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Possible VII corps liner - unbranded ? with white stripe


ken88
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I'm gonna post this here, a seven nation army couldn't hold me baaaack...

 

All kidding aside, here's another white stripe liner. This particular helmet liner was found in the vicinity of Brussels, Belgium, and was decorated with American flags in 1945 to celebrate the liberation.

 

The reason I'm posting it here is because I'm fairly confident this is a VII corps liner, and it could serve as another puzzle piece in the identification of these white stripe liners. I may be totally wrong about this, but VII corps did indeed liberate the area where this liner was found, under general Hodges' 1st army in 1944/1945.

 

I was thinking about removing the American flags, but probably shouldn't. This liner if anything represents the joy my fellow countrymen must have experienced when they were finally liberated and free of nazi oppression.

 

Interestingly enough, this helmet liner appears to be unbranded. All I can find in the crown is a number 4. Not sure of how common/uncommon this really is?

 

This helmet liner is 100% legit. Painted areas show micro-cracks all over under the microscope.

 

Cheers

 

liner1.jpgliner2.jpgliner3.jpgliner4.jpgliner5.jpgliner6.jpgliner7.jpgliner9.jpg

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The danish army painted white stripes on US provided helmets after the war. Could it possibly be one of those with the addition of the flags?

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This one came directly out of the region around Brussels. This is 100% ww2 but was decorated by civilians to celebrate the liberation in 1945.

 

A-washers are unpainted steel (1942/1943 production), but are all rusty.

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Roger, after wwii the US surplused the Danes with WWII helmets, field gear, rifles, etc. I thought it might have helped regarding the white stripe. It was just a thought.

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Would not be related to the U.S. VII Corps, 1: The 7, It is written in European form, and 2: if it would of been painted on by some GI from VII Corps, it would be written, well as....VII.

 

I think here the 7 just might stand for May 7, the day the Germans signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Reims, France.

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manayunkman

I love that.

 

You can tell it wasn't painted by a GI.

 

The US flags have stripes above the blue fields.

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Thanks for your insights.

 

I agree, the US flags were definitely not painted by a GI. They were painted by Belgian civilians to celebrate the liberation, the guy I got it from had other helmets (French with French flags, British with the Union Jack, etc.)

 

The numbers 7 and the white stripe definitely belong together though. These were painted on by a GI for sure. I can tell it's the same paint and the flags aren't, I also don't see why a civilian would just write the number 7 on both sides of the liner in army style to refer to May 7th without the May actually written with it...? To my knowledge the Germans surrendered on May 8th (Reims). As Stalin demanded an official surrender to the Russian army it's actually May 9th (Berlin), just after midnight.

 

I did a search on the dash through the 7, that's interesting, but it appears it's written like that in New England as well which makes sense because of the European influences. So I wouldn't dismiss it straight away because of that.

 

Also, not claiming it's definitely VII corps, but for what it's worth VII corps had 2 kinds of patches, one of them indeed is the star with the Roman VII, the other one is the 7 as we know it (prior to April 28th 1944). It could not be a VII corps liner, but if I'm sure of anything it's that the numbers 7 and the white stripe do belong together, that and the liner was definitely US manufactured in 1942/1943, it's unbranded but still a textbook early/mid war liner.

 

Thanks

 

1024px-US-Army-VII-Corps-SSI-Pre-April-2

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manayunkman

Back in the 40s there were very few Americans who knew anything about crossed sevens.

 

No one in the US crosses their 7s unless they have some European influence and that is rare.

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currahee1942

Hello guys,

 

I dont think that the white stripe is danisch. Because their are pictures of the landing in anzio, where you see rangers with a white stripe on their helmets.

 

Is it a possibilty that the liner was painted by a civilian ?

 

Matthias

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Back in the 40s there were very few Americans who knew anything about crossed sevens.

 

No one in the US crosses their 7s unless they have some European influence and that is rare.

 

The crossed seven seems to be used in New England which makes it rare but not impossible. If I've learned anything it's that nothing is black and white with this stuff.

 

The fact is that this is an American liner and was most definitely used in ww2. Unless someone knows of other armies that used the white stripes across their helmets, in any case it was painted by someone in an allied army prior to VE day.

 

The numbers and the stripe were NOT painted by a civilian.

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I'll be honest I'm not 100% certain but there are similar liners like this one with numbers on both sides and that's why I would rule that out.

 

1.jpg

 

I don't know how this is going to sound but I think the crossed seven may actually hold the key to solving this mystery.

 

I did some further research and it seems there were liaison groups between the several allied armies that consisted of Brits and other European nationalities, and guess what, they wore American uniforms. Could that explain the crossed seven? And perhaps even the lack of branding in the liner itself?

There are pictures of these white stripes at Anzio showing US soldiers linking up with the Brits there and they also had these white stripes. Could that be it, liaisons? Is the white stripe what this denotes? I wish I could find that Anzio footage right now but I can't, I know it shows armies linking up and the different white stripes are clearly visible there...

 

liaison.jpg

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Back in the 40s there were very few Americans who knew anything about crossed sevens.

 

No one in the US crosses their 7s unless they have some European influence and that is rare.

:lol: I never seen that till my freshman year in HS in 1976 when I took German.

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Here is a picture of Danish soldiers fully equipped with US gear during training in in early 1952. I cropped the picture because it is not mine (coots imagery $bay).. This was all WWII gear so it could be a late or very early type helmet. So that's over 65 years ago... and it's in Europe

 

post-2641-0-88818400-1552654605_thumb.jpg

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currahee1942

Here is a picture of Danish soldiers fully equipped with US gear during training in in early 1952. I cropped the picture because it is not mine (coots imagery $bay).. This was all WWII gear so it could be a late or very early type helmet. So that's over 65 years ago... and it's in Europe

 

There's no way of telling those m1 helmets are post war Danish or wartime American, the Danes started copying them as early as 1948, the chances of finding a woodwork Danish M1 in Brussels are also non existent.

It appears those white stripes aren't painted on, you can see the tape going over the net, probably used during training?

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  • 1 year later...

These white helmet band was used in the 50s and 60s by the Danish army. They never painted the helmets. It is a white cotton band.

The Danish army bought between 50.000 and 200.000 US m1 helmets in December 1949 from surplus depots in Germany. Test on the helmet was done during 48-49, thus the nomenclature m/48. The  entire army was equip during January- February 1950. All of the helmets was WW2 Helmets in all variations.

2nd batch was bought in 1952 from diaward steel works in Hong Kong. 60.000 for the civil defence and 50.000 for the army. That’s why the civil defence version is named m/52 vs. The army m/48, despite being the same helmet.

 

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Reference the manufacturer of the liner, looking at the picture of the number 4 molded on the inside of your liner I can just about make out a very faint manufactures logo below the four. It appears to be oval in shape, I think it could either be a Seaman Paper co logo or a Int’l Molded Pastics Co logo. I’ve done some editing of your picture to try and enhance it.

A06B3DF4-2D7B-4817-9362-5E65628F3992.jpeg

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