Help identify a Sauwastika Marked/Painted Canadian MkII Helmet

Hi,

I've just found a MkII Canadian Helmet with a painted sauwastika on it. The helmet looks legit, with all markings and cie, looks unissued. But there's this inverted sawastika in bright red on the front.

Any idea if it's something related to wwII?

My first idea is that this is some post-war painting done by someone that didn't know what he was doing, but I might be wrong.

Also, it looks like someone tried to sand it down. Anyway, here's some pictures.

Thanks,

I think someone just painted that on for whatever reason, as you can see it is backwards, not the type used by the Germans

Dean O
Canada

The helmet is the soft steel Dept of Pensions & Health type. They were worn by firefighters, air raid precautions, police, etc. As Dean says, the addition is likely some not so creative addition, after service.

Thanks for the precision Bill.

What an odd thing to do to a helmet.

pylon1357 wrote:What an odd thing to do to a helmet.

Probably done a few years after the war by kids playing around. To us this seems odd due to the value we place on these items. Back then they were sold as scrap and could be had for a nickel and were essentially worthless. My wife's mother used these lids as hanging flower pots. I was talking to a friend who's uncle made off with a German MP40 that was in a scrap pile at Stelco waiting to be melted down... he thought it was interesting and took it home.... I recall going to surplus stores in the mid 70's and seeing barrels of 1944 dated berets in mint condition. They wanted $2 for one and I thought it was too much to pay..... Times have changed.

Ypres

Here, in a ''punk'' store they have cnd mkIII helmets made into lamp. And it looks like they just made them. Some people doesn't know what those are and sometime find them in scrapyard or garage sale.

I found a cdn large pack in the basement of my girlfriend's parent, it was the grand-father fishing bag. :P

ypres wrote:

pylon1357 wrote:What an odd thing to do to a helmet.

Probably done a few years after the war by kids playing around. To us this seems odd due to the value we place on these items. Back then they were sold as scrap and could be had for a nickel and were essentially worthless. My wife's mother used these lids as hanging flower pots. I was talking to a friend who's uncle made off with a German MP40 that was in a scrap pile at Stelco waiting to be melted down... he thought it was interesting and took it home.... I recall going to surplus stores in the mid 70's and seeing barrels of 1944 dated berets in mint condition. They wanted $2 for one and I thought it was too much to pay..... Times have changed.

Ypres

years ago a fellow collector that i know had come across 2 brodie helmets at a yard sale.he bought both of them.they both had markings on them,one was 4th battalion flash and the other had a backwards swastika painted on the front,nicely painted too..we both figured it was done by some idiotic kid with too much time on his hands..anyways,my friend kept the 4th batt helmet and gave the other one to his nephew after he repainted it to lose the swastika so the kid could play with it and wear it without getting beat up by his friends....i didnt think anything more of that helmet til a couple yrs later when i found a book pertaining to CEF helmet flash...as it turns out the flash was legit!..it was the symbol used on the helmets of the CFA,specifically the 48th battery!...that was a learning curve for both of us...all that being said i have found ww1 brodie helmets that have been repainted with ww2 liners/chinstraps and reissued for the second world war where i could clearly see the outline of the original flash under the repaint...food for thought

This is a WW2 helmet, and a type that was not used overseas as it is a civil defense type helmet.

Mike

in this case yes,the markings clearly indicate the year and its use for civil defense..the info i gave relates to another swastika marked helmet from a different war..this info will hopefully be useful to someone who may in the future come across such a helmet and not make the mistake of sanding it down or painting over it..there is another generation of collectors who get the majority of their research online and not from books like some of us still do..if one found such a helmet they could very well find themselves reading this thread as a lead for further research..i figured it was worth mentioning for those that may have not been aware.

Wow! Very interesting! I'll take good care of it.

It would be interesting to find some period picture of the helmet. Right now, the only thing that comes up on Google is this thread. :P

Thanks for all the info!