Romanian helmets

Thanks. I will try to clean the lether also but what can I use?

Claudiu: great job!
Mihnea: indeed the owner of this helmet was an officer in the Medical Section. Unfortunately his nephew couldn't tell me the exact rank.

Thanks Andi. "Out of topic Did you got my email?"

You can use paint stripper (diluant) or nail cleaner (acetona). But you need to insist a bit to remove the pain from the leather, I never tested it on leather so try it first on a small area, (but I doubt that it would harm the leather).

Good luck.

Claudiu any news on that helmet you were restoring?

Rumanian WW2 helmet with German liner and what the ebay seller says "definitely proper German M40 colour".
Is it for real?





Gen. Dénes

Here is a similar helmet but with decal

Source: www.aboutww2militaria.com

WW2 German/ Nederland M27 re-issued Schuma helmet. The helmet has German M31 liner, dated 1944 year. The decal is about 20%, but this type of decal is very scarce, and we never heard about these type of decals before we've got our first similar helmet The helmet is named Cilitka, and has black finish inside. Very rare example.



This post has been edited by Claudiu1988 on April 12, 2006 02:55 pm

It's probably a fake, it's a repro German liner fitted to a Dutch shell. The Dutch never made something like this.
Is missing one of the rivets, the shell is to clean on the inside around the liner to be there for 60 years, also that paint could be anything it doesn’t look German, it's more Romanian olive green.

An other example of the helmet with the comlete decal.

I think it's an original piece because as you can there are also other examples of this kind of helmets.

And who used these helmets? I mean what branch of the German army?
As they were never used by the Romanian army.

This post has been edited by mihnea on April 12, 2006 03:05 pm

I really don't know. I think the natzi dutch soldgers.

An other interesting helmet. As you can see Dutch M27 helmets were used with german decals.

Source: http://www.germanmilitaria.com

REISSUED DUTCH M27 LUFTSCHUTZ HELMET. (Holländisch Stahlhelm M27)

BACKGROUND: Formed in late 1932 the Deutsches Luftschutzverband, (German Air Protection League), was a voluntary organization designed to provide civil air raid protection in large civilian centers. Shortly after Hitler ascension to power the Deutsches Luftschutzverband was restructured and placed under the supervision of the Reichsluftfahrtministerium, (National Air Ministry), under the control of Hermann Göring. On April 29TH 1933 the Deutsches Luftschutzverband was renamed RLB, Reichs Luftschutz Bund, (National Air Raid Protection League) and was given status as an official national organization tasked with all aspects of civil air raid defence. The RLB remained a voluntary organization with a small cadre of paid, full-time uniformed officials to oversee the organizations functions until June 1935 when obligatory service was introduced. Only the most basic uniform and equipment items were supplied to the cadre personnel, with the rest having to be bought personally by members. On September 26TH 1938 a specific helmet for RLB personnel was introduced that incorporated a raised horizontal "bead" between the visors and crown. These helmets commonly called the "Gladiator" style were supplemented with M35, M40 and M42 helmets that also incorporated a raised horizontal "bead" between the visors and crown. The Luftschutz also utilized a variety of captured helmets. he Dutch army had purchased their helmets from Rumania and modified them by adding the Dutch coat-of-arms to the front center. After the successful invasion of Holland and the capitulation of the Dutch army in May 1940 the Germans appropriated large stockpiles of weapons and equipment including helmets.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Luftschutz reissue, Dutch M27 stamped, sheet steel construction helmet with scalloped sides and an extended, flared, rear neck guard visor. The exterior of the helmet retains about 80% of its dark satin blue over-paint with small areas of chafe wear to the base metal with light surface spotting. The front center of the helmet has a Luftschutz emblem decal positioned above the Dutch coat-of-arms. The black detailed, silver decal features stylized spread wings with a central oak-leaf sprig and a canted swastika positioned below a scripted banner, "Luftschutz". The decal is retained about 70% with some fair sized sections having been chafed off. The brazed on Dutch coat-of-arms features an embossed, crowned, rampant lion clutching a sword in one paw and three arrows in the other paw on a vertically oval base with a horizontally ribbed background field. The reverse neck guard visor has a small horizontal cut-out and a white hand painted name, "Alex". The interior of the helmet is still in its original olive drab paint and a three pad blackened leather liner is fully intact with its original fit adjustment tie string. The liner consists of three separate pads with two fingers to each and an ersatz padding to the reverse. The liner pads each have a stamped, repeating crosshatch pattern and alloy grommets for the tie string. The reverse section of the lining has the addition of a unique, downwardly extended blackened leather panel with an integral fit adjustment strap with a corresponding, sheet metal pronged roller buckle. The helmet comes complete with a blackened leather chinstrap with a sheet metal length adjustment gripper buckle. The chinstrap is secured to the helmets liner band with swivel bale metal loops. The integral liner fit adjustment buckle and the chinstrap buckle both show moderate to heavy rusting but otherwise the helmet is in overall good condition.