Nazi Helmet Restoration: The Finished Helmet

Restoration of a German M-40 Helmet of WW II
(Click to see larger image)

I have finished my project for the week:  restoring a German M-40 helmet from World War II.

I spent yesterday spray painting the helmet, then lightly rubbing it out with very fine steel wool.  I am very pleased with the results, as I have never before successfully spray painted anything in my life.

This morning I installed the new liner, a reproduction of the liner used in original German helmets.  After that, I applied the Wehrmacht decals - eagle on the left side, national colors on the right side.

The spray paint that I used and recommend is Apefelgrun [Apple Green] from 1944 Militaria.  The color is actually more of an army olive green.

The helmet's original appearance, as I received it from the seller in Europe, can be viewed here.

Note:  My interest in Nazis is strictly a historical interest.  I in no way endorse their cause or hateful ideology.

Nazi Helmet Primed for Paint

The more I read and learn about the Nazis, the more I dislike them.  But they did wear some really cool helmets.

My helmet, purchased from Europe, has now been stripped of paint and rust, and today I primed it with Rust-Oleum Rust Transformer.  This stuff is supposed to neutralize any remaining rust by chemically changing it to something inert, over which you can safely apply paint.

I found a place where I could spray paint the helmet -- no, not the kitchen table, the backyard garden!  I put it on a flat, aluminum paint pan and started spraying.  Of course, my first efforts created drips, so I had to use steel wool to wear those drips away, then respray.  If you aren't used to spray painting, you must learn patience, one thin coat at a time, to avoid drips.  After drying, I lightly rubbed with fine grade steel wool to smooth the surface.

Tomorrow it will be time to apply the olive green paint (some call it field gray).  The primer coat gave me some valuable practice today.  Once I finish that, I can apply military decals and the inner liner and chin strap.  When Halloween arrives, I can wear the helmet and go to the party as a Democrat.  Har har!

A Follow Up on Claims Made by Pro-Hitler Film

The film I reviewed in my prior post (Adolf Hitler:  the Greatest Story Never Told) made some very controversial claims.  Here's a brief follow-up on two of those claims.

Update:  I added a piece about the Allied treatment of the Russian Cossacks, who fought Stalin with Germany.

The film alleges that Russian Cossacks, who fought with German troops, were lied to and tricked or forced into being repatriated to Russia, where they were executed.
This Wikipedia article establishes the truth of this claim.  However, the Cossacks were not fascists, they were anti-communists, tired of the harsh conditions of living under Stalin's communism.  Because of an agreement at Yalta before the end of the war, the allies turned the Cossacks over to Stalin to meet their fate.  This clearly stinks in the history books.

Eisenhower Deliberately Starved German POWs?
One of the claims was that General Dwight D. Eisenhower deliberately allowed nearly a million German POWs to die from starvation and exposure.  This claim was first made by a Canadian author, James Bacque, in his book Other Losses (1989).

I haven't ready an books on the subject, but I very much doubt that this is true, based on my intuition alone. Stephen E. Ambrose refuted Bacque in a New York Times article in 1991, and later wrote a book about it. Other authors have written books to rebut Bacque, and a raging debate continues via books and articles.  German POWs did die in POW camps just after the war, due to a massive influx of German soldiers surrendering to the Allies in order to avoid becoming prisoners of Russia (who used POWs for slave labor and worked and starved the great majority of them to death).  The POW camps right after the war were thus overcrowded and food scarce (despite Bacque's claims to the contrary).  However, any deaths resulting therefrom were not intentional.  The U.S. Provost Marshall put the number of deaths at 15,285, a far cry from the 900,000 claimed by Bacque.  Nevertheless, this debate will go on indefinitely.

There Is No Evidence That The Holocaust Ever Happened?
This claim is the easiest to refute.  There were actually records and documentation of the mass murder of Jews by gassing them, and numerous witnesses to the atrocity, many of whom testified at the Nuremberg trials of German officers for war crimes.  An excellent discussion and refutation of Holocaust Denial can be found at the Jewish Virtual Library at this link.

