Pictured is a World War II German model 1934 Police helmet. The helmet has double decals on either side. One decal is the German Eagle with swaztica in silver and black and wreath of silver and black surrounded in black with a silver colored border representing the German nation. The second decal is the Nazi party flag with swaztica on a white background surrounded by red with a black border this decal represents the Nazi party. The helmet is made of a medium grade steel not used in the combat helmets of the same type. Police helmets were painted black with a brown leather nine tongued liner and black leather chin strap. These helmets were worn by Police unit throughout Germany and the occuipied countries who were not involved in combat operations. The model 1934 helmet was made as a light weight alternative to the much heavier steel combat helmet. Many helmets are found in Antique Malls, Gun and Militaria shows and on line auctions. Experience is the best teacher to collecting these items but there are a few things to look for when deciding whether to buy and old helmet or not. Is it real or a reproduction? First of all if it is a German World War II helmet with a high price tag proceed with caution. Look carefully at the paint job inside and out, smell the helmet. If you smell paint put it down and walk away. No further descussion is needed. A helmet that is 60 plus years old should not smell like paint. If it has a decal check the edges of the decal with your finger. If you can feel the edge of the decal with your finger it is probably a reproduction decal to make the helmet more valuable. These decals were heated when originally placed on the helmet. Original decals are very thin and adhere to the roughness or smoothness of the helmet. If the decal appears thick and covers the texture of the steel then it is probably a fake. If the decal is painted do the smell check. You can also purchase a small battery powered black light to check the paint. If the paint refects or luminates in the black light the paint probably has a synthetic material in it which indicates it was made after World War II and therefore not original to the helmet. Smell the liner inside, if it smells musty like old leather that is a good thing. If it smells new then that’s what it is and not original to the helmet. Look for pry marks inside the helmet around the liner, mix matched or damaged rivets or screws. This might indicate someone as changed or replaced the liner. Maybe the helmet was brought back by a vet without the liner and the new owner wants to increase the value by adding a liner. You can not collect anything without good reference material. You can start with more inexpensive books and create your own library on whatever are your collecting interests . Books with a military interests in mind can be found on line and at some books store although usually very limited. Check used book stores for great deals on some of these books. On line www.idsabooks.com is a good start along with www.schifferbooks.com among others. After you have made your purchase use a damp soft cloth to wipe the inside and outside of the helmet down. Make sure not to get the helmet liner wet and insure the helmet dries and does not rust. A small amount of light oil can be used but it is best to keep this away from the decal which could damage it. Blackrock or other leather cleaner or preservative will work on the chin strap. If the helmet liner does not need these things do not use them. One of the biggest mistakes collectors make is trying to make the item better or newer looking than it is. Preserve and protect the item do not change it. If it has a little rust or wear and tear leave it alone. If you start changing or “improving” the item, the value starts going down fast. And it’s originality and desirablity as a collectable will suffer sometimes to the extreme. I have seen many expensive items reduced to 0 value by well meaning collectors. The retail value on the pictured German Police helmet is $350.00 to $450.00 When looking at these helmets or other collectables take your time and look over the item carefully. Do not be rushed into a purchase and beware of a person selling the item that knows nothing about it. By the same token beware of the good story that seems to accompany some items that people are selling. You will make mistakes it’s all part of that experience I mentioned earlier, get over them and move on. The rare find makes collecting a piece of our history all the more exciting and rewarding. Like my mother once said, “you could have worse hobbies” Thanks, Mom

During the First World War flight was in it’s infancy. Many people had only read about airplanes and the many new inventions relating to flight. New aviation inventions were develped by Germany, France Great Briton, Italy, Austria-Hungary Russia and the U.S. Airplanes at the begining of the war were used mainly for reconnaissance of the enemies supply lines and trench forifications. As the war progressed machine guns were added to airplanes as a defense against attack by other airplanes. These airplanes were made of wood frame with a stretched canvas cover. The pilot had a couple of instrument gauges for gas and altitude and not much else. The pilot’s position in the plane had no armor for his protection and no parachute. His seat was usually on top of the gas tank. The pilot usually worn leather pants, and coat with a scarf and a leather helmet padded with cork or other material to protect against the cold and a crash landing. The helmet shown here is a German World War One helmet made of cork and leather with dust goggles. The large ridge on the helmet’s crown and around the edge gives some added protection in the event of a crash landing. This helmet is valued at $1200 to $1600.00 and is considered rare by collectors. Many pilots were killed when their planes were shot down in flames and crashed having no way to escape from the burning plane. After the war many safety features like armor around the pilot’s seat and parachutes were developed and used due to the high loss of pilots during the First World War. It makes one wonder what made these young men volunteer for flight school and then enter into combat high over the trenches on a wing and a prayer.

