As I earlier wrote, I had deciphered another - obviously not german - name hand-written inside the shell: Tom Bowman. I was delighted to receive today a long message from... Tom Bowman Jr. He had sold the helmet on ebay through an organization named Isoldit, which posts items for private sellers; therefore I had not been in touch with him. Tom Jr. is a WWII Air Force veteran and his father Tom served in France as a medic in WW1. He brought this helmet back to the USA and Tom remembers playing with it when he was a kid... The helmet has been in his possession since then.
So much nicer when these helmets come with a history, isnt'it?
Bruno