Hello,
I'll use this thread to illustrate the two threads Hambone started yesterday, first it is an example of a WIA helmet and second it is a good example of how items that are donated to "museums" simply find their way in to private collections.
First I'll tell the story of the helmet:
This is one of the shot through helmets that is in my collection, this one was given to the family of the soldier as a kind of evidence that her husband was killed by a head shot and most likely didn't suffer.
Only it turned out that the soldier wasn't KIA but had survived his head wound.
The helmet belonged to Fallschirmjäger Feldwebel Helmut Wenzel, he was an old sweat in the Fj Sturm Rgt.
On May 10 1940 he participated in the airborne attack on the Belgian fort Eben-Emael, he was in charge of the operation until his CO landed later that day.
During a defensive action against a Belgian counter attack on May 10 his helmet was shot through and he recieved a small head wound.
After his recovery he was issued with a new helmet, this is the helmet I have in my collection.
A bit more then a year later Helmut Wenzel went in to action again, on May 20 1941 he jumped near the famous hill 107 in Malames Crete.
I'll use parts of the interview with him that was published in the book: Fallschirmjäger in Crete by Jean-Yves Nasse to tell the story of this helmet.
"Our height was 180 and after a few moments we jumped.
...
Just before I reached the ground I was hit in the chest by a bullet. It went in above the right shoulder and came out right near the carotid artery.
...
I landed softly in a vineyard, not thirty metres from the English positions.
I fired (with his pistol) at two Tommies who fell, the other dropped to the ground .... the enemy was now firing with a machine gun. I lay low in a little depression. My bag and my water bottle stuck out and were riddled with holes. Firing stopped because the Tommies thought I was dead. I crawled away fromthere. Where is my section? I had to get it together! Despairing, I got up and shouted: - 3rd section, here!.
A machine gun immediately fired at me hitting me in the head. .... It went through the helmet, tore the skin and touched the bone of the skull.
I felt the impact and forced myself not to lose consciousness. But my comerades had heard my shouts and four of them rallied me: Gefreiters Engel, Glrfeld, Primke and Mospak. Glörfeld did the dressing, and I put muck on it to camouflage the white colour. Bullets were whisteling all around us and one of them pierced my boot ..."
- The small platoon of Fj's later that day managed to regroup with what was left over from their company, H.Wenzel woundes were taken care for by a British doctor that was taken POW by the Fj's.
Because one of the chinstraps was shot through, his helmet was blown from his head and here the story continues:
"One of my men found my helmet with a hole in it. He also saw the blood inside and thought I was dead. He took the helmet so as to be able to give it to my wife as a "last souvenir". Once he got back, he went to see her and she said to him: - I have just recieved this postcard from my husband. He is in Vienna, in hospital.
Tears ran down the face of the good Linde and he gave the helmet to my wife. That is the spirit of friendship in the paratroopers. Now my wife has my two holed helmets, one from Eben-Emael and the other from Crete."
Cheers,
Peter
I'll use this thread to illustrate the two threads Hambone started yesterday, first it is an example of a WIA helmet and second it is a good example of how items that are donated to "museums" simply find their way in to private collections.
First I'll tell the story of the helmet:
This is one of the shot through helmets that is in my collection, this one was given to the family of the soldier as a kind of evidence that her husband was killed by a head shot and most likely didn't suffer.
Only it turned out that the soldier wasn't KIA but had survived his head wound.
The helmet belonged to Fallschirmjäger Feldwebel Helmut Wenzel, he was an old sweat in the Fj Sturm Rgt.
On May 10 1940 he participated in the airborne attack on the Belgian fort Eben-Emael, he was in charge of the operation until his CO landed later that day.
During a defensive action against a Belgian counter attack on May 10 his helmet was shot through and he recieved a small head wound.
After his recovery he was issued with a new helmet, this is the helmet I have in my collection.
A bit more then a year later Helmut Wenzel went in to action again, on May 20 1941 he jumped near the famous hill 107 in Malames Crete.
I'll use parts of the interview with him that was published in the book: Fallschirmjäger in Crete by Jean-Yves Nasse to tell the story of this helmet.
"Our height was 180 and after a few moments we jumped.
...
Just before I reached the ground I was hit in the chest by a bullet. It went in above the right shoulder and came out right near the carotid artery.
...
I landed softly in a vineyard, not thirty metres from the English positions.
I fired (with his pistol) at two Tommies who fell, the other dropped to the ground .... the enemy was now firing with a machine gun. I lay low in a little depression. My bag and my water bottle stuck out and were riddled with holes. Firing stopped because the Tommies thought I was dead. I crawled away fromthere. Where is my section? I had to get it together! Despairing, I got up and shouted: - 3rd section, here!.
A machine gun immediately fired at me hitting me in the head. .... It went through the helmet, tore the skin and touched the bone of the skull.
I felt the impact and forced myself not to lose consciousness. But my comerades had heard my shouts and four of them rallied me: Gefreiters Engel, Glrfeld, Primke and Mospak. Glörfeld did the dressing, and I put muck on it to camouflage the white colour. Bullets were whisteling all around us and one of them pierced my boot ..."
- The small platoon of Fj's later that day managed to regroup with what was left over from their company, H.Wenzel woundes were taken care for by a British doctor that was taken POW by the Fj's.
Because one of the chinstraps was shot through, his helmet was blown from his head and here the story continues:
"One of my men found my helmet with a hole in it. He also saw the blood inside and thought I was dead. He took the helmet so as to be able to give it to my wife as a "last souvenir". Once he got back, he went to see her and she said to him: - I have just recieved this postcard from my husband. He is in Vienna, in hospital.
Tears ran down the face of the good Linde and he gave the helmet to my wife. That is the spirit of friendship in the paratroopers. Now my wife has my two holed helmets, one from Eben-Emael and the other from Crete."
Cheers,
Peter
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