Luxview

Thank you Pat. Yours is a pretty cool one, with the markings less damaged :-) And thank you very much for the hint with the bails, I was not sure about the helmet being a Schlueter - Still rookie :-) Does the black color indicate a period of usage or would this be too vague as criteria? Karsten

Thank you very much Rooster. You are right, somebody in the chain of previous owners worked with sand paper unfortunately, it was not simple friction as I originally thought. Merry Christmas to all, Karsten

...and no heat stamp visible (sorry, forgot to mention)

I'll give you these additional details for completeness, no liner with it...

There once was a laundry number but unfortunately not readable anymore...

The writing on the inside

Details of the front, on the first pic you see the black coming through under the re-paint, on the second one you see what could be two nearly horizontal stripes still under the paint?

I recently acquired this front seam fixed bail M1 helmet I would appreciate your opinions on. It has a black insignia on the front, either SGT or SFC, depending on how you interpret the pattern (pictures below). On the inside, it is named "Capt. J. R. Bennett" (not sure at all when the writing was done). Originally I thought the rank marking was faded away but after inspection I realized that it was over-painted and partly came through again (friction from cover?). How likely do you guys think it is that this helmet was first worn by an unknown sergeant and when it moved on to Capt. Bennett, t

The final one I am not sure about if it fits in here because it comes from the Civilian Support Group. Markings are for 4022nd Gd Bn (26th Spt Gp Heidelberg?)- The liner is dated 1976. Came with an early post WW2 McCord helmet (M 1A) and a Woodland cover dated 1980. Had a name in it once but unfortunately over-painted...

Second one comes from Army School, Europe. Rank (Staff Sergeant) and stripe are painted (over another layer with another rank insignia and a stripe in lighter blue), school insignia on both sides are decals. Sweatband from 1969. Unfortunately the paint is coming off and I don't have any good idea how to stop or at least slow down the process:

And two more liners I want to share with you, both from units deployed to Germany. First one belongs to 793rd MP Battalion, VII. Corps, USAREUR. Name and rank of previous owner "PFC Melvin" is written in it. The unit markings are painted, the blue and red stripes are taped. Sweatband has 1969 as contract date. Overall condition not the best:

It has "B86" written in it and an - unfortunately unreadable - laundry number

I bought this one while ago from a French seller when looking for a liner I could match with a Schlueter front seam who has an over-painted NCO bar but when it arrived I decided it would be a waste to hide it: Westinghouse WW2, unfortunately incomplete, according to my research (please correct if wrong information) from 2nd Medium Tank Battalion, 103rd Armor Regiment (ex. 628th Heavy Tank Battalion), 28th Infantry Division

Hi Chris, yes, if they only could talk...I would assume that quite a few vehicles made it into - probably mainly volunteer - fire departments after war, as they could get them cheap from surplus. And it might have helped some to survive until today: Little usage and good maintenance - If they were finally sold to a caretaker and not simply scrapped of course.

Thank you very much Ken, I've just started lobbying...Currently the car is stored with other retired fire engines in a depot. At least from the pictures (haven't been there myself) it doesn't look too bad...