Prussian Garde M15. Mystery.

S

spikeymikey

Member
Ebay 6609619656. This is marked to BA XVIII which I think is usually consistent with Hessian troops, but it's a Prussian Garde helmet supposedly. There are no extra holes behind the plate but maybe the plate has been altered to fit. I remember seeing one marked like this on Weitze's site so I looked and it is still there - Cat No. 69240. Marked 'RBA 18' I think, with exactly the same makers stamp, 'Maury and Co.'. A strange coincidence maybe? In any case I would be deterred from buying a helmet fitted with a Garde plate and not marked to a Garde Corps. But could there be a logical explaination for this marking on two ' Prussian Garde' helmets?
Surely these are bogus? [-X
 
Is there any way that this arrangement, Guard plate with non- Guard BA stamps could be Eisenbahn? :???:
What do you think of the back of that plate Joe? I'm sure I can see ridges from other loop fixings under the paint just above the existing ones?
 
spikeymikey said:
Is there any way that this arrangement, Guard plate with non- Guard BA stamps could be Eisenbahn?
Click to expand...
Very quick Mike. Eisenbahn regts 2 & 3 were in the XVIII AK. Not sure about the wartime placement, but for pre-war yes. And they wore the Garde chicken. Very observant! And here I thought you were just sitting in cafés over there drinking wine and eating cheese.
 
We had a wonderful thread here called "about fakes" where Bruno translated the Lacarde essay on fakes from long ago. It is also that thread where R1, Chas and Gus explained the loops on the back of the pates. I see what you are talking about on the loops but I do not know anything definative. One thing I do know is that makers seem to have spaced grommets the same for their helmets. So plate loops were made to fit a certain maker's distances. You could easily have 2 different plates that fit normally on the same shell.
 
Well, Tony, I'd like to take credit here but it was Chas who suggested Eisenbahn when we were discussing this the other day. I did'nt think that this helmet was 'right' and I was badgering Chas about it. So 'Hat's Off' to the Chasmeister.

Eisenbahn troops were not 'Guard' troops were they? Not 'elite' troops I mean? I know that there was Guard Train but there was no Guard Eisenbahn troops per se - right? I never understood why they got to wear such a prestigious helmet really. Surely the regular Guards must have been peevish about this and there must have been a few bounce-up's because of it. So a non-Guard stamp would be correct for an Eisenbahn helmet?

One more thing about that plate though, does'nt the colour of the reverse look completely different to the colour of the front and the rest of the fittings? It does'nt seem to be putting anyone off too much.
 
Mike,

I know so little about all this that it's dangerous for me to say anything, but I notice that the Eisenbahn-Regiment Nr.1, Eisenbahn-Regiment Nr.4, and the Betriebs-Abteilung der Eisenbahntruppen were all assigned to the Garde-Korps, so perhaps that's why they wore the Garde chicken. :-k
 
Ta, Mike. Thats a point. I think I need to take me 'haube books to the Cafe more often these days. But whats a wine stained, cheese smeared copy of Larcade gonna be worth down the line? :faroah:
 
Mike,

I may need some help from the other amateur historians in the group but I seem to remember reading that the German High Command were pretty switched on when it came to assigning people to handle logistics (Eisenbahn).

I think they understood that fighting a two-front war was going to require consummate planning and lightning reactions (so much for intentions).

I have seen it written a few times, now, that they assigned some of their best people to the Train batallions and then helped them into the "rubber room" a few years later, after they burned out.

A long-winded way of saying I wouldn't discount the value of logistics troops, I think the Bosch were on to something.

Cheers,

Laurie
 
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