Wappen question

aicusv

aicusv

Well-known member
A friend of mine recently picked up a very nice OR helmet. the rear visor is very nicely marked for 163 Reserve Infantry Regiment. The helmet is complete except for the Wappen. He wants to replace it, should it have or not have a reserve cross?
If all the reserve regiments and Landwehr units had crosses on their Wappen, where are all those plates? Shouldn't there be twice as many with crosses then without?

Another interesting thing thing about my friends helmet, it is a veteran bring back, WWII vet and brought back from Guam in 1945.
 
Hard to believe that I actually wrote this eight years ago. I am getting old. Fair question.

http://www.pickelhauben.net/articles/cross2.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


The other side of this coin has to do with RJR 163. We do not have a picture of that Mark and would be quite interested in getting a picture of it for the list. RJR 163 is an entirely different story.. may we see the mark?
 
I will try and get a photo of the markings (may take a few weeks before I can meet up with him again). The helmet had a cover that was marked for a Guard battalion and has a name tag in it. I'll rty and get photos of that as well.

But, would it be correct to put just a line eagle plate on this helmet?
 
Here is the deal – I am having a very hard time placing RJR 163. Active unit yes. Reserve unit no. Landwehr no. This does not mean that it did not exist in some form I just cannot place it. So until we see the mark I would have to say it is a mystery. As far as the guard unit that does not surprise me. Many units that were reserve were formed from or out of elements that had that moniker originally. For instance I have a wonderfully marked helmet to RJR 254. There is a name tag inside of it that lists the soldiers ranks as Guardist. makes no sense until you find out that RJR 254 was primarily made up of soldiers from the ersatz battalion of JR 115.
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Whatever it is it is probably Schleswig-Holsteinisches so it would use a standard Prussian plate.
 
Thanks.
The name tag in the cover identifies the rank as grenadier. There is another unit stamp in the cover but has been inked over and can't be made out.
 
Finding a spike helmet souvenir on Guam in WW 2 is exceptional. However, there was a wave of spiked helmets brought back from Europe by vets after 1945. They were still a popular souvenir and the Germans were desperate to support themselves by selling anything of value. Cigarettes dominated the black market....I worked on a Bavarian officer helmet years ago and got the following story from the owner....His father was a US military officer stationed in Germany after the war, his mother who was also living there bought two helmets for her young sons back home....a carton of cigarettes for each.
 
For a while after WW2, Germans were prohibited from having anything military. Some of my Father's friends had been high positions of the occupation forces. They brought back all types of "cool" stuff. Some of it ended up at our home, until the US government decided it should be retuned to Germany in the 1950's.
My Dad was also involved in getting some items returned to German collectors, with whom he had had contact before the war.
 
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