Garde M16 Helmet Surprise

M

Melf

New member
Hello! A few months ago I bought an M16 helmet from the USA. It was a normal one, ET62, without liner, and was cracked on the top, but had some period paint left, so I liked it.

When it arrived, and I was inspecting it I discovered the remains of a painted decal on it's left side. It was a Prussian Foot Guards helmet, sadly the paint on the back was missing so I'll never know which company it was part of, but for less than 120 USD it was a good deal and a nice surpise. The helmet must have been a bring back by an american soldier, since the Guards surrendered to them and most of their helmets are in the USA currently.

Here are the pictures (red is the outline vaguely made by me):
View attachment 1
 
I always thought that these were worn by 1 Garde Regt. zu Fuss with the Hohenzollern Shield .
A collector friend said that he thinks the helmets were worn by all of the 1st Garde Division .
Does anyone have reference on this ?
Thanks
Steve McFarland
 
Steve,
I’m with you, I think only the one regiment wore them. Most of the ones I’ve seen have the company number on them. Also, if they were worn by an entire division, I would think they would be more common than they are. In my 50 years of collecting I have pulled many, many M16s out of attics, barns and basements, but never saw a Garde marked helmet in the wild.

Steve
 
ottodog8 said:
Steve,
I’m with you, I think only the one regiment wore them. Most of the ones I’ve seen have the company number on them. Also, if they were worn by an entire division, I would think they would be more common than they are. In my 50 years of collecting I have pulled many, many M16s out of attics, barns and basements, but never saw a Garde marked helmet in the wild.

Steve
Click to expand...

Really ?

You are lucky !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here in the NOLA area I have found only 2 WW2 M-35 shells

I did a job for a guy who had a nice firemans helmet with comb. He did not want to part with it.

I did anothe job for a guy down in Chalmet . It was a Luftshultz but the decal was on a flaired radio / ear cut out helmet with full liner !!!!

That was about 27 years ago but I cannot remmeber if it was a M-16 liner or M-35

But he did not want to part with it .

Iknow his house flodded and I wish I knew what ever happened to that helmet.

Luftshultz don't go for a lot of money but I am sure that this one would have !!!!
 
I tend to agree . If worn by an entire Division , I think that we would see more of them .
Here is what I found to be in the
1.Garde Division ;
1 G R zu Fuss
3 G R z F
Garde Jager Batl.
Lehr. Inf. Batl.
2 G R zu Fuss
Garde Fusilier Regt.
4 G R zu Fuss
1. Garde Field Artillery Regt.
3 G Field Artillery Regt.

7 regiments
and 2 Batls.
That's a lot of helmets !

Steve McFarland
 
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