At the start of World War II, equipment issued to troops by the Japanese Army typically was based on European designs. As the war progressed, material shortages became extreme and the Japanese took many measures to minimize the use of metal in any form. Metal features such as buckles on packs, helmets and other equipment were replaced by cloth or rubberized leather.

The Army officer’s frame pack shown here is an early war issue of a German design. It features metal roller buckles and rivets. The interior is lined with canvas and has the previous owner’s name (Hiroshi Zaki) painted inside the flap. The pack’s construction and workmanship is of high quality, in stark contrast to later mass production versions made of thin canvas sewn with cloth tie closures.

The approximate value of this item is $275-$350. Packs and other equipment for officers are of higher quality than equipment for enlisted personnel.

The Italian Army wore the French Adrian helmet during World War I, eventually producing its own version known as the Model 1916. All that changed after Benito Mussolini came to power in 1925.

Mussolini introduced a new combat helmet in 1933 as part of his military modernization program. The new Model 1933 featured a deep, one-piece stamped nickel steel shell with an uncrimped rim, and provided good overall protection. Three rivets, which doubled as air vents, secured the metal liner band to the helmet. The liner was leather with eight full tongues, perforated for ventilation and tightened with a leather or cloth drawstring. The green leather chinstrap was secured with a steel buckle. The design was so successful that it remains in use today.

The Model 1933 helmet pictured here is chrome-plated. It was worn by Mussolini’s palace guard, which also carried chromed rifles and wore black uniforms.

This helmet gives new meaning to the term “chrome dome.”

During the First World War, the French soldier was required to carry great deal of equipment inside or attached to his field pack. The type of gear carried by an average soldier today has changed from the equipment carried 90+ years ago. The weight on the other hand has remained about the same at roughly 75 pounds.

During the war years 1914-1918 there was an attempt to make equipment of dual purpose to save weight in the average combat field load. One of these early innovations by the French Army was a combined field mess kit and coffee grinder. These special mess kits were issued about one per company.

The model 1852 mess kit is made of tin-plated steel and is about 6″ in diameter and 3 3/4″ deep with a crank handle and lid. There is a set of grinding teeth inside the small pot container with built in coffee filter and a removeable bottom.

When not used for making the company’s coffee the top would be removed and the chow placed into the pot for the soldier’s meal. I imagine most of his meals tasted like coffee no matter what he was eating.

This mess kit is painted green which was the color used by the French colonial army.

There’s a mystery to this flag.

Here is what we do know. It is definitely the flag of Great Britain and that it is definitely of World War II vintage. It is truly a big flag measuring 50 x 70 inches or about 4′ to almost 6′. We know that it was made in Belgium and appears to be completely hand made using a standard home-based sewing machine, not a commercial one.

What’s curious, but not a mystery, is that all of the fabric used to make the flag came from the uniforms of German occupying soldiers. The white stripes were made from the lining of the blue tunics, perhaps. The red saltire of St. George and the red cross of St. Andrews were made, well, from some infantry dress uniforms, maybe. The ‘grommets’ that held it to a building were the elastic bands found inside trousers.

Anyway, the Flanders War Museum in Belgium where this flag was originally on display confirms all of the above as true. While it wasn’t recorded as to who made the flag or where the flag was unfurled, that isn’t the real mystery to me, although that would be interesting to know.

Belgium was occupied by Germany for four years from 1940 until its liberation by Canadian and British soldiers in September 1944, a few months after the landing at D-Day in June 1944.

During that time, the civilians living under German-occupied forces were carefully watched and routinely subjected to cruel treatment as prisoners in their own country. So how is it that such a large flag was constructed to welcome the British when they liberated their country not detected by the occupiers?

More importantly, though, what was the reaction of the soldiers whose uniforms were reported missing when it dawned on them that the unfurled British flag looked awfully familiar somehow?

