Hello – I am new to the group and wanted to talk about Guard Division M-16 helmets. I enjoyed the 10th co helmet posted earlier and wanted to share some pics. I visited the Meuse-Argonne battlefields a few years ago – where the US Army fought its biggest battle ever – over 1 million US soldiers under US generals. The battle started on 26 Sept 1918 and ended when the war ended on Nov 11th. As a result, the US soldiers picked up a significant number of Guard Division steel helmets as souvenirs. The German 1st, 3rd and 5th Guard Divisions fought the Americans during this battle. We all know there is documentation that the 1st Guard Regt wore the black and white insignia on their helmets. In his book, Baer shows several examples. I am not convinced that the 3rd or 5th Guard Divisions didn’t also wear the emblem – but that is still to be proven. The 1st Guard Div fought against the US 35th division and also against elements of the US 28th and 91st Div around Cheppy and Varennes. The 3rd Guard fought the Americans at Romagne (where the US cemetery is located). Finally, the 5th Guard Div reinforced the 1st around Montblaineville.
In his excellent book on the Meuse-Argonne “To Conquer Hell” Edward Lengel talks about a Sgt Triplet from the 35th US Div who believed that the battlefield helmet he captured had the “…coat of arms of the fifth Prussian Guards”. Did other guard units wear the emblem?
The 1st Guard Div lost over 4,000 during this last battle of the war, so I believe that the majority of the authentic Guard helmets ended up in the US as souvenirs of American soldiers.
I am posting pics of the emblems on the 7 different Guard Div steel helmets that I own. I apologize for quality of the pics. Some are camo and some are not. One in particular is named inside to a LT Siddel and is not camo’ed. This helmet came from a source in the US, so I am not sure if all staff and support troops were wearing camo in Sept 1918
In his excellent book on the Meuse-Argonne “To Conquer Hell” Edward Lengel talks about a Sgt Triplet from the 35th US Div who believed that the battlefield helmet he captured had the “…coat of arms of the fifth Prussian Guards”. Did other guard units wear the emblem?
The 1st Guard Div lost over 4,000 during this last battle of the war, so I believe that the majority of the authentic Guard helmets ended up in the US as souvenirs of American soldiers.
I am posting pics of the emblems on the 7 different Guard Div steel helmets that I own. I apologize for quality of the pics. Some are camo and some are not. One in particular is named inside to a LT Siddel and is not camo’ed. This helmet came from a source in the US, so I am not sure if all staff and support troops were wearing camo in Sept 1918

















