My family heirloom: a ww2 German helmet

This piece is very special to me as a family member sent this helmet home before he was killed. My great uncle served with the 83rd infantry division following his landing on Omaha beach during d day. During his short service through France he sent home many items including three helmets, three rifles, a p38 pistol, a nazi party flag, and several bayonets and knives. He unfortunately was killed in action during the battle of Brest, where he was killed by a mortar round. My grandfather, his younger brother, never got to know him since my grandpa was 7 when my great uncle was killed but he kept the crate my great uncle sent home with all of his bring backs inside. After my grandpa passed away last October my brother and I decided to open the crate when we discovered it in my grandparent's guest room. I took this helmet, a k98, the p38, and two bayonets. Hope you all like this heirloom as well as its history.

Always nice to see things that have a solid provenance with the originator. I see a couple of pieces, where's the rest?

The k98 and one of the bayonets are in my safe and they probably will never be shot since I have a shooter k98 already (I'll try and get them out and post them as well). The p38 is missing a magazine and holster so I want to find all of those before I put it up for display. The second bayonet ended up in the picture by accident. It is a model 98/05 butcher blade that has a blued blade on it (not sure how my great uncle came into that one but it was interesting enough to bring home from Colorado where his items were). My brother took another k98, a helmet, a bayonet, and the flag since it was nailed to the bottom of the crate and he wanted to have something to start a german display. My sister took the last remaining helmet, the last k98, and a bayonet (she's getting into collecting and really wanted something family related since only me and my brother have kept the family war heirlooms).

That is great that the items are staying in the family.
That is a nice looking M40 helmet. Is the liner intact and do you know who made it?
Semper Fi
Phil

The liner's intact but due to bad storage of the crate it is very brittle. From what I could see with a flashlight and not disturbing the liner I saw Berlin and what I think was 1941 for a year of manufacture. It is also a size 57 from what little I could read of the tab. The chinstrap is intact as well. The original was cut in three places (I guess my great uncle had trouble getting the helmet off of whoever was wearing it) and my brother went to a gun show and found a chin strap to replace it. The seller had no idea if the strap was real or a repro so my brother bought it for $15 under the assumption it was a repro. I had it looked over by people who have dealt with german helmets before and they've all said the chin strap appears real.

Here's a picture of the inside of my helmet. As you can see the liner has seen better days but granted it spent 70 years in an unopened crate it looks pretty darn good.

There should be some letters before the "57". That will tell you who made it.
Semper Fi
Phil

If those letters are there they are pretty worn off. I could barely make out the 57 mark and I doubt I even got that correct. I could see that the size is in the 50s but other than that everything else has worn away with age and deteriorating leather condition. Sorry about that:). I did get another look at the liner band and it definitely has Berlin over 1941. there is something over the Berlin mark that looks like a couple of letters. I would try and delve further but I'm afraid of hurting the leather.

If you post a WTB on the appropriate forum here, you'll likely come up with a P38 mag and holster. The big bayonet could have been issued to a second line regt, they sometimes got older gear. The SS also got strange issues...like no two units had the same weapons it seemed.

I just might go to the WTB forum and get a post going. I do however know a dealer that sells original p38 holsters so I'll see him next month at our little militaria show we have twice a year. As to magazines I'll be on the hunt at that show too. If both leads don't pan out I'll post in the WTB forum and see what happens. How my great uncle came into the big bayonet makes sense to me since he did fight a couple of SS units during his service (he was fighting an SS panzer corps unit when he died). Maybe it came from there or from an earlier encounter. No one in the family knows where exactly he picked his items up. Supposedly there was letter he wrote with the crate explaining the items inside and where he picked each one up but sadly that letter has been lost over time along with his dress uniform and the uniform he was wearing when he was killed. The p38 must've been on him when he was killed since it was wrapped in his blood soaked uniform when it came back (at least that is the story my great grandmother always told my grandfather). My grandmother found the p38 in an old box along with my great uncle's purple heart and a photo of him in uniform before he left for training in Britain.

Great that you have more than one family member interested in preserving history. I would encourage you do document as much of the history of the items as you can (Great Uncles name unit etc) and keep it with each item. It may not contribute much to the value but perhaps down the road it will be priceless to the next generation of your family. I have a WWI scrapbook that was my Grandfathers without a single caption on a single photo. The names etc.. lost forever.

Everything I have I've kept together as one grouping and I've started to document not just my great uncle's bring backs but the other pieces of my collection that I've personally purchased from vets and their families. I printed out many pages of info in regards to my great uncle and I even have a picture of his tombstone in the Brittany war cemetery as well as the row and plot number so I could go visit it someday. I did learn he was born in 1921 in south bend Indiana and he joined in 1942. His first action was the landings in Normandy on d day and he landed in the second wave on Ohama beach. He died in August of that year when he was 23 years old. He survived the beach, the hedgerows, and several battles before he was killed in Brest.

Hooked I also know about ww1 artifacts from the family. At my cousin's home in Pennsylvania she has kept my great grandfather's room just as he would've had it when he was alive. He served in ww1 with the Canadian Expeditionary Forces as a howitzer operator. Among his items are his uniform still hanging in his closet, his medals and unit insignias in a display case next to his bed, and his private journal that he kept while in the service. He never mentioned anyone or any place by name but he did describe the horrors of war as he saw it. There was some pretty gruesome stuff in it when I read it. My mom has it now and she never takes it out of our bookshelf where it is being kept.

Very exciting burb! Please keep sharing what you discover...

Jim (BAR) browningautorifle how can you hold SO much info in your mind! :super:

The SAME for you HOH! You know more than I do about a lot of gear, and I specialized it it! I'm happy you continue to help me with this forum.

Humbled by two of our best members,

~ Harlan

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Harlan

how can you hold SO much info

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Depends on what info it is...wish I could hold a Master's or Doctorate in there.

I'm lucky to have a Hitler Youth knife picked up by my Great Uncle near the Faliase Gap where he fought with the Canadian Army.

---------- Post added at 07:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:38 PM ----------

Oops, should read "Falaise Gap".

That's very cool Brian that you have your great uncle's hitler youth knife. My great uncle sent one home too but my brother wanted it so I let him have it. I know you cherish your heirloom a lot (I know I cherish mine a lot as well). The only other knife I have from a war besides my dad's kabar is an m3 fighting knife that one of my great uncles had on him when he was captured during the battle of the bulge (he was a paratrooper and got stuck in a tree. A german soldier saw him and shot him in the head but didn't kill him). I have no idea how he smuggled that knife into a pow camp but he was always very crafty. He survived his wounds and a nazi surgeon put a steel plate in his head to patch the wound (he loved sharing that story).