WW2 German Helmet Production

[Flying10uk]

I noticed part of this clip on the "World at War series" and found it on Youtube. What is interesting is how labour intensive the manufacture of the shell is.




Also interesting is the hardening of the shell which is included in this 2nd clip. Not shown is any tempering of the shell, after hardening, which is a normal process after hardening steel to make the steel less brittle. Notice the quenching of the helmet shells into an oil quench, as one would expect, indicated by the "flaming on the surface of the liquid, rather than a water quench. One does see a number of relic WW2 German helmets for sale on eBay that have sustained battle damage in which the shell appears to have "shattered" and failed. This could be the result of the shells being hardened during manufacture but not tempered, i.e. over-hard.

I have seen it stated that the type of steel used for the M42 helmet shell changed but I do not know if this was the time that heat treatment was introduced or changed for the shells.

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