Does the helmet plate shown in the Johansen book also reveal a similar dotted surface structure as the ones in this thread? Maybe both possibilties were used, the units got a lot of helmets that were stamped by the producer, and another lot with empty plates that were used to add numbers with the stencil as required.
I made a new 1200 dpi scan of the picture I have from GMGA247 (after the old pictures were all taken with my camera). It actually does look like the plate is stamped, not painted. But on the other hand, if there are less than a dozen authentic GMGA helmets known and two of them have painting or no numbers at all, there may be some significance to the use of stencil painting.
Large helmet picture
Maybe I should also provide the full info given in the Württmeberg book about the divisions, as I just noticed something concerning another picture.
The book states that when GMGA250 was sent to the Serbian front Oct. 1st 1915, the following situation was present:
Generalfeldmarschall Mackensen had received the command over the troops on the Serbian front on September the 18th. These comprised the Austrian 3. Army, which was made up of the German XXII Reserve Korps (43. and 44. Reserve Divisions, 26. Württemberg Inf. Division) and the Austrian VIII and XIX Korps. Further, the German 11. Army (General v. Gallwitz) which consisted of the III. A.K. (6. Inf. Division and 25. Reserve Division), the IV. reserve Korps (105. inf. Division and Bavarian 11. Inf Division) and the X. Reserve Korps (101., 103. and 107. Inf Divisons).
The postcard I have of the member from GMGA238 had a stamp from the 11. Bav. Inf. Division, so this GMGA was evidently attached there (which makes sense according to the above info). If we had postcards from all GMGAs with divisional stamps we would finally know how they were all attached.
