” at some point it had relevance and a use and from what I see the variation in Swiss seems never ending.

    On the WWH website there is a M40/43 in the same colour attributed to the Geneva Police with a 63 liner
    Here's the thing that got me quite interested in the first place. Virtually *all* the helmets we see with the 1940 open-back liner today are either in post-'43 shadow black paint or are in smooth black Fire service finish. When they were first introduced they actually were *green* like all the other M18 before 1943 and the change of colour which was applied retrospectively. So that was a bit of a thing in itself. Mind you, as you say, some city police forces also used smooth green finish helmets, so as usual nothing is certain. You'd have to see the right letter/number stencilled in the rear skirt to be absolutely sure.

    There really *is* a lot of variation in Swiss helmets, especially in the M48/62 series modelled on the British para/tank/DR helmets. And some of those are quite fantastically rare, even in Switzerland. I don't expect to see most of them in anything other than online pictures. Nothing dull about Swiss helmets, why, even the M62 as bought by the Croats must be acceptable to the most 'warry' collectors, surely. I also find them enormously aesthetically pleasing.

  7. #7
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    Another more wild theory I was considering was an M40 CD helmet, repainted green before 1943 - expansion of the militaria in response to the war... bit I think the 5 digit number post dates that period. It's always good to eliminate theories though.

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