Here is a beautiful example of a mid-war wood chip camo painted paratrooper helmet. This is the very first multi-colored M38 fallschirmjager helmet I have ever offered on the site and so yes these things are pretty rare. The helmet came directly out of a family in Germany (Juterbog, 14913) responding to an ad last year from my brother who lives and works in the eastern part of Berlin. He is a software engineer and an amateur antique's picker and runs ads in local papers as a WW2 buyer and is an avid out door flea market enthusiast. Last time I went to Berlin in 2015 I found tons of stuff from liquidated estates all of which end up in these local outdoor flea markets. Mainly you find moth eaten tunics, Third Reich documents/photos, some cloth insignia and lots of rusted out field equipment/bayonets and yes sometimes even a helmet.
So now that's the story and we all know that a story is completely worthless in this hobby even if it's a true one. So let's go ahead and do a detailed inspection of the helmet instead.
The overall helmet shows moderate surface rust but no cracks, dents or pitting at all and so is still a rock solid example and completely stabilized as it now sits. The shell is stamped ET71 with a rear lot number of 56 which precisely matches up to Brian Ice's lot data book with other known examples and dates to late November of 1940. Interestingly enough as we can see from this helmet the rear lot stamp was sometimes punched before the rounded steel planchet was formed to the helmet mould and so is tucked underneath the rear edge. The shape of the helmet is also something very difficult to fake as the upward slope of the front rim is never quite subtle enough and rises too sharply on those fake shells even the high end ones from Warhats-UK and FJ Werkes -Europe. This helmet is perfect in it's shape and overall weight which is about 1.05kg without the liner and chinstrap.
The outside paint is beautifully textured in crude wood chips and possibly even soil. From what I can make out it is a 2 tone camo paint job most likely applied thickly via brush first in a lighter sage green followed by a darker forest green color. One of the coolest features of this helmet is that you can clearly see the original Luftwaffe eagle menacingly poking itself out from beneath the over paint.
A total one looker in my opinion but as with any and every German camo helmet it seems there is bound to be a range of opinions. So why am I not asking $25,000+ for it like other dealers might? Well sadly the helmet never came with it's original liner in tact only a few fragments of the outer rim were still present but at least the 4 slotted air vents were still in place and still had traces of original camo paint on them. The liner system was outsourced and hand made by an excellent contact I have in Italy who specializes in para liners and also high quality German boots. He is simply the best in the world and a lot of his para liners once aged have been passed off as the real thing I have been told by many fellow collectors. This one I aged myself as I wanted something dark and well sweated in like other original para liners I have seen and had in hand. Most DAK para helmets or Normandy camo helmets seem to always have very dark liners most likely because these same helmets were so continuous used and so constantly sweated in. The chinstrap is the goat skin version and mid-war friction style and was sourced separately and added to the helmet to complete it. The chinstrap was purchased at a local military show many years back from a reputable dealer and so I'm confident there are no issues with it.
Pretty much a one of a kind shelf Queen!!!
$13,000 (As Is)
Please call, text or email me if interested.
Tel/Text: 1-438-502-5052
Email Us: helmetsofwar@gmail.com
GERMAN HELMET FACTORY PRODUCTION CODES
(Every original German helmet produced from 1935 to 45 had two factory stampings punched into the side and rear or both in the rear. The alpha numeric number refers to the factory location and the inside metric circumference in centimeters. The rear lot number refers to the production run and was used as a quality control measure. The font styles used at each factory were slightly different but highly consistent throughout the war and so fakes or reproductions will either not have these numbers at all or they will use the wrong font style or letter spacing and so are easily identified as post war made
(FS or EF)-Emaillierwerke AG, Fulda, Germany
(ET or ckl)-Eisenhuttenwerke, Thale, Germany
(Q)-Quist, Esslingen, Germany
(NS)-Vereinigte Deutsche Nikelwerke, Schwerte, Germany
(SE or hkp)-Sachsische Emaillier u. Stanzwerke, Lauter, Germany
