Item Description
Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice & battlefield-worn example of a totally original WWI German M16 Helmet, with a faint "paneled" camouflage paint scheme. This was a very popular type of camouflage used on both sides of WWI. The colors include greens, yellows, and browns, with black lines separating each color, the CLASSIC pattern. The stamped, sheet steel construction helmet retains about 65% of its original hand painted camouflage paint. This was painted over the original field gray paint, so this is visible in areas where the paint has flaked off, while others show the bare steel, now heavily oxidized. This example looks like it was brought home and left in a barn for 50 years.
The helmet is stamped next to one of the chinstrap bales Si 66, for the maker Eisenhuette Silesia, Paruschowitz Oberschlesien. This is a relatively uncommon maker to find, as they only produced shells in sizes 62 and 66. Size 66 is a nice large size that can accommodate liners from 58cm to 60cm or US 7 1/4 to 7 1/2. There was a rolling mill mark dome stamp originally, but due to the heavy oxidation on the interior, it’s gone.
The helmet still has both of the dome headed chinstrap retaining rivets, which hold the interior pickelhaube style chin strap lugs in place. The original chinstrap is retained, but it’s extremely stiff and shows dry rot and cracking, but is still solid. We would recommend not handling it. The shell also retains both of the extended ventilation side lugs, which are the correct short version without any step for the larger size 66 shell. This would ensure proper installation of a Stirnpanzer brow plate regardless of shell size.
The original liner is very well-retained but does show dry-rotting in some places. A very nice barn-find camouflage Stahlhelm, ready for further research and display.
History of the M16 Helmet
The Stahlhelm was introduced into regular service during the Verdun campaign in early 1916.
The M1916 design had side-mounted horn-like ventilator lugs which were intended to be support for an additional steel brow plate or Stirnpanzer, which only ever saw limited use by snipers and trench raiding parties, as it was too heavy for general use.
The shell came in different sizes, from 60 to 68, with some size 70s reported. The suspension, or liner, consisted of a headband with three segmented leather pouches, each holding padding materials, and leather or fabric cords could be adjusted to provide a comfortable fit. The one-piece leather chinstrap was attached to the shell by M1891 chinstrap lugs, the same kind used in the Pickelhaube helmet.
The M1916 design provided excellent protection: Reserve Lieutenant Walter Schulze of 8th Company Reserve Infantry Regiment 76 described his combat introduction to the helmet on the Somme, 29 July 1916:
"... suddenly, with a great clanging thud, I was hit on the forehead and knocked flying onto the floor of the trench... a shrapnel bullet had hit my helmet with great violence, without piercing it, but sufficiently hard to dent it. If I had, as had been usual up until a few days previously, been wearing a cap, then the Regiment would have had one more man killed."
But the helmet was not without its flaws. The ventilator horns often let cold air in during the winter, requiring the wearer to block the vents with mud or fabric. The large, flared skirt tended to make it difficult for soldiers to hear, distorting surrounding sounds and creating an echo when the wearer spoke.
Originally painted Feldgrau (field grey), the Stahlhelm was often camouflaged by troops in the field using mud, foliage, cloth covers, and paint. Official issue cloth covers in white and grey appeared in late 1916 and early 1917. Camouflage paint was not formally introduced until July 1918, when German Army Order II, No 91 366, signed by General Erich Ludendorff on 7 July 1918, outlined official standards for helmet camouflage. The order stipulated that helmets should be painted in several colors, separated by a finger-wide black line. The colors should be relevant to the season, such as using green, brown and ocher in summer.
After the effectiveness of the M1916 design was validated during the 1916 campaigns, incremental improvements were subsequently made.
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