Big Red Says:
Listen up Buttercup! Here's the rest of the story
So, TAKE FIVE!
The best weapon any militaria collector can arm himself or herself with is education. There are a significant number of tools that can help you identify the who, what, where, when and whys of historic items like the M-1 helmet. One of these tools is knowledge about M-1 style helmets used by other countries because an educated collector knows that post WWII many countries adopted the M-1 helmet for use by their military.
The Danish Army purchased surplus WWII M-1 helmets along with a mixture of other allied helmet designs immediately after the end of the war in Europe. In 1948 they chose to adopt the M-1 helmet design as the official helmet for their military. The Danish M-48 helmet is known as a “clone” to collectors as it is not of U.S. manufacture and only resembles the U.S. made M-1 however; the M-48 helmet was often used with a cotton helmet net that is almost identical in appearance to the M-1944 (Net, Helmet, with Band).
The U.S. made “Net, Helmet, with Band” or M-1944 Net was made with cotton thread dyed Olive Drab shade No. 7. The net and band have a sage green look and in unused condition have a stiff starched feel to them.
The Dutch version of this net is visually close in appearance although the actual weave pattern of the net is different. The color is more of a light olive green and used or unused they have a soft cotton knit feel to them.
Now don’t get me wrong boys and girls, there are a lot of awesome things that come from Denmark.......
but when it comes to collecting M1 helmet nets - Don’t Be Fooled!!
Big Red Says!
FIVE'S OVER - MOVE OUT!
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