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M35 helmet

bigwagon

Senior Member
I've had this German helmet for about 25 years. I don't have any history for it other than that my uncle acquired it sometime in the late 1960s. It seems unusual that the National shield is hand-painted rather than being a decal, but the paint matches the markings on the inside of the helmet so it looks like it could be original. One of the swivels for the chinstrap is broken the end is wrapped around the liner band. Maybe a field repair? I believe Uffz. stand for Unteroffizier, a non-comm rank. Any idea what the unit marking is? I don't think I would ever sell it, but I have wondered about value.



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Cool helmet BW. Sadly, the adler decal was "dug out" or uncovered and the national colors was repainted, which was not at all unusual in the period 1946-1980s in an attempt to "enhance" a helmet. Back before the 1990s, the most important thing about a helmet was its decal. Many wonderful camo helmets and overpaints were essentially vandalized and ruined by people digging out the decals and enhancing them. That's unfortunately what has happened here. The value has accordingly been cut by more than half IMHO. Look at someone working away on those decals with nail polish remover and a toothbrush as flushing 100 dollar bills down a toilet, about 5 to 15 of them at least. The liner has been mink oiled or vaselined as well, another old trick that is simply flushing more money down the loo. In this case, it's a family thing and you aren't selling it, so it's family lore, a historical artifact for your family, and has significant value to you, but not so much for anyone else. The objective value of it as a historical artifact has been significantly destroyed by lid wankery.

On the unit info, that was likely a vestige of the early history of the helmet, before such information was not put in there, during wartime, or replaced with feldpost numbers. Looks like that would be Jager Regt. 55. As for value, left alone in its original condition with camo it would have been a $1500+ helmet all day, probably a good bit more, up to $2k or better. As it is now, $1200 or so, maybe less.
 
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Interesting. I always assumed the decal was painted at the same time as the other markings because the paint colors match perfectly. My uncle died in 1972, so anything done to enhance it would have been prior to that, and I would assume prior to him acquiring it, but I know Nazi stuff has been humped since at least the 60s so I guess anything is possible.

Just so I'm clear, from what I have read, an original M35 would have had double decals, but later in the war they stopped putting those on new helmets and painted over them on helmets in service. So this one would have had the paint over the decal removed and then repainted the shield?
 
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Interesting. I always assumed the decal was painted at the same time as the other markings because the paint colors match perfectly. My uncle died in 1972, so anything done to enhance it would have been prior to that, and I would assume prior to him acquiring it, but I know Nazi stuff has been humped since at least the 60s so I guess anything is possible.

Just so I'm clear, from what I have read, an original M35 would have had double decals, but later in the war they stopped putting those on new helmets and painted over them on helmets in service. So this one would have had the paint over the decal removed and then repainted the shield?

The color for the name is old white and so is the national color. Old white is old white. It was "enhanced" from 1946 to 1972 then, per your history and assuming no kids or anyone else got hold of it after your uncle died. It would not at all have been unusual and he may have done it. It wasn't done by someone with any restoration skill or particular knowledge of helmets.

The original helmet was a M.35 double decal. In 1940 the national color shield was ordered removed and it would have been largely abraded or scraped off and the helmet likely overpainted in a rough finish green, with the Heer adler still on it. Then, later, likely 1943 or later, the entire helmet was overpainted in that camo scheme. The adler was overpainted by this camo as well as there was a decal removal order in August of 1943. After the war, some nitwit vandalized the helmet with some nail polish remover, acetone, etc., to make the helmet "better" by removing the camo paint and overpaint to get to the national shield. Discovering nothing was there but scrapings, said nitwit decided to paint a new on on there. Then they dug out the Heer adler from under the camo paint. The liner was also heavily minkoiled or vasilined because the historical vandalism was not yet complete. It would be like if someone decided that the Mona Lisa needed a better smile and look so they acetoned off her smirk and added a big toothy grin and added makeup and bright red lipstick. Left alone this could have been a $2500 helmet. Due to the "enhancement" it is now less than half that. Just my opinions on the value, but I stand firm on my take on the vandalism. Sorry for this news.
 
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yes, M35 would have 2 decals... then the order of 1940 was but through discontinuing the tri color shield.. This order wasn't always upheld as there are plenty of DD m35's out there,

Most were scraped off or painted over... This makes original m35dd heers fairly scarce.

Your lid is a very early SE from 36/37 the tricolor was painted on by a fairly talented guy "post war" for sure.. the price assessment is fairly correct.
 
The date sounds right. The liner band is marked Schuberth-Werk K. G. Braunschweig and is dated 1937. Pretty cool that it was made by a company that still makes motorcycle and racing helmets.

Looking at it now with this new info, I guess it does look like there were at least a couple of layers of paint on it at one time.
 
Yep, it had a good bit of history, it was a helmet that started the war and finished it and the history was on it. Don't take my comments as directed at you. It is just very sad to see such needless vandalism of what would be a really cool and desirable helmet. All someone had to do was nothing. It still has value to your family. :thumbsup:
 
The color for the name is old white and so is the national color. Old white is old white. It was "enhanced" from 1946 to 1972 then, per your history and assuming no kids or anyone else got hold of it after your uncle died.
Actually the color I was referring to is the pinkish red used to paint the initials W.D.S. and the lower stripe on the shield. They are undoubtedly the same paint. Maybe the vandal left his mark!

This all would have happened pre-72, as my uncle had no family and the helmet sat in a footlocker of his personal effects at my grandmothers house until she gave it to me in the late 80s.
 
Yes, 11th company.

An example of an early war marking: name + standard unit marking (company/regiment) in a DD applegreen M35 from my collection.
 

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Wanking up nazi regalia started way before the 60s, btw- relatives in Berlin told me of the need to supply occupation forces with souvenirs as soon as they arrived in 1945, even if the souvenirs had to be conjured up.
 

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