ww1czechlegion
Well-known member
I found this at the recent O.V.M.S. Ohio Show last Friday.
Nicely marked to the 30th Pioneer Regiment, dated 1913. A nice large size 59 helmet, marked on underside of back visor. A very small Depot issue mark on visor reads: "B.A. VIII" with a tiny date below, which I guess would most likely match the larger 1913 date inside the helmet. Looks like the former owner/wearer marked the visor with his initials "H F".
Unfortunately the front visor trim is split completely in half. I seem to find them this way quite frequently as of late. How did they ever get split completely in half like this? It's the million dollar question for me. It takes a considerable amount of bending back and forth to split this metal in half. I have 6 or 7 spare Neusilber visor trim pieces. Hopefully one will match up on this larger size helmet. The dealer who found this helmet out of the woodwork drilled two very tiny holes in the back side of the visor trim halves, and wired them together with a small piece of wire. It does the job for now, keeping the trim in place on the visor. Otherwise he said the visor trim halves would fall off the front visor, pivoting on the domed split brads at the sides of the visor.
Helmet came with a nice M15 pigskin leather chinstrap with steel fittings which I can use on one of my M15 helmets. I replaced it with a nice spare original Pioneer chinstrap with Neusilber fittings that I had waiting at home. I also added a Prussian kokarde which had been missing from the helmet. I swapped out the National kokarde that came with the helmet for a much nicer example which matches the condition of this helmet. The white ring was almost entirely missing on the kokarde that came with this helmet.
Best Wishes,
Alan
Nicely marked to the 30th Pioneer Regiment, dated 1913. A nice large size 59 helmet, marked on underside of back visor. A very small Depot issue mark on visor reads: "B.A. VIII" with a tiny date below, which I guess would most likely match the larger 1913 date inside the helmet. Looks like the former owner/wearer marked the visor with his initials "H F".
Unfortunately the front visor trim is split completely in half. I seem to find them this way quite frequently as of late. How did they ever get split completely in half like this? It's the million dollar question for me. It takes a considerable amount of bending back and forth to split this metal in half. I have 6 or 7 spare Neusilber visor trim pieces. Hopefully one will match up on this larger size helmet. The dealer who found this helmet out of the woodwork drilled two very tiny holes in the back side of the visor trim halves, and wired them together with a small piece of wire. It does the job for now, keeping the trim in place on the visor. Otherwise he said the visor trim halves would fall off the front visor, pivoting on the domed split brads at the sides of the visor.
Helmet came with a nice M15 pigskin leather chinstrap with steel fittings which I can use on one of my M15 helmets. I replaced it with a nice spare original Pioneer chinstrap with Neusilber fittings that I had waiting at home. I also added a Prussian kokarde which had been missing from the helmet. I swapped out the National kokarde that came with the helmet for a much nicer example which matches the condition of this helmet. The white ring was almost entirely missing on the kokarde that came with this helmet.
Best Wishes,
Alan
