Experimental bavarian alpine troops' spiked helmets.

[Zebedeus]

At the beginning of 1915 the Bavarian war ministry, wishing to equip its Alpine troops, with a headgear that combined the tradition of the pickelhaube with the operational needs of troops operating in very severe climatic conditions, gave orders to prepare a new type of headgear that would then be teste.
The result was a very particular headdress that certainly have hybrid characteristics between a pickelhaube mod. 15 and alpine troops' feldmutze.
These experimental bavarian helmets are particularly rare and, as far as I know, there are only 4 examples in the world.

Two of these are in the Bayerische Armeemuseum in Ingolstädt, another one is in a museum in the city of Hamburg and the last one sleeps in my collection.

This photo, taken from the net, shows the display window of the ingolstadt museum.

 

[Zebedeus]

The four spiked helmets are however quite different from each other. Although produced with the exact same materials, they have different characteristics, so much so that they have been presented as different models (first model, 2 model….).
In my opinion this classification is wrong, as I would not speak of models but of variants of an experimental propotype to be presented to the Kriegministerium for possible adoption and mass production. The manufacturer has tried to propose different construction details starting from the same basic helmet.
Note the differences in this close up of the Bayerische Armeemuseum of Ingolstadt.

 

[Zebedeus]

In the first example visible on the right the helmet is fitted with a leather chin strap fixed to the tile by means of the standardized Knopf 91 system. In rest position remains folded over the chinstrap (which is no longer visible) and fixed on the front with 4 bone buttons. If you want if you want to know more, I suggest you consult the book "The German Army in the first world war - Jurgens Kraus - Verlag Militaria" pag. 78-79.
On the sides it presents the two medium-sized rosettes. (the reichkokarde on the right side and the landkokarde on the left side) mounted directly on the tile in a higher position than the fixing point of the chin strap.

2) The second example, also from the Ingolstadt museum, is provided with a chinstrap in canvas identical to the canvas of the tile fixed with two smooth buttons and with a flattened shape, and does not have the two protective flaps for the nape and cheeks. The two rosettes are smaller, identical to the type used on schirmmütze and which are mounted in the inverted position with respect to the norm.

 

[Zebedeus]

The third example of the Hamburg museum is also devoid of the neck-guard roll but retains the leather chin strap fixed by means of the Knopf 91 index attachments. Of this one i cant’ be able to have a photo. If anyone has a picture of it, I would be grateful if they post it to complete the thread.

 

[Zebedeus]

The last example, the one in my possession is equipped with a neck roll / paraguance, while the chin strap is in canvas with slots and metal barb and is fixed directly on the ends of the paraguance. The cocades are of the small model as in the 2nd example of the Ingolstadt Museum.
and these are some photos:

 

[J.LeBrasseur]

I had no idea these existed, this is a awesome new thread, thanks for sharing!

James

 

[b.loree]

Excellent Zeb, thanks for posting this! I also had no idea these models existed. 👍

 

[SkipperJohn]

Very informative.
Thank you.

John

 

[JohnS3rd]

Zeb
Great information on yet another little known type of pickelhaube that is out there looking to be found.
Thanks
John

 

[Sandmann]

Thank you for sharing

 

[Pontiac9999]

WOW, Thank you so much Zebedeus for sharing, it's always nice to see the super rare stuff up close! Stunning piece!!