"Forest Find" M40 SS Helmet

Here's mine, supposedly found in a hedge row in the sixties, with a body still wearing it. It came out of a museum in France. I kept it in my shop for a couple of years because the smell was so bad. It wasn't a decaying flesh smell, ive never smelled anything like it. It's with my collection now and finally there's no weird smell. No idea what the white is on it. Was cheap enough that I'm not out anything to speak of so real or not I'm ok. I've never had another helmet put off a weird odor like this one and I have another in similar condition

History said:

Here's mine, supposedly found in a hedge row in the sixties, with a body still wearing it. It came out of a museum in France. I kept it in my shop for a couple of years because the smell was so bad. It wasn't a decaying flesh smell, ive never smelled anything like it. It's with my collection now and finally there's no weird smell. No idea what the white is on it. Was cheap enough that I'm not out anything to speak of so real or not I'm ok. I've never had another helmet put off a weird odor like this one and I have another in similar condition

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Good looking helmet! Interesting story attached to that one. Yeah mine doesn't have any out of the ordinary smell to it. Just the smell of old leather if you get close to the liner.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Got bored and took some more pics of this to post of WAF since this is where I got the helmet from. I noticed there are shiny specs throughout the decal and I tried overlaying an ET M40 decal over top which is what I thought this decal most resembles. Figured I'd post some of them here

morticianman1990 said:

Got bored and took some more pics of this to post of WAF since this is where I got the helmet from. I noticed there are shiny specs throughout the decal and I tried overlaying an ET M40 decal over top which is what I thought this decal most resembles. Figured I'd post some of them here

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Additional opacity images.
Overlay image is from http://www.german-ww2-helmet.com/432810416
"SS decal on an M40 ET."

Info on decals; A Reichswehr order dated 5 April 1934 stated that new decals were to be issued out to all units. The news decal would consist of an national colors decal for the right side. The decal for the left side of the helmet would have an eagle with folded down wings clutching a swastika in its talons, the very symbol of the new regime. The eagle was silver for army units and gold for the Navy. The new decals were made of flax-oil varnish with the eagle made of foil. The new decal were applied to the helmet by brushing a thin layer of Ducolux, Kopal or Damar varnish onto the painted surface of the helmet then placing the decal over the tacky varnish. Once the decal was firmly bonded to the surface of the helmet a protective layer of varnish was painted over the decal. As time went on the last step of applying the protective layer was often skipped.

See full article here....https://alexanderandsonsrestorations.com/understanding-wwii-german-helmet-insignia/

And the Ceiling Cat supervising from up in the rafters!

ebeeby said:

You need that laser/spacegun thingey they were using a few years back to examine SS decals.....LOL

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Not much I can add as far as the SS decal being legit or not, but for those saying the remnants of the liner can't be original, I'd argue that. If you haven't seen any videos of people digging these things up, liner remains are routinely found in ground dug helmets. Not saying that adds or takes away from the decal, just figured I'd throw my two cents in on the liner, and share my ground dug Heer M35 DD (whats left of them). Got this years ago on ebay for like $50-$60 bucks. Lid is still sold with no cracks, but heavy pitting and oxidation.

Mike