Zyklon-B Was Used to Disinfect Clothes, Bodies and Buildings of the Typhus Germ.  This argument is used by Holocaust deniers to explain away the cyanide based poison, Zyklon-B, which was used to kill several million Jews.  In fact, Zyklon-B cannot kill anaerobic bacteria such as the Typhus bacterium, and would be useless against the disease.  It can only kill aerobic (oxygen breathing) organisms, like people.

Who Produced the Film "Adolph Hitler:  the Greatest Story NEVER Told"?
I do not know who produced this film, but it seems to bear the ideologies of the Institute For Historical Review (IHR).  Wikipedia describes IHR as follows:

The Institute for Historical Review (IHR), founded in 1978, is an organization whose primary purpose is to disseminate views denying key facts of Nazism and the genocide of Jews and other victims. It is considered by many scholars as the world's leading Holocaust denial organization. 

All of this reading and research leads from one thing to another.  I reject Holocaust denial as a credible position on history, based on the documented facts.  However, one thing I do not understand is why Jews were so hated in Europe in the 1930s?  This hatred seems to be re-emerging in the here and now.  This bears some serious study, but where do I start?

Restoring a World War II German Helmet

German M-40 Army Helmet

I bought this German M-40 helmet from a source in Czechoslovakia.  In the pictures it appears pristine, but is actually freckled with rust spots.

The liner, bottom right, is not correct.  This is the type of liner used in World War I German helmets, as well as various European army helmets.

The helmet was painted black after WWII and used as a Civil Defense helmet.  Since the paint and liner are not original, it is permissible to restore the helmet.  You would never want to restore an authentic German army helmet, with the original paint, decals and liner, no matter how poor their condition.  You would be altering an historical artifact, which greatly decreases its interest and value.

This morning I removed the liner, held inside the helmet by three pins.  The liner smelled badly, like old sweat or body odor, indicating it is indeed aged.  The inside of the helmet was fairly rusted, worse than the outside.  I applied a rust remover (Naval Jelly) and got rid of most of it.  I will have to buy some steel wool today and scrub away at what remains.

Next, I washed the helmet and dried it, and applied a paint stripper to both inside and out.  It loosened the paint, but I can see it will take more than one application.  The stuff contains methylene chloride, a rather nasty solvent.  I will have to begin using thicker rubber gloves, as this stuff burns right through the thin ones I was using.  This is going to involve some work.  Ugh.

After I strip off as much paint and rust as possible, I will prime the helmet with Rustoleum, then paint it with German field gray paint.  After that, I will apply German army decals and replace the liner with a good reproduction of the type used in German helmets, an eight finger affair made of goat skin.  Right now, that seems to be days away.

It's difficult to tell whether this helmet ever saw combat.  I doubt it. Thousands of helmet shells were stamped out in advance of need, and many remain in Germany and elsewhere.  Reenactors and hobbyists can buy one of these shells and have it restored to the original condition of a new Nazi helmet.  I am doing my own restoration.  When it is done, I plan to invade the Sudentland.  Or not.

UPDATE:  See the restored helmet here.  I have one last task to do, and that is to seal the decals to prevent them from rubbing off and from scratches.  I have ordered a spray can of Dammar varnish to do that, the same varnish used on the original helmets.

My German Helmet and the Nazi Invasion of Russia In 1941

Reproduction German Helmet of WW II

My reproduction German helmet arrived this week.  The color is perfect, a kind of gray-green.  It is heavier than my uncle's German police helmet.  I tried it on, and was immediately aware of the weight.  No doubt German soldiers developed strong neck muscles wearing these.  Holding the helmet, I am aware of the cold steel, the heavy weight, and the smell of the leather liner.

Okay, so now I have a German helmet.  What do I do now, invade Poland?

Nah, I'll just keep it as a historical reference as I study the history of World War II, one of my interests.

