Patton's Souvenir

poniatowski

poniatowski

Well-known member
Charles Lemons, a friend and former curator of the Patton Museum of Cavalry and Armor at Fort Knox, sent me these photos of a Kuerassier helmet brought back after WWI by then Colonel(?) George S. Patton.
It's an odd helmet IMHO, because of a few things: 1) It looks at first like a standard M15 Kuerassier, until one notices the silver plate. 2) Inside of the helmet are some scratched through areas in the paint that Charles described as 'brass' (tombak). 3) The chinstrap has brass fittings 4) The outside of the helmet is not painted, but looks like steel.
A war time converted 6th Kuerassier? A parts helmet even then? What do you folks think? .. other than the cockades being switched :P

:D Ron

Kurassier2.jpg



Kurassier5.jpg



Kurassier4.jpg



Kurassier1.jpg



Kurassier7.jpg



Kurassier3.jpg



Kurassier6.jpg


Unfortunately, the helmet is now at Fort Benning, GA and Charles can no longer access it to see if there are marks under the cockades. I believe he may be working on that though.. we'll see. :)

:D Ron
 
I think the inside is repainted, you can even see a green spot of on the back of the outside, so it wasn't done with great care... I also think it's a standard M15 Kurassierhelm with the wrong helmet plate on it...

Adler
 
Yes, I noticed the repaints too on the front visor and a spot on the neck guard. Probably some museum 'conservationist' in the past.. or even a family member. However, I still wonder about the areas that have been scraped through to the base metal. Why would it look brass?
I agree that it looks like a standard M15, but I can't explain the scrapes.


:D Ron
 
This is strange because if you look at "latest find" section, under "GdC out of the woodwork", I describe similar helmets.
If these spots are in actual fact showing up Brass in the inside and are just not some kind of coloured smudges,, then it may be that this is a wartime EM's 6th cuirassier helmet which has had the plating removed, It wouldn't be a difficult job to polish off the plating.

It would be interesting to find out if the edging is silver under the grey paint.

If it is indeed brass plated under the paint, then it's the first plated enlisted mans helmet I have seen. All have been officer quality.
 
I wish Charles still had this at Fort Knox, so he could look at it and comment. Now that it's in the reloctated collection down at Benning, I don't know if its accessible or not. I've asked him to contact the curator there to take a look under the cockades (since they have to be switched anyway). I think that might just answer all of the questions I personally have with this piece.
He stated that the helmet shell was not painted, but looked like steel and I don't know about the trim, but it looks painted to me... but again, having it in one's hands would help.

:D Ron
 
poniatowski said:
I wish Charles still had this at Fort Knox, so he could look at it and comment. Now that it's in the reloctated collection down at Benning, I don't know if its accessible or not. I've asked him to contact the curator there to take a look under the cockades (since they have to be switched anyway). I think that might just answer all of the questions I personally have with this piece.
He stated that the helmet shell was not painted, but looked like steel and I don't know about the trim, but it looks painted to me... but again, having it in one's hands would help.
Having volunteered at the museum for almost a decade, I never saw this piece, but I have seen a lot of the helmets and such that Patton brought back. I can say this for him, he had a eye for things that were out of the ordinary and above average.

:D Ron
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