In the early stages of collecting Transitional helmets had less appeal to me , in the stage where I am at now I absolutly adore them.

Before the war soldiers wore these helmets before the M35 shell came into mass production. We know the SS used black Austrian shells , first with painted insignia and later with decals.

Transitional helmets were pretty much used during the entire war.
Germans soldiers were wearing them during the Blitzkrieg in Poland , the low countries and France.
Almost all double decal.

Mid to late war single decalled Transitionals popped up and a lot of them reissued in 1942/43 and 44. Repainted and re-decalled and often also re-linered.
Seen on photos of the Normandy campaign and Volkssturm.

Because there are so many configurations it is often really hard to date these helmets , especially the double decalled ones.
In my opinion the earliest ones carried a Pocher decal or a W Abels decal. The W Abels decal never really got used in quantity on any M35 shells.

I’ll show you some examples.

I acquired this one this month :
M16 shell with Pocher decal and early WW1 style liner.
Part of the WW1 chinstrap was included.

Click to enlarge the picture