I have been watching a documentary series from 1974, "The Unknown War," narrated by Burt Lancaster.  It is all about the Nazi invasion of Russia, Operation Barbarossa, which began in 1941.  According to the series narration, Hitler intended to destroy the Soviet Union and exterminate its populations, and then incorporate the lands into Germany.  The Russians had ample reason to fight like fanatics, as surrender was not an option.

The series covers great battles such as the battles of Moscow, Stalingrad, Leningrad and Kursk.  Due to Nazi encirclement of major Russian cities, millions of Russians starved to death rather than surrender.  Around 20 million Russians died, of war wounds, starvation and freezing in the bitter winters.  Nevertheless, the Nazi invasion failed.  Hitler all but exhausted his military resources in his obsessive desire to destroy Russia.  Hundreds of thousands of German soldiers died or surrendered, and many thousands of tanks and aircraft were lost in Hitler's vain effort.  There's no telling how WWII might have turned out, had Hitler not invaded Russia, and wasted so many German lives and assets, instead of directing those assets against the allied forces.  Russia had a formal peace agreement with Germany and would not have fought with the allies, absent the 1941 invasion.

Earlier this week, I watched "Escape From Sobibor," based on the true story of 600 Jewish prisoners in a Nazi extermination camp, who rebelled against their captors, killing eleven German guards and officers before opening the gates and fleeing, in mass, into the nearby forest.  About half survived the surrounding mine field and machine gun fire, and most of those were later captured and executed.  About 50 of the prisoners eluded capture and survived the war.

There is no escaping the fact that the Nazis were entirely evil.  If ever there was a just and necessary war, it was the allied war on the fascist powers of World War II.  It is instructional to study the depths of depravity to which men and nations can descend.  The goal, as always, is to learn how we might prevent such tyranny from happening again.

Nazi Helmets and the German Army

German Helmet in "Apple Green"

The recent 70th D-Day anniversary caused me to post pictures of German soldiers and their families, from wallets that my uncle took off of dead German soldiers after D-Day.  I also posted pictures of some Nazi artifacts that he brought back, including a black Nazi helmet.  This inspired my interest in Nazi artifacts and history, and made me want to own more of such artifacts.

I love the black helmet that uncle brought back from Normandy, still well preserved after seven decades, but the helmet is not a combat helmet.  It is a civilian police helmet.  It is in the standard M-34 Nazi helmet shape, but the steel is is a lighter gauge, and it has a different kind of vent holes.  Why my uncle picked this helmet among the thousands available, I do not know.  In any case, I have always wanted a Nazi battle helmet.  Why?  Just curiosity, I suppose, or a desire to own a piece of history.  In any case, I have been scouring the internet for sources of such helmets.  A well preserved German army helmet can be prohibitively expensive, so I have been looking for bargains.

Uncle's German Police Helmet

I notice that EBay does not allow any pictures of Nazi helmets or other artifacts that display the swastika.  This seems rather stupid -- what, are people who see it going to turn into pillars of salt?  Ridiculous.  However, European countries have outlawed the display of any swastikas, so no doubt EBay has to comply with their laws if it wants to do business in Europe.

So far I have bought three helmets.  Ironically, one is another police helmet, authentic and identical to the one I already have.  Another is a reproduction of the M-35 German combat helmet, my favorite model, painted in German field gray, the most typical color. It has the proper liner and chin strap, and I will use it for reference.  A third is an actual German M-40 model helmet, but it was repainted black after the war and used as a civil defense helmet in Czechoslovakia.  It has minor rust spots, the liner is wrong, may have come from another type of helmet.  I intend to strip it of paint and rust, and spray paint it in early war apple green, with double decals, one on each side of the helmet.  I have also ordered a replacement (reproduction) inner liner.

