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WWII Numbered FS/FB Helmet


MinorInHistory
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MinorInHistory

Hello folks,

 

My history teacher has this helmet in his classroom, and I’m looking for information for him. It’s a FS/FB shell with the numbers 288 across the front. Does anyone know what this denotes? Also, the heat stamp is 219A, what period would that be? Thanks!

C1DB0587-BB32-4B93-8BFD-A71347541389.jpeg

EDCB42AA-B41A-4D54-A38A-0F218DC8EDA7.jpeg

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Very hard to say with any sort of certainty unfortunately. These helmets were numbered for a variety of reasons. Often times you'll see navy helmets numbered to indicate station/rack/something else on a ship. Outside of the navy helmets were sometimes numbered for training as a way to quickly identify the wearers or any number of reasons that have been lost to time.

 

Based on the wear and what looks like soap scum in the crown of this helmet I'd guess it's probably not navy but beyond that I can't say. Either way I like it a lot!

 

 

Here are a couple numbered hemlets from my collection

 

I've been told this one might have been either a roster number or property number

IMG_20190910_094608.jpg.142d7179fef1d26fb7689a37bac460a9.jpg

 

Without much to go on it's tough to say whether this was marked for training or some other purpose.

IMG_20200520_173740.jpg.627cb1f353c017e9c366a15619e06f78.jpg

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53 minutes ago, Nickman983 said:

Very hard to say with any sort of certainty unfortunately. These helmets were numbered for a variety of reasons. Often times you'll see navy helmets numbered to indicate station/rack/something else on a ship. Outside of the navy helmets were sometimes numbered for training as a way to quickly identify the wearers or any number of reasons that have been lost to time.

 

Based on the wear and what looks like soap scum in the crown of this helmet I'd guess it's probably not navy but beyond that I can't say. Either way I like it a lot!

 

 

Here are a couple numbered hemlets from my collection

 

I've been told this one might have been either a roster number or property number

IMG_20190910_094608.jpg.142d7179fef1d26fb7689a37bac460a9.jpg

 

Without much to go on it's tough to say whether this was marked for training or some other purpose.

IMG_20200520_173740.jpg.627cb1f353c017e9c366a15619e06f78.jpg


I used to own the 19 lid and liner. Loved it, and matching lids and liners in general. Only have one left in my much smaller remaining collection.

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5 hours ago, HoovieDude said:


I used to own the 19 lid and liner. Loved it, and matching lids and liners in general. Only have one left in my much smaller remaining collection.

Yup! It's been one of my favorites ever since I picked it up from you a few years ago. I'm with you on the matching sets, it feels like they're becoming harder and harder to find. It's always a good day when I can add another honest matching shell/liner to the collection.

 

The other 3 numbered/letter helmets I have were either missing liners or were likely married with a liner.

 

Back to the OP's other question regarding the heat stamp, 219A would be early war production. There are heat stamp date charts that can be used to "approximate" when the helmet was manufactured but they need to be taken with a huge grain of salt of trying to pinpoint a month and year. Here's a thread with a great article on why the date charts aren't super accurate.

 

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