I was watching the History Channel and they were showing a bunch of newsreel footage of Hitler and all the soldiers lined up on parade for him and the footage was about 1940 era. They showed some soldiers with black helmets but the bottom flange of the helmets were slightly bigger than the normal type of German helmets worn by the army. I was wondering how many versions of this helmet did the Germans use. I have seen others from WWI that look like they have large rivets on top of the helmet. I have also seen footage of Japanese soldiers using a slightly different version of the German helmet, but I am not sure what service they were in for the Japanese military. Can anyone educate me about this ?
I found this confusing, too, Ta what with M35s, M42s, modified M40s etc etc but a while back I found a terrific website which covers the Stahlhelm in almost obsessive detail.... http://www.german-helmets.com/
Hi TA--the "rivits" on the older German helms are called "Lugs"--which were used for attaching their gas-masks on. Possibly you might be thinking of the M-16 Helmet? Of the older style German helmets--I like the Cavalry Helmets--they have a ~~ look to the rims along the sides. I have a nice old press foto from about 1935? that shows a German Cav/Artillery unit on a parade field and you can clearly see their Cav helmets.
Thank you Martin and Carl. The web site really does go into alot of detail, but now I know all about German helmets !! Thank you Carl for letting me know what the lugs were for.
Carl, Don't forget that those lugs were also there to attach secondary armor plating to the helmets to protect snipers' heads as they peeked over the trenches. Langemann
Quite welcome TA and thank you Langemann for the reminder--i'd forgotten about that plate. I saw one for sale recently along with a sniper shield with two holes in it--was way too much out of my price range. It was camo painted and nice looking and complete--leather straps and all.
