M17 Camouflage Painted Helmet

[Don L.]

Multi colored helmet painted in an interesting pattern, thanks for looking.

Regards,

Don

 

[JGC]

Very nice lid.

[Bugme]

Hi Don, Welcome to the forum! I love these camo pattern M1917's, Apparently the German multi-color camo pattern used on their "Stahlhelms" impressed a lot of Doughboys enough to paint their helmets like this once they got home.

[Bob Hudson]

Hi Don, Welcome to the forum! I love these camo pattern M1917's, Apparently the German multi-color camo pattern used on their "Stahlhelms" impressed a lot of Doughboys enough to paint their helmets like this once they got home.

 

It's too bad no one ever got to ask a WWI vet about these because the color palettes and stylings are so identical on most of these that I have to wonder if they done by a some enterprising GI's who set up shop on the voyage home from the war?

 

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Okay I just did a google search and JANE A. KIMBALL , author of Trench Art: An Illustrated History (2004), a comprehensive history of the subject, writes in an article at http://www.themagazineantiques.com/article...he-great-war/3/ -

 

Helmets were sometimes painted with unit insignia during the war to allow soldiers to stay together in the heat of battle. Most painted helmets, however, particularly the more elaborate examples decorated with patriotic designs or in imitation of German camouflage, were made after the war, either while soldiers were waiting for transport ships to take them home or on board ship. The example in Figure 6, known as a memory helmet, is painted on the top with a map of the Western Front. The rim is painted with the soldier’s name, “H. G. Booth,” his unit “110th Trench Mortar Battery,” and “A.E.F. France 1918.19.”

 

I like that name for the highly decorated helmets, "memory helmet."

 

We have a couple of forum threads about WWI painted helmets. The one at http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...?showtopic=4139 is quite long and show many with the unit insignia using during the war as well as many apparently painted on the way home including this "memory helmet"

 

[HelmetGuy]

Don,

 

Great looking camo. Thanks for showing it.

[P-E]

Here's another one for sale on ebay ;

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/WW1-US-Helmet-M1917-Do...=item19b8eb0cb2