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Which one would you buy?


ccmax
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Burning Hazard

I will stick with 101st AB historian Mark Bando’s advice on 101st helmets:


”If you ever see 506th helmets for sale-especially if they are painted with 2nd Bn stencils, you had best ASSUME they are fake.
Why? Because the originals were destroyed en-masse in 1945 and surviving examples are so rare, that they barely exist. Units of the 101st never wore stenciled helmets in the states. Most of the few surviving examples are still in Europe, either in some farmer's loft or in private collections. When any 506th helmet is offered for sale, a red flag should go-up in your brain-these are the most-popular (because of BoB) and also the most widely-faked helmets of all. Overly-large spades are usually a giveaway, as well as the overly-large officer or nco bars usually found on the rear. ”

 

”I have been talking to 101st WWII vets for 40 years and have uncovered less than 10 bring-back painted helmets of all regiments/battalions, and none from the 506th. 
I had a 506th officer tell me he brought his helmet back and gave it to his Grandson, but I never saw it and that is the closest I've come to getting a 506th helmet directly from a vet. All those helmets were turned-in and destroyed or re-cycled in 1945 and they just do not exist any more. The only 506th helmet in my collection came from Normandy, from the old collection of Henri Levaufre, who had lived in France all his life and who was 14 in 1944 and who acquired the helmet from a friend in St Come du Mont, shortly after the war ended.”

 

“I have a total of SIX WWII 101st painted helmets in my collection. Four came directly from vets and the other 2 from Normandy (those came as pots-only, even missing the chinstraps). Three of the four 101st helmets I got direct from vets belonged to officers-they had a better chance of evading the orders to turn-in helmets.”

 

https://www.101airborneww2.com/equipment2.html

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I’ve talked to over 100 paratrooper vets and only 2 brought home a helmet and neither one had anything painted on it.

 

I had dinner at Dick Winters house years ago and several 506 vets were present and none of them brought home their helmets.

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23 minutes ago, manayunkman said:

I’ve talked to over 100 paratrooper vets and only 2 brought home a helmet and neither one had anything painted on it.

 

I had dinner at Dick Winters house years ago and several 506 vets were present and none of them brought home their helmets.

Are you sure? Jake Powers was a tight friend with Dick Winters and he did bring a helmet home. Not sure if it was his painted 501st, but it was his and it was A/B.

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51 minutes ago, ccmax said:

What you think Bando means when he says the helmets were destroyed? Scrapped or turned into swivel bails?

I never understood that statement either, not sure what he meant would love to ask him if i see him at a show, must mean they were painted over or destroyed/buried if they were broken from battle damage?

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4 hours ago, manayunkman said:

Jake Powers was not present.

What??? I never said Jake was at your dinner. I'm stating that there was a helmet that Winters brought home. So my question was: Did Dick Winters say he did not bring his helmet home? Because, the fact was, that he did.

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18 minutes ago, Bugme said:

What??? I never said Jake was at your dinner. I'm stating that there was a helmet that Winters brought home. So my question was: Did Dick Winters say he did not bring his helmet home? Because, the fact was, that he did.


Very sorry I thought you said Powers brought a helmet home.

 

And yes Winters brought home a helmet but it was his Korean era helmet not his WW2 helmet.

 

 

 

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3 hours ago, ccmax said:

What you think Bando means when he says the helmets were destroyed? Scrapped or turned into swivel bails?

Maybe they were sold/transferred to foreign militaries after the war, in a refurbished condition, as a way of resupplying depleted foreign stocks? Good as any other explanation I suppose. 

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The one helmet sold for $24,500.00

 

I cant imagine spending that kind of money on a helmet.

 

I wouldn’t even enjoy having it.

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Burning Hazard

From what I read is that at the end of the war, helmets were collected en-masse, some stayed in Europe to outfit local police units while the rest went back to the US. In the states, helmets were re-painted and re-issued for the Korean War as well as some being scrapped for metal. Also, the US would sell thousands of M1 helmets to other countries (Canada bought 60,000+ M1 helmets from the US in the 1960's, many are still here littering surplus shops).

Also, some helmets ended up getting surplused as seen with VFW WWII liners, soap box racer helmets, and kiddie painted helmets from battle of the back yard.

 

Pat

M1 helmet repainting 1945.jpg

Helmets Collected.jpg

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Great information Pat! All I know is if I was going to spend that much money on a helmet, it would have to be presented to me by the Vet himself.. with a few rifles thrown in.. ;D 

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1 hour ago, elh1311 said:

Maybe they were sold/transferred to foreign militaries after the war, in a refurbished condition, as a way of resupplying depleted foreign stocks? Good as any other explanation I suppose. 

This indeed hapenned a lot.

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