German M-42 helmet find

Hello friends:

A good friend found this helmet for me at a local fair for me two weeks.

It is a M-42 German helmet in original condition, with liner never removed and original chinstrap. The liner is dated 6-43 and the size is 59.
The paint is somewhat altered by a (probable abrassive cleaning) and it's hard to say if this is a green Heer color or a Luftwaffe grey-bleu one. There are no decals (most helmets after 1943 were not fitted with any I beleive) .
The chinstrap is intact except a weakness. The liner was all black and greasy which I manged to removed and get the orignal brwon color back .
The M-1942 dust glasses were not with it but I couldn't resist adding those .

 

Oooh! You make me so jealous with your finds, Skip.

Is the manufacturers code readable ?

 

Very nice indeed - a superb find

 

Thank you gentlemen, that makes two M-42 models found at flea markets this year (the other one is my Km one) .

The nicest thing about this is that it proves that in 2010 such items still pop up on fairs from time to time. Would you believe me if I told you I started my collcetion in 2007 only?

 

Yes.

( )

 

Well, Im green with envy , super find and the dust goggles are a nice touch

 

I lost my father's M-42 when I was little. Back then only thought of playing soldier. One of us had to be the Germans ...Right? So trying to be as authethic as any 10 year old could be, I "borrowed" my Dads (without asking permission of course - details details) from his den and proceded to wow my friends. I was the big kid on the block then. Bad part I had taken it off because I was tired, sweaty and well hungry too. So I said my goodbyes only concerned with Dinner and forgot it.

Dad found out and lets say my behind was tanned. I tried to find it but never did. So if anyone has one for sale would love to replace the missing one for my father.

v/r

Obstlt

 

Sorry to hear about your dad's helmet. I hope you"ll find another one in the future.
I'm so happy to have this one. It's the only complete M-42 model I have for now (my Kriegsmarine model has everything but the liner) .

 

Nice find, Congrats!

 

I am going to leave it as such, no dodgy cleaning, no decals, just respect the lid and leave it as it was almost 70 years ago. Does anybody know the meaning of the three letters ( HBN ? ) Is it a maker?

 

could it be 'RBN' Reichsbetreibsnummer?

German-Helmets.com

 

That's it Nigel, especially as it's followed by a number (see pic 4 on post one) . Thanks for the information.

 

Can you read the number at all? - there's some (although not complete) info available about which RBNr. is what and what the parts of the number mean.

should be in the form */****/****

probably not too important, but seems fun to try and decode it

 

There are numbers like you mention with slashes separating them like this ./..../.... but they are hard to read on the picture. I would need to take off the lace and read directly from the helmet. I will do so, but am currently not near it, so I'll check asap, thanks again for your help .

 

An excellent found!

 

I appreciate this post because I can finally get a good look at the leather inside the helmet. Although I am very amazed that you managed to get your hands on this because you can not see the Eagle nor the National Shield on either side. The reason this is, is because the colour and shine of those insignia's can give away a man from quite a distance and this can easily get a man killed, so German soldiers painted over them. Also for more on it: Some troops would use straps from their bread bags to attach foliage to the helmet for extra camoflauge purposes.

Im still learning so please can we get some experts here or maybe some links? I'm having a hard time finding too much on this helmet, the one link is good but not enough for my satisfaction.

 

Very Nice! Rich A. in Pa.

 

Thanks Rich , it's one of my favorite helmets, even though it has no insignias.

 

It is nice. I have one that was overpainted but you can see the shield shape. Rich A. in Pa.