DESCRIPTION
Here is one of those vintage paratrooper helmets that normally gets passed around the public auction sites as the real deal and creates a sort of hot potato effect whereby the last guy is always trying to unload it on to the next guy because he overpaid for it. In this case we know what is actually being sold here. A very, very high end museum quality European pressed M38 Fallschirmjager helmet rear marked 1235 with the correct stamps, ET71 font style and size, gauge of steel, shape and even the overall weight of roughly 1.55 kg (54.7 oz) for the shell are all basically spot on to known originals.
If you look at the side profile you will see that nice even angle where the side edge first starts to break upwards toward the front brow with a gentle enough slope that it almost appears to be flat bottomed. The reproduction Chinese junk and recently made better quality expensive UK reproductions fail to get this angle right as the edge break is far too abrupt and the shell height is not accurate. I believe this helmet may have been created by FJ Werkes about 20 years ago or that 1990's Czech company I cannot recall the name of that copied original shells using an authentic modified German helmet press. Both of these European based firms stopped making paratrooper helmets many years ago and most of what they have created has been passed off as the real deal for several decades now. And so they have become a commodity unto themselves much like an out of print book that is still in demand.
The camo paint was matched from known originals out of my own personal collection and so the exact color that was used by the Wehrmacht pre-45. The leather is goatskin just like the originals with historically accurate size and manufacturer ink stampings on the inside. The stitching is aged and in the correct end over end stitch method and not zigzag pattern like you see with cheap Asian imports. This is a wonderfully large size CKL71 and so large enough to fit most heads of today. The rear lot number 1235 matches up to known originals as a mid war single decal Luftwaffe helmet based on the lot data book by Brian Ice. So everything checks out for that uber detailed oriented German helmet collector.
The helmet was professionally restored and aged to create an iconic pre-Normandy invasion pattern utilizing geometric polygons and right angles. Along the Atlantic Wall German defensive units employed a wide variety of camouflage schemes trying their best to blend in with the angular concrete gun emplacements they now found themselves occupying. Genuine examples are widely seen in textbooks and in original photos but very few surviving examples existing today. One that was 100% original and untouched would run into tens of thousands.
$650
Please call, text or email me if interested.
Tel/Text: 1-438-502-5052
Email Us: helmetsofwar@gmail.com
HELMETS OF WAR INC.
PO Box 555
Champlain, NY 12919-0555
Shipping to Anywhere USA/Canada: $22 with full tracking numbers.
Shipping to Europe/UK: $65 with full tracking numbers.
Shipping to Australia/New Zealand: $75 with full tracking numbers.
(Please contact us with any special shipping instructions as I am here to serve and facilitate the shipment.)
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