During the NAZI era of 1930-1940 Germany, the World War II era, the government created a state policy where ‘undesirable’ groups within Germany and any of its occupied territories were isolated from the general population. These groups were identified as Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, criminals, political prisoners, and emigrants.

Once identified, they were forced to wear a distinctively designed cloth badge on their clothing to help identify them to the general population as to which persecuted group they belonged. Eventually and systematically, those wearing the cloth badges were moved as groups and imprisoned in outdoor concentration camps.

The Jewish population was one of the largest groups forced into concentration camps. While there, they were routinely decimated through forced labor, starvation, disease, and outright extermination.

The particular symbol chosen to identify the Jewish population as a whole was the Magen David, or Shield of David. This six pointed star-shaped design is actually made by the intertwining of two triangles. It is said that the triangles represent the intertwining of the Jewish people or that one triangle points upward to G-d and the other points down to earth. However, early Jewish text does not specifically identify this symbol as that of the Jewish people. There was some references to its use on synagogues as early as the 17th century, but not how it was chosen to represent the Jewish religion. Still, this symbol was adopted by the late 19th century Zionist movement and eventually incorporated into the national flag of Israel.

This Magen David, the Star of David, was the symbol most used by the Nazi regime to identify its Jewish population. There are many versions of the Magen David used in different regions of Nazi influence. The red star armband above is only one design possibly used in the Eastern Europe concentration camps. However, the newness of the armband suggests that it is a more recent fabrication and not authentic to the period.

Once incarcerated in concentration camps, the triangle seems to have prevailed as a unique symbol for all prisoners, only the color identifying the group the prisoner belonged. The other symbols for the other persecuted groups while in the concentration camps are identified as:

- yellow triangles for Jewish prisoners
- red triangles for political (Communist) prisoners
- purple triangles for Jehovah’s Witness
- pink triangles for homosexuals
- green triangles for criminals
- black triangles for Gypsies
- blue triangles for emigrants

Fake and Forgeries

It is evident and unfortunate that too many of the concentration camp memorabilia offered on online auction sites are not authentic. Many of them are being made from original cloth of the period which can make it hard to know for sure whether it is authentic or not. However, there is one rule of thumb to consider – if it looks too new, it is.

The Black Light Test

The other more sure way to know is to move a black light over the piece and if the thread glows, it is synthetic, a material not available during this period. That’s true of any painted object, too. If it glows under black light, it is of recent origin.

Collecting original concentration camp memorabilia is important as its very existence informs future generations that this shall not happen again.

Curiously enough, this SA dagger came into the shop recently and only after careful examination after the fact revealed that in fact this official looking SA dagger was an imposter.

Here’s how I can now tell:

- the color of the handle and the scabbard should be brown, not black,

- the handle itself could be a reproduction and the scabbard changed to reflect the reproduction,

- the eagle is not flush to the handle and gauge marks are evident on one side, not consistent with German insistence on quality,

- the SA symbol is upside down and shows evidence of having been gouged out as well,

- the blade engraving should be in line with the SA symbol and eagle, but it is on the reverse instead,

- corrosion on the scabbard is not usually evident,

- and the ring is glued.

All in all, a rather poor reproduction job. Still, this is an excellent teaching tool that will be used to judge other daggers as they appear from time to time.

If it is true that an Army marches on its stomach, then the mess kit was the way the Army marches.

The examples of mess kits I have belong to World War I and the Vietnam Era. The first is heavy gauge steel and has some heft to it. Its design survived through the Second World War. The ‘chow’ was added unceremoniously into uncompartmented sections where everything eventually ran together.

The second, is lighter aluminum with sections to handle different foods such as mashed potatoes or vegetables while leaving the second main part of the mess kit for the entree, if there was one.

Every mess kit was issued with its own set of cutlery that when washed went back into the mess kit before closing it up. Tom, a friend of mine, told me that when he was with the 82nd Airborne Division, it was customary to put the clean (I hope) cutlery in a clean (I hope) sock to dampen the noise of clanging metal when on long hikes. Worked well, he said.

What Tom was amazed to hear, though, was that the mess kit has been phased out of the modern U.S. Army. Nope, there are no longer any clanging cutlery inside a metal mess kit. There are only disposable MRE’s, meals ready to eat, with paper napkins and plastic cutlery. Everything is now completely disposable.

And so goes another tradition. The marches will continue, but the stomach will be fed a little differently.