My friend said the Finnish volunteers for Waffen-SS got their helmet in pure form that is in iron "colour" and painted the helmet to their liking. Is this true, and did the Allied do the same thing?
Doesn't sound accurate to me. Helmets from all nations were normally painted by the manufacturers according to the contract under which they were procured. The military tends to prefer uniformity when it comes to appearance. Many helmets had rack numbers, unit markings or camouflage paint schemes applied to them after issue but these too mostly conformed to a style or pattern that was authorized from above. Remember, the military tends to frown upon individuality. I believe thatcher was, however, a Finnish unit that painted skulls on its helmets, something like this . . .
