I don’t have many helmets that are "top shelf" but this certainly is one for me.

Back in February 2013 I saw this for sale on a local bulletin board out of Denver Colorado….. remember I’m 8,000 miles away in Sydney!!! ( gotta love the internet!!) I quickly contacted the seller for better photos and found the granddaughter of a WW2 veteran who along with her mother was clearing out boxes of her late grandfather’s personal items. The old boy never threw stuff away and it was all too hard to sort it out after his passing …. until now. Bills had to be paid and all that junk must be worth something, right? …. and there among his stuff was an ‘old helmet from the war’. Not much point keeping it mother said, better sell it on…

So what I ended up with was a ‘corker’ of a M35 that has lived the last 70 years hidden away in a trunk in a Denver attic ( seriously!! ) It is a SE made, size 66 with a lot number of 4647 ( which Brian Ice puts at early 1940 production but was a DD originally … which is odd as the shield removal date was early 1940 too?? )

at some point it has a respray and reissue ( & overpainting of the shield - which may mean it was a depot respray? ) I particularly like the way the feldgrau has covered the tricolour but the eagle was masked over…. just. I can’t make out the chinstrap manufacturer “G Schaus? Gutenburg 4/4?”

I reckon it still looks the same as when the soldier picked it up back then - no cleaning, no fiddling, – just a neat original Heer reissue ( still with some mud stuck in the vent hole )

Hope you all enjoy the time capsule! ( notice how the colour changes from outside to under flouro lights )

Cheers, Dan

Click to enlarge the picture