German Helmet - M43?

[Peter Laidler]

That was an interesting aside Flying 10, about bringing trophies home. I asked someone about that yesterday and it has always been a thorny subject because the property always belongs to the......., well, it's not YOURS to take! But in and from Bosnia onwards* there was a tacit line drawn and it was accepted that crunchies have always and will continue to do so forever, bring stuff home. The tacit agreement was that 'things' and 'items' apart from weapons* and personal items taken from anyone would be overlooked but always with a degree of sensitivity. That's a VERY wide opening but it seemed to work. First Aid kits were specifically banned as were NBC kits with injector pens for some reason. Some 'searchers' wouldn't allow bayonets, others were non plussed. It seemed to work on the '....if you abuse the unwritten, we can always tighten up....'
*following a weapon 'problem' of which I say no more

[browningautorifle]

Most of our guys brought home bayonets and pants belts from Bosnia-Herzegovina-former Yugoslavia...and a few helmets and flags.

[Flying10uk]

I have a few bits and bobs which a friend of the family, who served for the whole of the war in the British Army, gave to my father. Apart from his late thirties dated aluminium mess tins which were with him at Dunkirk and returned to France with him on D-Day he also brought back a few bits of German insignia, badges, etc. Some of the sow on badges appear brand new, never having been sown on a uniform and if I saw them for sale I would think that they were reproductions. The chap "acquired" them because his unit captured a German army supply depot. I can imagine it was a souvenir hunter's dream!

[Kozowy1967]

One has to remember that this particular style of helmet as mentioned by Jim was used postwar and by numerous European countries as well and there were post war variations also produced which included new liners and chin straps.
Here is the short list of Other countries that used Stahlhelm-type helmets this is in no way or form a complete list though as I can make case and point of other countries and organizations that they were used by.
Argentina
Austria
Brazil: Firefighters Corps of Paraná State
Bulgaria
Chile
Colombia
Croatia
Czechoslovakia
Denmark
Estonia
Egypt
Finland
Hungary
Ireland
Latvia
Lithuania
Mexico
Norway
Poland
Republic of China: M1935 Republic of China Army 1935–1950s?
Romania
Venezuela
Yugoslavia
If you could possibly post a couple of other close up images of the buckle and the chinstrap ends including the rivets for attaching to the liner bails I will see if we can narrow it down a little farther for you .

Regards Mark

[browningautorifle]

Zactly!

[Flying10uk]

Either during the war or immediately after my Grandfather who was a member of the Home Guard stated that it was possible to kill a German soldier simply by pushing the front part of the Stahlhelm-type helmet sharply backwards causing the rear rim of the helmet to break the wearer's neck. I have heard this kind of thing repeated a few times by others in more recent years. Looking at the chin strap on my M40 I would question that if this was attempted the strap would break causing the helmet just to come off the wearers head and the only result being one very angry German. Or perhaps the chip straps were made weaker/lighter as a precaution against this on later helmets? Does any-one have any knowledge of this ever been successfully done or even attempted or perhaps this is just an urban myth???

[Peter Laidler]

I would say urban myth on the grounds that if, say, he's standing up on guard duty somewhere, the first thing you've got to do is to get in front of him without him seeing you. That's problem 1. Then there's the laws of physics. If you got in front of him without him seeing you and you pushed his helmet back, you'd need the explosive powers of Geoff Capes* to cause the rear rim to snap anything beyond a pencil or a school crayon.

I'm minded to suggest that if you got to within 25yards of him without being seen, then a much safer bet would be to shoot him
*Geoff Capes; Britains strongest man

[Flying10uk]

I'm inclined to agree with you Peter unless, of course, some-one knows differently.

[Charlie303]

Mark asked for some pics of the buckles and chinstrap ends. Sorry for the delay, been away (hiding from the world as I turned... 60! )

Anyway here are some more pics, any further help much appreciated!

Attachment 66643Attachment 66642Attachment 66641Attachment 66640Attachment 66645

Regards,
Charlie

[browningautorifle]

Happy Birthday Charlie, I'm right behind you...