M16 W66 GERMAN MAIL HOME HELMET VET PROVENANCE

VET PROVENANCE BACKGROUND
"On Sat, 27 Nov 2021 at 12:13, Female Seller wrote:
Hello  Jesse,
It is an interesting story about the helmet. My grandfather was Walter KENDLE (ace different spelling of Kendall that goes back a couple hundred years ) He and his two brothers enlisted in World War I, he was 18,  they were 17 and 16 and falsified their records so they could go. Thankfully all of them returned. Grandpa sent this helmet to a friend of his in the US. 

He was in the bugle corps which also was the medic/corpse carrying department. He saw horrible things which of course changed his life. He wanted to go into medicine but didn’t think he could handle all of the blood, so he  chose dentistry, which led to him going into World War II as a captain, then major, in charge of the Western division dental command, stationed in Skagway, Alaska. 

Back to his World War I experience, I ran across his French to English translation book when I was about 15. He told me the story of getting pneumonia due to the mustard gas. The Regiment left him behind thinking he was going to die. A French family found him, put him up in their barn, gave him French onion soup and saved his life. He claimed the French onion soup was the antidote. I treasure that story and the little book that I still have. I mailing the helmet today by UPS. I will appreciate you letting me know when you get it. And tell your wife Debby hello for me, lol.

All good wishes, 

2nd Email
Debra: Hi Jesse!
My grandfather was always from Nebraska, but was born around Syracuse, Nebraska. Dr Fraser was a family friend and later a partner in dentistry.  He was kind of a mentor to get my grandfather into dentistry when he came back from WWI.  I didn't know him as he died when I was young.  "

DESCRIPTION
This your typical front line every day fighting man's German helmet from WW1. It is an M16 model with a leather liner in brown so it was originally tanned with vegetable dye as opposed to the white chromium tan which was used later in the war and create a white finish on the leather. A nice large size 66 and stamped W66 for Hermann Weissenburger & Co., Stuttgart-Canstatt. The original dark green smooth factory paint is still most present on both the inside outside of the shell as are the two original chinstrap bales. As we can see the helmet was sent back home in 1918 via the US postal service and sent back a friend in Lincoln, NE. Based on other surviving examples the two stamps on the front would have been two 6 cent Washington stamps which have simply fallen off over time but could be replaced for a few dollars. The tape on the front and back is a US 1918 military postal tape made of a sticky fabric material and is also seen on similar surviving examples. Tempting to just peel it off but then we would be ruining some 1918 US history trying to get back to 1916 German history. As with anything WW1 original it's always best to leave these things as we find them for future generations to enjoy and research.

This is a rare survivor helmet that still retains it's original mail home cloth tape on the front and back where typically one would have also found two red George Washington 12 cent stamps that have fallen off over time. Both tough to find one in this large size 66 but also with it's original factory pea green paint and 3 finger liner system still in tact with it's mail home label still affixed. Fortunately in this we do have some direct vet provenance as provided above from my correspondence with the family I purchased it from.

$1250 SOLD - JOHN. C

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 1916 to 1918 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.)

Maker name/City  Maker code Sizes produced
Gebrueder Bing A.G., Nuernberg G.B.N 64
F.C. Bellinger, Fulda B.F. 62,64
J. & H. Kerkmann, Ahlen/Westf K. 64
Gebrueder Gnuechtel A.G., Lauter i./Sa. G. 62
Vereinigte Deutsche Nickelwerke, Schwerte i/Westf. – N.J. N.J 62
 R. Lindenberg A.G., Remscheid-Hasten “Bell” L. a.k.a. rattle logo 64
Koerting & Mathiesen, Leutsch /Leipzig K&M 66,68
Hermann Weissenburger & Co., Stuttgart-Canstatt W. 66
C. Thiel & Soehne, Luebeck T.J. 66,68
 Eisenhuettenwerke Thale A.G., Thale /Harz E.T. 60-68
Siemens & Halske A.G., Siemenstadt Berlin superimposed S over H stamp 60
 Eisenhuette Silesia, Paruschowitz Oberschlesien Si 62,66
 F.W. Quist, Esslingen/Neckar Q 66


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