WW2 US VETERAN PROVENANCE
"My father, Albert Charles Purcell, Jr., was born 20 December 1920 in Saginaw, Michigan to Albert Sr. and Ethel Purcell. In his early life he was surrounded by his three brothers and one sister in a small house on Stone Street half a block from the corner grocery store owned & run by his father. Al quit school in the eleventh grade to drive a truck for the wholesale supplier who supplied his fathers small store. Everyone had to pitch in during the depression years in order to keep the family housed, fed and together. Then the war hit Europe.
Dad was drafted just like so many of his childhood friends and off they went. Inducted in Detroit, he was sent off for basic training and then to Chicago to study radio technology, use, and maintenance - of course, this was military radios which by today’s standards were not very sophisticated. He was instructed in communications, techniques and all the call signs and
acknowledgements. Upon leaving Chicago, he was sent to New Orleans for additional training and to await shipment overseas.
While in New Orleans he received a telegraph from his girlfriend which read something like - “Leaving Saginaw today stop Prepare for marriage stop Jane”!! Jane Kay Wuelpern, accompanied by her Mother Minnie and dads mom (Ethel) were on their way so the kids could be married before his little boat trip. Dad had the habit of saying that he received the telegram
while “walking a pier out on Lake Pontchartrain and I figured I had to get married or swim that darn alligator infested lake!” They were married and off he went. After getting to England - “I was never sea sick when it was rough, like it always was out on Lake Huron, but boy when it was calm I headed for the railing.” After some weeks in preparation
for the invasion, dad finally got to France - 5 days after D-Day. He would always laugh about his job in Europe saying - “There I was trained for weeks as a radio man and I spent all my time driving a truck.” He drove various vehicles from Normandy to Germany. He would tell us a few
stories as we got older and there was some distance since the war. He would tell of driving one truck that had a machine gun mounted onto the roof or the truck and the gunner would stand in the middle of the bench seat when necessary. When the German planes would strafe the roads, the gunner would have hot ejected shell casings flying everywhere. Dad said he turned up his coat collar, lifted his right shoulder to his ear and tried to drive with brass shells rolling around on the floor.
One of his favorite stories - like peeling potatoes, or trading rations for flight suit wool lined pants & jacket (which I still have) - was about how, while the forces fought through Belgium, they were fed a lot of Brussel Sprouts with meals. Morning, noon and night - Brussel Sprouts. Dad never ate another Brussel Sprout after leaving the Army Air Corps! And mom never did anything about it in the eighteen years I had at the kitchen table (eating Brussel Sprouts!) before leaving for college.
Dad passed from this life in 1992 after a prolonged fight with Leukemia. Of the stories dad passed on as we got older, there was one that I had never heard. While going through his military records after mom passed in 2015 their home of 62 years (built by our maternal grandfather in 1915) was sold and all moveable items were dispersed, I found that dad was part of the infamous Battle of the Bulge. Upon the surrender of Germany, dad returned to Saginaw. He and Jane had three children and a very nice middle class life. Dad drove trucks for a wholesale grocery group and then for a
Stroh’s and Budweiser Beer distributor. After too many years on the road, he worked in the warehouse until retirement in 1982. Unfortunately he and mom only had another ten years together. From my desk here in 2023 and looking back, I think they were happy. I think we were all happy in the 1950’s to late 1960’s. Easier times? Better times? Maybe. But, different times
than today to be sure. Certainly things have changed remarkably since then. My maternal grandmother once told me about how things changed in her lifetime. She saw her first airplane (a biplane) fly over their backyard while hanging laundry “on the line” in 1917 and she saw men land on the moon! Amazing is such a life lived."
EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE
(On Wed, 12 Feb 2025 at 18:14, Dennis A. Purcell <private@51chevy.net> wrote: Good afternoon,
I first saw your website about five or six years ago after my brother sent me a WWII German helmet that our father brought back in 1945. I was the only family member to have ever had much interest in it. After my leaving Michigan in 1968 for college, it sat in the basement in a brown paper grocery sack until my mother died in 2015. It was then that I received it. The helmet has been in our attic, in the same paper sack since then. Looking at some of your online catalog photos, I would say it's in pretty good overall shape. After reviewing the attached photos, if you have any interest in it, please let me know.
Sincerely, Dennis A Purcell
Austin, TX)
DESCRIPTION
Well here's a helmet that is just about as honest and original as they come; an original and untouched late war M40 HKP 64 (Sachsische Emaillier. Lauter, Germany) front line combat helmet with its original liner and chinstrap still in tact. The rear lot number 12784 suggests a factory production date of March 1942 according to Brian Ice's lot data book.
The liner and chinstrap are both 100% original and stamped "56" as well as the strap which is marked Rahm & Kampmann Wuppertal-E 1941.
As noted above this helmet was literally kept in a brown paper bag in the attic since 1968 when the owner went away to college
As right as rain, fully complete and as good as they come in this configuration!
SOLD
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
