DESCRIPTION
This is a professionally restored M35 EF66 DD Heer helmet that would have served in the early fighting day of early 1940 and 1941 in North Africa. Germany officially entered the North African campaign on February 11, 1941, when General Erwin Rommel and the first units of the Afrika Korps landed in Tripoli, Libya. Hitler sent these forces to bolster Italian allies who were retreating after major defeats by British forces in Egypt and Libya.
This helmet is a tribute to that historical time period when German troopers landed in Tripoli with all of their tropical gear however most arrived in their dark feld grau helmets which had to be quickly camouflaged to blend in with the desert terrain they found themselves in.
Historical photos show rows of dark gray German helmets arranged in lines on the ground to be painted over with large pneumatic spray guns the kind used for vehicles. Most of these were given a light to dark yellow tan color but some where given more of a bubble gum pinkish hue. This color was debated for some time but when enough original examples came to the marketplace their existence become well known among the collector community. In countries such as Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Morocco there exist sand that was formed among ancient red coral beds broken up over time creating a pinkish hue especially at dawn or sunset. Other regions of the Sahara are rich in iron oxides creating hues of reddish copper to an orangey pink and so many variations of tan exist among German helmets.
The colors are caused by iron-rich minerals like feldspar or granite that over thousands of years have oxidized and "rusted" under the desert sun. In addition, the low light at sunrise and sunset often transforms the desert dunes into a "pink" canvas.
This helmet was meant to represents those conditions as mentioned above and in this case having the German solider proudly exposing both Heer decals by neatly painting around them instead of over them.
The inside liner is actually original and was supplied by the owner. The Heer eagle is historically accurate since early M35 EF helmets didn't officially have their own EF specific decals yet and so relied heavily on ET makers at that time.
Aging was all done naturally and without the use of any chemicals or sneaky airbrush techniques. The level of aging on this particular example would be considered as medium as per the customer's wishes.
$750 (SPECIFIC CUSTOMER PROJECT)
If you would like something similar please contact us below?
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 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
