Painted WWII Firestone M1 Helmet Liner

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coolhandluke

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CHL, thanks very much for the information! I had honestly never taken the time to look some of this stuff up and my uncle has been gone over 25 years now. I didn't even know his Division so thank you for that. The shell has fixed bales and the liner is made by Firestone. If the leather chin strap is a relatively thin and narrow piece of leather than yes, I have it.

So restoration parts are available for the liners? I would be interested in knowing more about that. Thank you again!

i655.photobucket.com_albums_uu277_flatwins_148552_501185077436_5011706_n.jpg

No problem man...glad that I could help. My Great Grandfather also served as a Army infantryman in the 96th and recently passed away earlier this month at the age of 94.

Aside from a gentle cleaning and reinstalling the chin strap, I would leave the helmet as it sits. Some of the suspension has damage, but it looks to all be there. It's worth alot more both monetarily and sentimentally the way that it was passed on by your uncle. The fact that the helmet is a fixed bale, makes the helmet and liner worth a few to several hundred dollars. I have seen complete, original fixed bale helmets bid over $1000 on eBay when they happened to be from a saught after division. If you're ever in the OKC area I'd be more than willing to you out with getting the liner back in order. From the photo of the liner's interior it looks like it may just need some light cleaning, the leather parts cleaned and conditioned, and the suspension re-tied if the third loop is not torn. From what I understand, the suspension is riveted in place so installing a replacement webbing is quite a big undertaking.
 
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coolhandluke

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Tell you what, you may be on to something with the colors. No doubt the patch heraldry points to USAAC/AAF/AF and the colors point to Germany. I would look for early USAF units, based on the overall color scheme, assigned to FGR around 47-50 "Berlin Airlift" time frame. Possibly one of the ABWs assigned to the Constabulary.

Thanks for all the help WTJ.

The color scheme and the fact that the suspension was not updated to the OD7 color web leads me to believe that it would have been used immediately after WWII during the timeframe that you have listed above. Any later than those dates, I would think that the liner would have been updated and reissued. From what I can tell there is only one coat of WWII period color green paint under the blue paint so I would think that supports it as well.
 

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coolhandluke

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Found it!

Looks to be the insignia for post-war german civilian labor and/or Civilian Service Units (CSU).

Scroll down this page and you'll find and almost identical helmet. http://www.usfava.com/LaborService/abzeichen.CSU.htm

Found first reference to it by searching US Air Forces Europe regulations for patch/insignia formats....here (paragraph 7.1.3): http://www.af.mil/shared/media/epubs/USAFEI36-729.pdf

Looks like you have something pretty neat.

Thank you! I'm not sure how you found that...pretty much a needle in a haystack.

If the German to English translator is correct, the insignia is for the general laboratory (possibly labor?) units for the USAF. The site also says that the two versions of the patches with the general insignia were "rarities".

Here's a photo of an identical liner taken from your link.

i181.photobucket.com_albums_x97_mach_won_csu_helm.jpg
 

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