DESCRIPTION
Here is a rarely encountered early 1930's commercially produced SS-Himmler style low duck bill helmet with satin black with original liner still in tact. Notice the protruding front bill and the overall low profile of the shell along with the lack of a chinstrap rivet which is only seen on early 1930's SS parade helmets. These helmets were privately contracted in 1932/33 and were made exclusively Himmler's newly formed Allgemeine-SS. Back then the SS were not a priority within the Wehrmacht supply chain and so they were not able to get access to M18 helmets since in those early years they were not considered to be a combat organization.
The original liner and partial chinstrap are still present and the liner is set in place by way of 5 split pins very distinctive to the Himmler Duckbill. Also notice that the 2 exterior chinstrap pins are nearly on a horizontal plane with the 2 liner pins something we don't see on any other German produced shells. Many of these are marked with "drp ang" (Deutsch Reich Patent Pending) but like this particular example many are not marked whatsoever. Made primarily of aluminum and otherwise high grade steel; meant for parades, ceremonies and guard duty and not front line combat.
The decals are both museum quality reproductions I got from France and the SS is actually white metallic just like the originals. I went ahead and aged both decals to give the helmet it's overall been there done that look. This particular helmet came from a picker out of Germany who I buy a lot of helmets from. I have yet to encounter any Himmler style duckbill or Droopbill helmets originating in the USA or Canada. They all seem to have been retired well before the onset of WW2 and have found their way into attics, basements and eventually open air flea markets all across Germany. I'm sure that some US vets did bring them back with them but it would be hard to imagine finding one of these things in a captured helmet pile since they were never meant for front line use.
$400 HOLD - M. Lukens
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HELMETS OF WAR INC.
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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
