Case of Civ. Defense Helmets

[FortJohn]

Nothing fancy. But you usually don't see what they came in. The auction was a apple orchard that a former WW2 Marine owned. He was in a Marine air wing and he was a gunner. I asked where he served and he said as far away as they could get me. I also bought a mint Marine shelter half that I sold{shouldn't have}. I have pictures of it set up though. Greg

[FortJohn]

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[FortJohn]

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[FortJohn]

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[FortJohn]

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[mikie]

Far out! Amazing find in the original packaging! Grandad was a CD warden during the war. After he passed away, my Grandma said she had a trunk full of his equipment somewhere and that I could have it. But it was never found. Probably lost or tossed in one of thier house moves.

Mikie

[Bob Hudson]

That's a cool find:

 

At mid-century, Crunden-Martin employed about 500 people. During World War II, they made helmets, stoves, buckets and five-gallon gasoline cans for the U.S. military. Like many companies, Crunden-Martin shifted most of its production from consumer goods to items for the war effort.

In the 1950s, it shifted from production of wooden utensils to metal, and grew into one of the country’s largest producers of paper kites, selling them under the Top Flite brand name. In 1977, it was still billing itself as the largest kite maker in the world.

Read more: https://dfarq.homeip.net/what-happened-to-the-crunden-martin-manufacturing-co/#ixzz5A7o251r6

[suwanneetrader]

From about 1956 thru 1970 I worked as a Serviceman at Cincinnati Gas & Elec (Gone since about 1990) I usually worked downtown and the West End (Old Cinti Red's Crosley Field area). Many big buildings with sub basements had Air Raid shelters From WWII with some resupplied during the Atomic Bomb Scary times. I remember being in one that had hundreds of these helmets in the cardboard shipping containers. Even then due to dampness and rust most were not as nice as these. Richard

[Bob Hudson]

Interesting to see that the Civil Defense supply train got these through the military's J.Q.M.D. (Jefferson Quarter Master Depot).

[FortJohn]

I always thought that was odd also.

[patches]

Neat, we see that they don't appear to be marked with the CD decal yet, guess these where then applied (Decal and or hand painted) on the local level once issued out considering there were quite a few different functions that decals were made for.

 

[viking73]

That's pretty neat, thanks for sharing photos. I'll bet not too many of those boxes survived!

 

What are you going to do now with 20 CD helmets??

 

-Derek