Disproportional amount of "Jansens"

Jaap Verduijn

Jaap Verduijn

New member
A silly question, that for some reason popped up in my silly mind. In the days of my large Pickelhauben collection in the 1980's/early 1990's, I had a disproportionally large number of helmets made/stamped by Julius Jansen in Strassbourg. If I remember correctly, one or possibly even two (!) out of every three marked helmets were Jansen's. Those were the pre-internet days, so all helmets were bought on militaria fairs/shows and in some of my favourite militaria shops here in the Netherlands.

Did Julius Jansen indeed make such an overwhelming number of Pickelhauben that the chance of buying a "Jansen" was/is disproportionally big? Does anybody else here have a similar experience, i.e. having a relatively "too" large number of helmets from the same maker?
 
They were relatively large and won a series of contracts from the war ministry to supply different Army corps. similar to the American war bond helmets many access helmets in depots were purchased in mass. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense that there were a lot of helmets specifically marked to Janssen that came out of one depot. For instance, look at the train Battalion number eight helmets in the American war bond world.

ps1082 by Joe Robinson, on Flickr
 
joerookery said:
For instance, look at the train Battalion number eight helmets in the American war bond world.
Click to expand...

Tell me more about these. As I have two marked to TB8. Thanks
 
Jaap,
I never paid much attention, but now that you mention it, my collection seems to have a preponderance of "Clemen" and "C.E. Juncker".
I don't have a single Jansen.
Just the luck of the draw I guess.

John :)
 
Tell me more about these. As I have two marked to TB8. Thanks
Click to expand...


Friday Feb 7, 1919 THE STARS AND STRIPES newspaper, Page 1, Column 1:
“85,750 Shiny Ones on Way to American
Prussian Guards’ Helmets will help sale of Liberty Bonds
The doughboy guards at Coblenz who kept the keys to the German warehouses where 85,750 Shiny Prussian Guards helmets were stacked are restored to good nature. They eat normally, and no longer dream of great helmet robbery mysteries. For the helmets are out of their custody at last and on their way back to the States. The warehouse keys arent’t needed any longer. The helmets are to be handed out back home to buyers of bonds of the Fight Liberty Loan.
Meanwhile, traders on the AEF souvenir bourse are eagerly watching the tape for the first transatlantic quotation on Helmets.
Word of the 85,750 helmets in one buiding leaped back through the AEF almost before the advance guard of the Third Army settled in Coblenz. Mails from the rear areas of the AEF to the Army of Occupation grew unaccountably large. Every man in the A of O had from six to 60 friends whose latest letters always said after speaking pointedly of lugers and mausers and iron crosses: “And of course I am relying on you to get one of those 85,000 helmets for me.”
The pressure of visitors to the warehouse grew so strong that the chief salvage officer at Third Army Headquarters posted a big sign: No More Helmets Given Out.” (The citation was found by Keith Gill.)
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for this very interesting article ! I have a FR 73 helmet with writen inside the Name of à US soldier and "Koblenz".
I think that in these 85000 helmets, there were too a stock of FAR 44 because of the number of helmets and Uberzug you can find today in USA.
 
https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/86853731/new-york-multitudes-launch-5th-liberty-loan-drive-william.html
 
James has a copy of the advertisement for war bond helmets somewhere around here. It is absolutely great.
 
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