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M.40 Lw. camo twins / vet mailing label

Hambone

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The helmet without the label is direct vet bringback from a combat engineer in the 99th Inf. Div. The one with the label was mailed home by Pvt. Louis Waldron of Co. E, 413th Regt., 104th Inf. Div. ("Timberwolves"). His company commander won the Medal of Honor. Both are Luftwaffe, both named in the same green paint, both oversprayed chickenwire. The one without the label was bought from the buddy of mine who got it from the vet himself in Mississippi. The one with the label was found by me years later at the SOS in Tulsa. The pic is of Pvt. Louis D. Waldron, who mailed the helmet back to his dad in Rolling Bay, Washington.
 

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Thank you. I have the unit history for the 413th Inf. Regt. and think I have the FPN of the non-label helmet. It's hard to see. I'm going to research and try to find out where the helmets were taken. The combat engineer who brought back the non label one passed away before I could get to him. I was told he said he picked it up next to a telephone pole in either Belgium or Germany. It is clear both of these helmets came from the same Luftwaffe ground unit and the 99th ID and 104th ID were in the same area of operations, particularly during the Ruhr pocket campaign.
 
wow

Love the wide hole chicken wire ghosting.....those helmets had to be done at the same time...:hail:
 
Yes, and the German names in them are done in the same green paint. They were from the same unit, probably a kampfgruppe of some kind. I found them about 7 years apart. The one at the SOS was on a table with a bunch of used USGI WW2 clothing and such. Had I been more astute I would have gone through it as it was probably all from Waldron's estate. I think he passed away in 1994, which was about a year before I found the helmet he mailed home.

I saw that helmet and thought that someone had stolen mine and it was at the show ;) What's cool is if you look close on the label you can see the military examiner's stamp clearing it, and the postmark. The one without the label, Obgef. Schlosser, has a Luftwaffe FPN number in it which appears to be :

L. 22410
(Mobilmachung-1.1.1940) Stabsstaffel Flieger-Division7,
(19.7.1941-14.2.1942) Transport-Staffel Flieger-Korps XI,
27.6.1944 Verbindungs- Staffel Flieger-Korps XI Fallschirm-AOK 1,
19.7.1944 Verbindungs- Staffel Flieger-Korps XI,
21.10.1944 gestrichen

I can do the research and likely find out where these helmets were picked up.
 
Craig, gorgeous helmets. The ship home label really sets it apart, the other with FP number I would research the hell out of that, nothing beats real history. :thumbsup: GR
 
Rob, yes, the APO for the 104th ID, thanks. Aachen is probably the area where it came from as well. Both the 99th and 104th IDs participated in trapping of German troops in the Ruhr pocket. If I could ID the German unit conclusively that would help. It seems that neither Obgef. Schlosser or Gef. Spendler were KIA. Captured in the Ruhr pocket is what I surmise. I wish I had gotten to the vet on the 99th ID helmet, but my buddy said he did not want the vet to know that he had traded the helmet.

Thanks George. I think I've hit a wall. That Luftwaffe FPN was "21.10.1944 gestrichen" or stricken on 10-21-1944 before the Ruhr encirclement. These guys were likely in a kampfgruppe of some kind, perhaps transferred into a different unit before capture. The helmets were likely camo'd in the spring or summer of 1944 when those chaps were moved out of the unit with the gestrichen FPN. The only other way to find out would be the service records of either man. I've already tried to get records for Obergef. Schlosser with no luck.
 
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Hi Hambone,

Beautiful helmets!


Flieger-Korps XI was used to creat the 1. Fallschirmarmee which saw a lot of action in Northern Belgium and Southern Holland in September/October 1944 (operation Market-Garden), exactly in this area the Timberwolfs saw action for the first time.



Cheers,
Peter
 

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