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M.40 H SD whitewash winter camo

Hambone

Community Organizer
Staff member
Heer Q.66 winter whitewash camo helmet. German issue whitewash for their AFVs, artillery, equipment, etc., was a powder or paste form mixed with petrol and applied. It was designed to be removed with a stiff brushing, so original whitewash helmets are rare. Wearing a white helmet or riding in a white AFV not in the snow is unhealthy in a war zone. Much of the whitewash on this helmet has flaked off over the years. It's fragile and I could get the rest of this off with a stiff brushing.
 

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Tks Brian, I agree. I could get a stiff nylon scrubbing brush and in about 30 minutes you would have a hard time telling that this had been a whitewashed helmet. But that was the point of this, temporary. Some whitewash is more of a paint, probably because of the way it was mixed, or its formula, and required overpainting again. Period pics show this. Here is a Luftwaffe winter white over the original Luftwaffe blue helmet, then ordinance grey (the issue equipment color before tan in late 1943) paint over that.........
 

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Real

That first one is so ugly it is cool. I always look for the "cratering' on these chalky whitewash helmets as the paste had air holes in it. Cool. That second one would like nice on my shelf. Those multi painted helmets are surprisingly hard to get. I don't think guys lasted long enough to go through changes of seasons....:thumbsup:
 
That is a nice winter camo Hambone!!!
:thumbsup:


Take good care of it, they are fragile.

Whitewash is an ideal camo material, it is easily applied and also easily removed, because of that latter they are pretty rare to.
In some parts of Europe like Belgium and Holland for example winter weather is pretty unreliable, one day it can snow and the next most of the snow can be gone and then whitewash is ideal for camouflage purposes.
Take for example the battle of the bulge, popular myth has it that the entire bulge offensive was fought in harsh winter and snow conditions; but in reality in the first days of the offensive the weather was rather mild and there certainly wasn't any snow.
It started snowing just before Christmas in the Ardennes and that is pretty rare in Belgium.
Take a look at this U-Tube clip, on minute "1", an American paratrooper of the 101 AB Div tells about the weather in the Ardennes during the first days of the bulge offensive:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDtu2lIktiY&feature=related



Cheers,
Peter
 
Tks Jack. The story on the second helmet was that it came off of a German grave in Finland immediately after the war. It was picked up by a kid who souvenired these things from a German field grave yard with his friends who gave it to the seller maybe 10 years ago, as an older guy.

Tks for the info. Peter. Those are good vids as well. I'm going to get with those folks on what I can do to keep the chalk type whitewash from coming off anymore.

Nachname:
Wille
Vorname:
Hermann
Dienstgrad:
Soldat
Geburtsdatum:
29.01.1907
Geburtsort:
Todes-/Vermisstendatum:
25.10.1942
Todes-/Vermisstenort:
Hermann Wille ruht auf der Kriegsgräberstätte in Rovaniemi
-
Norvajaervi (Finnland) .
Endgrablage: Gruft 8 Tafel 3

Der Deutsche Soldatenfriedhof Rovaniemi/Norvajärvi
During World War II about 15.000 German soldiers were killed in action in the battlefields of Finland. After the war in the 1950's Finnish and German authorities decided to build two cemeteries (aka Der deutsche Soldatenfriedhof), one smaller one near Helsinki in Honkanummi (currently in Vantaa) and a bigger one to Lapland for the German soldiers who fell in the northern front. This cemetary is in Rovaniemi, Norvajärvi and 2530 Kameraden (alltough the sign inside the building says 2495) are buried there.

Der Deutsche Soldatenfriedhof Norvajärvi is located 18 km north from Rovaniemi. There are good signs to Norvajärvi and Der Deutsche Soldatenfriedhof from the main road number 4 to north and the museum is open from 1.4. to 30.9. around the clock. The cemetery is located at the shore of Norvajärvi in a very beautiful landscape. Gates lead to a road to the cemetery building and besides it is a big cross made from iron. Inside the building is an entrance hall with a memorium statue and after that a big hall where lies the memorium plates where the names of each individual soldier are engraved. The cascets are located so that each one is placed under the correct name and therefore one can locate the exact place of each soldier buried there..

 
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