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LT Col. M1 Helmet Fixed Bail Painted Anchor?


Wake1941
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Just picked this nice set up, Looks like it has a painted anchor with an engineer castle on the shell. The liner also appears to have the anchor mark, but has remnants of a 76th ID decal. Anyone ever seen this anchor marking before?

post-151850-0-95124100-1547328375_thumb.jpg

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Burning Hazard

Possibly Navy, though I haven't seen the anchors painted on the side yet. There's a good thread on them here: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/182724-wwii-us-navy-helmet-with-mystery-markings-yellow-anchor-circles/

 

Another possibility is French, they also painted anchors on their helmets. wondering if your helmet was a recycle, looks like it's been repainted before the Lt Col markings were added.

 

Pat

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Pat, good possibility with the 76th on the liner. The shell has the engineer castle in the anchor though. Didnt think the navy would use the engineer insignia

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Burning Hazard

Mystery indeed, only way to be sure is to try and research the serial number. Can't see well but I think the anchors and serial number are painted with the same yellow paint.

 

Still a nice helmet!

 

Pat

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Ok looks like I solved the mystery of the 76th decal, I found his full name. Richard Lassell Shaw looks like he enlisted in 1935 and served through ww2. And then was active duty in the reserves in the 76th ID. He retired a Colonel. Still would be interested to know the significance of the Anchors. Looks like he served in both theaters as well.

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The 1st Engineer Bn insignia includes an anchor. I've seen a couple of helmets with their insignia, but it's a little different than this one. They were one of the units tasked with clearing beach obstacles during the Sicily and Normandy invasions, so it's possible that this is from a unit with similar responsibilities.

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He also served in the reserves after the war which I guess could have been when he repainted it. Theres only a thin layer of paint, look like it could be easily removed but Im not going to mess with it

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Maybe the anchor is Rhode Island related, the 76th was a training division in the reserves, it had elemts in Connecticut, but I think that the 76th Training Division had elemts in Rhode Island?

 

800px-Flag_of_Rhode_Island.svg.png

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