Beautiful M1 with Hawley Liner belonging to a Marine of VMD-254

[Blueprint]

Good Evening everybody!

 

It's been a long time since I posted a helmet on here. I've been on the hunt for a good helmet since months and now I can present you my latest acquisition!

 

About the helmet:

 

It's a really early front seam, fixed bail McCord with early short chinstraps on it and a heatstamp of "28A"!

The shell owns a nice patina and two stress-cracks on the rear. 

Inside is a nice Hawley liner, 3rd type bearing the name of the owner outside as well inside, on the headband. I assume that this is even a "General Fabric" piece because there's a faint visible "G" near the dome. I could research that all those parts of this Hawley were produced during the timeframe of the "General Fabric" liner thus my assemption of this being a "General Fabric" liner could be true. 

I will leave a picture of that "G" in this thread for your inspection. 

About the owner:

 

This helmet belonged to "Louis E. Mertz, jr.", born in 1916. I looked for his name first via NARA but there was none. So I took a look at the WW2 Registry. There, I had a match. 

He was stated there being a Marine in the photographic reconnaisance in the south pacific. 

There is no laundry number visible in the helmet or liner, only those stamps of his name. To me they look like stamps usually marked in the fashion of the Marine Corps. 

 

After this, I got in contact with Aznation, whom I would thank for his dedication to research and also that he offers this service for free. Thanks Matt for your great work! 

 

I recieved the muster rolls, his WW2 compensation papers and also his obituary. 

The muster rolls state that he was from beginning of 1942 until late 1945 in the USMC. For the whole duration of the war he was a photographer/trainer on several Marine Corps Air bases, ranging from North Carolina via Virginia to California. Thus why I believe that he recieved this early M1 Helmet with this hawley liner and that's why it is in a such a good shape. He started training on the 1st of April 1942. 

From the 1st of July he started training with VMD-254 in California and in the Mojave desert. 

He stayed with VMD-254 until the 31st of October 1944. 

His compensation states that he went for eleven months overseas, from December 1943 until November 1944. 

During this time this Squadron did their famous observation over Truk, resulting that their pictures were used for the preparation of "Operation Hailstone". 

He might've been involved with this mission! 

 

After the war Louis went back to Pittsburgh and took over his fathers family business until he died in 2011. 

 

 

Enjoy!

Blueprint

 

[Blueprint]

[Blueprint]

[Blueprint]

 

[ArchangelDM]

Hannes let me be the 1st to congratulate you on a fantastic set, 

it’s in very good hands 

 

what a cracker 

[Blueprint]

8 minutes ago, ArchangelDM said:

Hannes let me be the 1st to congratulate you on a fantastic set, 

it’s in very good hands 

 

what a cracker 

Thank you very much Dean! 
I highly appreciate your words! 
 

Yours

Hannes 

[Blueprint]

11 minutes ago, ArchangelDM said:

Hannes let me be the 1st to congratulate you on a fantastic set, 

it’s in very good hands 

 

what a cracker 

Thank you very much Dean! 
I highly appreciate your words! 
 

Yours

Hannes 

[gap]

Is there a number between the 8 

and A ?  Maybe a 0? 

[Blueprint]

I took several looks at this spot. Also with my microscope. But those lines, who are visible on the picture, diminish upwards and downwards so fast in the color. They’re so faint, completely different than the 28 and A that I doubt that these lines represent a line or even a 0. 
The 8 and A are so overwhelming visible in comparison with the I lines. 

And there are no other horizontal lines above or under the I lines. 

[crotalus358]

Fabulous helmet and history - and a Pittsburgh guy, to boot.  Congrats!

[M24 Chaffee]

Great Hawley and helmet set! Nice presentation with his history and go Pittsburgh!

 

Frank

[Paddyd00]

Looking good and photos are great! Wish I had more of a touch (and camera) when it comes to photography of my helmets 

Z

[Blueprint]

10 hours ago, Paddyd00 said:

Looking good and photos are great! Wish I had more of a touch (and camera) when it comes to photography of my helmets 

Z

Thank you! 
I did those pictures all with my smartphone and the „portrait“ function! 
 

[Paddyd00]

8 hours ago, Blueprint said:

Thank you! 
I did those pictures all with my smartphone and the „portrait“ function! 
 

Cool man. Mine arent horrible but I see a certain panache .... haha ... in these. Well done

Z

[Blueprint]

1 hour ago, Paddyd00 said:

Cool man. Mine arent horrible but I see a certain panache .... haha ... in these. Well done

Z

Haha thank you! I take that as a complement haha 

[twthmoses]

It is a very nice shell, absolutely. It is unfortunately not a 28A stamp, but 281A or 284A. Two things; this looks to be 2nd style Mccord fixed loops (close up image needed to be sure), which means its post Lot 188. Second, McCord does not have a space between numbers and the letter, ever! Two, Three or four numbers and a letter is always stamped in one go, all with the same spacing. Does not always looks like that, but this is because it is stamped on a flat surface, a disc, then drawn into a bowl, which of course can, and will, distort its looks. Sometimes worse than others. Light stamped numbers and letters are quite common.

 

All Mccord stamp from 25 to 51 have an extra number like 36A2 or 26D3, with a spacing between the letter and last number. All these shells (Lot 25-51) was drawn prior to 6 January 1942, around 200.000 shells, roughly 8000 shells per Lot (Lift A, B, C, D). They are default somewhat rarer them “normal”. First because less was made per lot, 8000 vs and average of 14000 of later lots. Second, because 30% of all, was found defective already after the draw and discarded, leaving roughly 135.000 for the troops. How many have survived until today, who knows.

[Blueprint]

Thanks for your input! 

 

As I also just read some topics regarding early Mccords I'm thinking too that this can't be a 28 Stamp. As you also said a space between the letter and number was never produced. 

But I neither think that its a 281 or 284 as there is no clean line, except for the two lines visible to surely determine the number. But I'm sure that there schould've been a number inbetween 0-9, but as you said the stamping was not the best back then.