Last night I watched a film about the Battle of Kursk, Russia.  I was interested because Kursk is where "my Nazi," Corporal Franz Schmid, was killed.  Schmid's life and mine intersect only in a very oblique way:  his photo and death notice were in one of the wallets my uncle retrieved at Normandy.  Before last week I had never heard of the Battle of Kursk, but it was an intense fight, probably the greatest tank battle in history.  Hitler, his big fat ego punctured by the German loss at Stalingrad, was eager for revenge on the Russians.  The Battle of Kursk was to reverse his fortunes on the Eastern front, and inflict heavy damage on the Russian army.  However, the Russians kicked his butt in a serious way, largely destroying his armored divisions, and put Hitler into a steadily deteriorating, defensive position.

In my opinion, Adolph Hitler was a fool, a lousy military leader who wasted his splendid military by overreaching (his invasion of Russia was particularly stupid) smashing his armies against the brick wall of impossible goals, in a do-it or die bravado.  They didn't do it, and a great many died.

Pictures Taken From Fallen Nazis In the Invasion of Normandy, 1944 -- by My Uncle Who Was There

Here are some of the photos that my uncle recovered from fallen German soldiers during the invasion of Normandy (D-Day), seventy years ago.  These photos have not been published before -- they are the personal photos of German families and friends, carried by German troops who died in France on and after D-Day.  Click on each photo to see it full size.

Corporal Franz Schmid.  This photo was found in the wallet of a friend or relative at Normandy.  This soldier probably died on the Russian Front, perhaps in the Battle of Kursk.  He is painfully young in this picture.

The verbiage is from a death announcement that also bore this photo, found in the same wallet.  It was printed in German and translated by a German friend of mine.

Click to view full size.

UPDATE:  I found the German Military Graves Commission website and database online, and Franz Schmid is listed.  He did indeed die in the battle of Kursk, Russia and is buried at the German cemetery there, Besedino.  The database gives a slightly different birthdate for Franz, Oct 18, 1920 rather than Oct 20, 1920.  Here is the online record:

Unknown boy, wearing the uniform of the Hitler Youth.  This pic of this young man was found in one of the wallets my uncle recovered from the body of a fallen Nazi soldier at Normandy -- probably a relative of the fallen soldier who owned the wallet.

I have been researching this uniform for a couple of hours, and have learned that the uniform is that of the the German Reichsarbeitdienst (RAD), or German National Work Service.  It is not of the Hitler Youth as I originally thought, though the jacket is almost identical, and the hat similar, to those of the Hitler Youth.  The RAD was formed in July of 1934 as the official state and party labor service.  It was an auxiliary service to the military, but was not part of the military, even though it's members wore military style uniforms.

German youth between 18 and 25 were obligated to serve six months in the RAD or other national service, and then two years in the military after that.  

The cool hat being worn by this man is a Robin Hood RAD cap.  The RAD symbol on the front of the cap is the head of a shovel.




Alfred Schmid, probably the brother of Franz Schmid above.  Papers in the wallet identified this man.  He too fell in battle, also on the Russian front.

He is wearing a dress uniform complete with white gloves and a ceremonial sword.

It appears the photograph was taken in his living room.

German soldiers in an army barracks, possibly during basic training.  They are goofing off, mugging at the camera and striking poses.  Look at one man holding crossed bayonets, and another with a bayonet in his teeth.

I wonder how many of these young men survived the war.

This photograph always seemed sad and poignant to me.  A German soldier is kissing his sweetheart, perhaps before shipping out.  His name and that of his sweetheart are unknown.

Update:  Reader Doug Kursk says the eagle on this soldier's arm indicates he was a member of the SS, presumably the Waffen SS, who went into battle like other troops.

Two German soldiers on a motorcycle -- names and location unknown.

German soldiers on a train.  The little boy among them is interesting and puzzling.

Undoubtedly someone's mom, tending chickens back home while her sons went off to fight and die in Hitler's war.  Name and location unknown -- undoubtedly somewhere in Germany.

Some German soldier's sister, sweetheart or wife.  She was cute and had a nice smile.  Name and location unknown -- undoubtedly somewhere in Germany.


















I have additional photos from the wallets, but not all are interesting.  There's a group of boys in Bavarian dress, playing accordions outside a shop; pictures apparently from Russia, and others.