DESCRIPTION
This helmet is a real one of a kind find as I have seen plenty of these mail home helmets from WW1 but very few from WW2. I find it interesting that the mail home tape from 1944-45 is cloth based and sticky on the one side while being able to be written on via fountain pen clearly and legibly on the other side. If I went to the US post office today and tried to do this they would look at me bug eyed. Back then they seemed to have a better and easier system to send souvenirs home than we do even today.
The helmet originally came from Southern California by a non-collector who inherited it from his father's side of the family. The helmet has been sitting on a refrigerator in his basement for the past 20+ years he told me. Being from a deep blue snowflake state he felt it would offend people and so kept it hidden from view since he inherited it. I fear that as a result of the heat from the top of the fridge it may have led to the liner and chinstrap being dried out from lack of moisture while having a constant source of heat emanating upwards. The buckle end of the chinstrap was still fully in tact but a little fragile and so I kept it in place while changing out only the long end of the chinstrap for a suitable replacement. Any and all original liner parts of this helmet will remain with this helmet and be shipped to any eventual buyer including the long end chinstrap which remains un-shortened and full length but broken in two spots. There is probably a good way to preserve such fragile parts using flexible non-destructive archival tape and archival glue but I would rather not dive into this arena for the moment. I'm sure there are abundant YouTube videos out there showing you how to perform such tasks if you're up to the challenge.
As a result of this dry southern Californian climate the M40 Q66 Luftwaffe helmet itself is in stone cold mint condition as nothing better than dry heat to preserve both the outside metal and the integrity of the decal which is basically at an astounding 100% in tact. Since the liner was literally falling out of the helmet I went ahead and did a spring on spring replacement whereby I keep the original 3 painted split pins fully in tact and untouched as well as it's original outer liner band replacing only the leather portion on it's springs.
The return labels are still visible and can be read albeit quite faint in certain areas. I will try harder this week to view the label in direct sunlight in hopes of better deciphering the lettering which at least is in English.
As you more seasoned collectors will already know these larger sized M40 66's helmets tend to be in worse condition that smaller sized helmets as these guys were big, tall and did a lot of front line fighting. So to find a larger size M40 with a GEM MINT Luftwaffe decal and outside paint in such amazing condition really is a rarity.
In general it is my belief that the US GI Private First Class Edison C. Warfford chose this helmet to send home out of probably a pile of hundreds. Searching and choosing the one with the nicest decal and least amount of wear and tear is probably what he was thinking at the time which is why this thing is so immaculate.
So far I'm able to decipher the following from the mail home cloth labels still affixed:
CLOTH LABEL 1
"From P.F.C. Edison C. Warfford
A.S.N. 34964556
D, 137TH INF - APO. 35
C/O P.M. N.Y, N.Y."
(He lived from 1911 - 1998)
CLOTH LABEL 2
"To Mrs Conrad Warfford
Southbend, NC ......
.........................................???"
CLOTH LABEL 3
Souvenir/Capture Certificate
"I certify that this helmet's souvenir value is not greater than $100 in value.
Thomas M. Carlton
1st Lt. Inf."
Here is a link to a period group photo of all of the Officers for the 137th Infantry Division with Lt. Thomas M. Carlton's headshot photo in 1944. http://www.coulthart.com/134/137-officer-pics.htm
$1650
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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.
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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
