Help with WWII M1 helmet

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Bill,

That is an OUTSTANDING find! It's early WWII and valuable! (Plain 'fixed Bale' helmets alone bring a premium!) The liner is from the same early period as the helmet... (Later WWII liners used an adjustable nape strap)

There are many fakes around these days with 'Follow Me' stripes added on the back and sometimes rank insignia on the front. People fake them because originals are so valuable of course.

Yours appears to be quite original! I've viewed many original helmets and the real ones stand out from even the best fakes even using advanced artificial aging techniques. It's funny, but when viewing the best fakes, you kind of scratch your head with some wondering, but when you see an original's natural aging compared to other originals you've seen the originals leave no speculation.

Having the insignia off-center and the stripe a little crooked actually adds to the originality... Most ALL marked helmets were done at a local unit level. Many were done by the original user. (Officers often had a private or someone else do the work) -- There were never any Military standards of how the markings were to be applied... Just general ideas. Paratroop helmets with playing card markings on the sides were done freehand mostly, some used stencils but few were very perfect. They were often done by soldiers as a punishment like 'KP' so the 'artist' wasn't overly motivated!
Most fake helmets you see today have 'perfectly' shaped and centered markings, and that's a red flag to begin with.

Most people don't realize it, but many marked helmets were repainted after the battles or actions were over, and many more (most) were repainted after WWII. A lot of the Jr. officers who had bars painted on the front and knew they would be going into battle removed their rank markings before the battles so they didn't stand out from the others.