DESCRIPTION
This amazing German paratrooper helmet came out of a long time collector whose family tried selling it to me thinking it was the real deal. The ET71 stamping and rear lot number looks amazing and 100% authentic however the raw weight of the shell was somewhat off to the known originals I have here in my personal collection. So I am quite confident that this is a reproduction helmet but whoever made it back in the 1970's-90's sure got it right as the shape and upward curve of the forward brim are both spot on. This helmet would fool a lot of intermediate collectors in my opinion. I mean it's simply that good. When I first received it there was some amateur applied post war paint on it and so I stripped it down fully and then using a very inspiring $20k original paratrooper helmet on a competitor's website I repainted and aged it to look as close as I could to that particular example. The photos at the end of the gallery are of an original example which I took a lot of inspiration from the so called FJ6 regimental pattern. It was remarked by returning vets of the June 6th invasion that the 6th Fallschirmjager Regiment stationed in Normandy all had similar chunky green and tan camouflage paint patterns suggesting that it was a wider overall order or dictate to bulk paint all of their helmets in this same fashion. Notice the chunky wood chips and foreign debris mixed right into the paint just like the Germans would done out in the field awaiting an inevitable Allied invasion of France. Hope you like my work.
$650
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
