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Posté le: 26 Nov 2012, 13:23

First of all, i'm sorry i can't speak french.

Greetings fellow collector,
My name is timur, i'm a novice helmet collector from indonesia.
I have this mysterious firefighter helmet,

Front side, 3 hole for placing the badge?

The comb. European style maybe france?

The liner similar with American liner?

The liner backside.

The remain of liner strap

Comb screw

Rear seam

Chinstrap holder using british style?

Old paint (blue)

The helmet is made from metal possibly from steel.

And during browsing I found these photos in the biak museum in papua indonesia
Check the far right helmet
http://multiply.com/mu/havitdema/image/4/photos/420/1200x1200/34/DSC-0259.JPG?et=pcTExDtNwA6NYNbC0DIfBA&nmid=278330865

This museum is known in exhibiting ground dug finding of world war 2
relic in surrounding biak and papua.
Anyway that helmet is similar with my helmet.
And I try to photograph my helmet on the same angle.

And it’s same, especially the comb screw rivet hole and the rim style.
I already search for all information practically everywhere. But no answer yet. And my friend said this helmet shell is similar with france marine helmet model mle39. And the US military forum also said that this helmet is not american made.
So my question to you is, is this helmet a france made helmet?
I really hope someone have an answer about this mysterious helmet because i'm really desperate for finding the answer.
Thank you in advance.

Posté le: 26 Nov 2012, 14:20

Hi !

I hesitate between two things...

first of all, maybe it's the former helmet of battalion of the marine firefighter of Marseille like on the left :

And next, I think maybe it's a helmet's war

Enjoy !

Posté le: 26 Nov 2012, 18:08

Thank you sir.
I wonder what the marseilles marine fighter helmet liner looks like? Because my helmet is using american type liner, like this one

and the chinstrap holder is using british type. Could it be this helmet is a colonial firefighter helmet? Maybe was made for the free france colony such as new caledonia?

Posté le: 26 Nov 2012, 18:15

i also think this helmet is the soldier s one !!!!

Posté le: 26 Nov 2012, 19:00

Maybe, but the colonial have a helmet in a colour like silver

Posté le: 26 Nov 2012, 19:12

About the color maybe it's repainted by the indonesian firefighter during post war. For the original paint, there's no trace at all.
Anyway here i try to replicate how the helmet color looks like (with blue paint) and with the liner too.

So was france ever asked an american company to make a firefighter helmet?
If we judge the helmet construction with the american m1 helmet, we should see the seam of the helmet. We can see it's rear seam helmet. According to this site http://www.toppots.net/main.php?do=clientsitecontent&action=home&link_id=140 , the rear seam american m1 helmet was made in october 1944. So was there any france firefighter helmet made after the liberation of paris until the end of the war?

Posté le: 26 Nov 2012, 19:51

In effect, I also think that is a helmet's war ! Maybe a firefighter's company on England or each other ;)

Posté le: 27 Nov 2012, 03:04

Thank you again sir.