Original U.S. WWI M1917 Doughboy Helmet With Museum Quality Post War Period-Correct Painted Insignia - 8th Machine Gun Company, 5th Marine Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division
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Original Item: One-Of-A-Kind. This is a genuine American-manufactured WWI M1917 “Doughboy” helmet fitted with its original liner and chinstrap and later decorated with a remarkably convincing hand-painted representation of the insignia of the 8th Machine Gun Company, 5th Marine Regiment, 4th Marine Brigade, 2nd Division. The helmet itself is completely original to the Great War period, while the painted unit insignia was added after the war for display purposes and deliberately aged to reproduce the appearance of original service-applied paint. The work is extremely convincing at first glance, but after careful examination we are certain that the insignia is a later addition and not original wartime decoration.
The paint is worn, and definitely shows use, but it has a great look and the colors are still easily discernible. The underside of the rim is stamped ZA28 indicating it was produced in the United States, and can be seen on the underside of the skirt towards the back under the rim. The solid rivets on the chin strap bales is another method of identifying the helmet as being American made. The liner is still present but the felt pad is now worn away. The entire chinstrap is present and still in solid condition.
The best feature of this helmet is definitely the added hand painted 8th Machine Gun Company, 5th Marine Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division - Indianhead Division emblem in the center of the front of the helmet. Marines under this division used specific colors and shapes behind the "Indianhead" to designate which unit they were in, and the "purple square" indicates the 5th Marine Regiment, Machine Gun Company. This is one of the only times they ever used army style unit patches, and generally each regiment used a different background shape, with the colors designating which battalion they were. The Unit Insignia is a bit faded, with scratches added to make it look real.
The U.S. Marine Corps did not field divisional size units during WWI, so they were made part of the divisions of the U.S. Army. . In fact, the entire 2nd Division was for a time during WWI commanded by U.S.M.C. Major General John A. Lejeune himself!
This example is especially interesting for its combination of an original American-made M1917 shell, ZA28 production marking, original liner and complete chinstrap, and historically correct postwar representation of the purple-square 8th Machine Gun Company, 5th Marines insignia. The loss of the felt liner pad and general age wear are clearly visible, while the deliberately aged insignia should always be understood as a later display addition rather than original battlefield-applied paint.
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