|
This is the story of the restoration of an American M1 helmet shell. It had started its life as a fixed bale front seamed pot and come through various owners before being finally rescued.
In February 2007 I received an email from a good friend and collector of German militaria regarding a helmet he had recently purchased. My attention was drawn to the prominent 88th Infantry Division markings "Blue Devils". This unit had fought bravely on the Italian front with heavy losses. However this was not the only marking visible. Beneath the 88th Division cloverleaf was the famous Red Bull markings of the 34th Infantry Division. This unit had also fought with great spirit in the Italian campaign and is generally considered to be the best American Division to have fought in this theatre.
Whether a painted insignia is original or not is never easy to tell. Unlike German decals there were no official patterns for US unit insignia, so that there are many styles and using different paint types. At the wars end some units did have decals, but these were usually applied to liners only.
The paint on this helmet however looked old and original. The existence of two different unit insignia on the helmet made it curious and so I told my friend that , in my best opinion at the time I was only 50% sure it was entirely original.
The second thing that attracted attention however was the general condition of the shell. The helmet had survived the war with just a few minor scratches on the two original layers of paint along with the usual vertical cracks found on nearly all early M1 shells.
After the war the shell appeared to have been used as a bucket by a builder as there were traces of lime on the inside. At some time after this another owner, perhaps a child had sought to "tidy" up the shell by painting the inside a lurid green and filled in the outer dents and cracks with filler before painting it white. The result was a shell only fit for the bin, all value lost.
After many years another collector had obtained the shell and decided to make some effort to restore it. This owner had removed most of the outside layer of filler and paint but left all the green on the inside. Due to the condition of the shell this collector gave up on it and sold it. It was then that my friend came to own it.
|
|
