DESCRIPTION
Here is one of my latest bring backs from Berlin as proved by the S-Bahn (subway tickets) I had leftover in the wallet from the trip. The helmet was sourced from a week-end vendor at an outdoor flea/junk market of which there are dozen in the central/mitte and outside Berlin areas. Not actually junk but rather house hold contents that vendors bring to the market each and every week-end. Most of these vendors have delivery vans and small European toy look trucks to cart things around in. They basically offer their services for clearly out flats/apartments and houses taking a part of their fees in the goods they obtain or are too interesting to be thrown away.
This helmet was pulled from the back of one such cube van early last month and he showed it to me not really knowing was NSKK meant. I bought it from him only for the raw shell and original liner value and he seemed happy with that and the decals look nice and old but could be post war applied or post war created and so I'm more comfortable selling this as a restoration so no one feels burned.
The NSKK (Nationalsozialistisches Kraftfahrkorps) was a motorized paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party that officially operated from 1931 to 1945. It functioned as a motor transport corps, provided roadside assistance, and trained members in vehicle operation and maintenance.
I can see this helmet being worn with googles stretched over the top by some dusty dude driving down a dirt road in his BMW R75 or Zündapp KS 750 with side car. Probably driving nervously worried about being spotted and strafed by an Allied fighter overhead and feeling at times much like a mouse in an open field surrounded by neatly constructed nests of hungry swooping raptors but at least his eyes were protected from all that dust.
The helmet is a mid war beaded M40 model helmet in a large size 66 created by the NS factory in Schwerte, Germany sometime in 1940-41. Many collectors believe that that these helmets didn't make the grade at the factory and failed inspection and so a bead was added around the central circumference and it was re-purposed for non-combat use. Others like myself included believe that too many of these helmets exist and too many were needed for air raid-defense Luftschutz services, factory guard duty, and auxiliary police that they were intentionally made to fill in these voids and are not reject helmets at all but were made specially for these non-combat roles. When you check at enough of these you will find that most have no obvious defects at all just some sloppy welding work at times.
$350 HOLD - Tom
Please call, text or email me if interested.
Tel/Text: 1-438-502-5052
Email Us: helmetsofwar@gmail.com
Shipping to Anywhere USA/Canada: $22 with full tracking numbers.
Shipping to Anywhere Europe/UK: $80 with full tracking numbers.
Shipping to Australia/New Zealand: $90 with full tracking numbers.
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
