Helmet badges

Dragos - You are correct. The helmet plates used on the Dutch helmets as well as the Adrian helmets were subdued. They were painted black or the same color of the helmet. Not Likely a target. Alot of helmets found today by collectors are found to have the paint worn off and the helmet plates polished. Most of these plates were made of bronze or brass and polish up very nicely. Unfortunately, this is not how they wore them in combat. Therefore I disagree with the Bullseye theory. I beleive it was all political after the fall of Carol 2. This de-identification was done on everything. Helmets, badges, dogtags, shoulder boards, etc.

This is indeed surprising as I have heard that front line units removed very quickly the plates when they discovered that they "catch bullets" thus increasing the risk for a fatal wound.

Carol I

Hello,

I just read this old post after googling at Romanian Helmet.
I am from the Netherlands and can tell that the story of removing the helm plates to avoid that bullets get grip is true. Many commanders of Dutch army units gave order to remove the plates at the moment they heard of the invasion by the Germans in the Netherlands. At the museum of Kornwerderzand there is a helmet of a soldier who didn't, a bullethole showes that it had been better to remove the plate.

Is it difficult to find old Romanian helmets?

Best regards,

Mathieu.

A nice link to Dutch helmets: http://wo2forum.nl/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=15434