DESCRIPTION
Well here's a rare find as I get offered these helmets almost weekly but they are almost never ever the real deal it seems. Basically I only get one of these in stock once every few years or so and find myself disappointing basically 99.5% of people who proudly show me what they have.
This helmet came from a non-collector out of Wichita Falls, TX who is a sound engineer by trade. Apparently he has worked on mostly reality style shows which he himself jokingly referred to as "garbage t.v.". He told me that one of his clients owed him some money for a side project he had been working on but at the end of the day couldn't afford to pay off all of his invoice and so traded him two helmets; this one and the other M40 ET64 Heer helmet on the site in lieu of payment. I really do not have any other information about both helmets other than to say that both are 100% genuine and untouched since the war. Coming from the dry heat of Texas probably aided in the preservation of both over the decades following the war.
Finally in this case we have a genuine untouched Waffen-SS helmet from WW2 and in a nice large size and mid war ET66 model M40. This helmet would have originally left the factory around the middle of 1941 based on it's rear lot number "1162" according to Brian Ice's lot data book. This very helmet could have seen action in Operation Barbarossa (Invasion of Russia) or anywhere along the Western Front pre and post D-Day. Like most elite SS men he would have been a daily fighter and so I can only imagine what dark stories this helmet could tell us.
As with most genuine SS helmets this helmet is battle hardened with lots of beautiful patina on the paint's surface suggesting daily usage throughout the war. Most SS helmets are pretty rusted out and often having had their SS symbol neatly scratched off most likely for fear of harsh reprisals once they got captured. So it's nice to have one like this example where the SS decal remains untouched. Original SS decals were made with a aluminum or silver foil type backing and so would have originally appears very shiny and metallic in nature. Over time this metallic surface oxidizes and become aluminum or silver oxidize and takes on a more whitish appearance although still somewhat metallic like the inside of any oyster shell.
If you study original photos of SS soldiers fighting in WW2 you will notice that most of them had their camo cloth covers neatly stretched over their helmets and so this must have caused added moisture to come into contact with the paint surface and possibly explains why so many of these are often beat up looking.
A great mid war M40 ET66 SS helmet and not one easy to find these days as most are in private collections and museums leaving very few available on the open market.
$6500
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.
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
