Two old helmets - one cork fire helmet, one possibly WW2 helmet.

winder29

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Jun 1, 2015
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All Treasure Hunting
Hello,

I have two old helmets that I am unable to identify and would really appreciate it if someone could tell me a little about them.

1. A British Fire Brigade helmet. It could be Guernsey(?) as I think that it was bought there.

2. A possibly WW2 helmet in a style that I haven't seen before. It also came from Guernsey to the best of my knowledge.

Photos:

IMG_2729.JPGIMG_2733.JPGIMG_2736.JPGIMG_2758.JPG
 

Looks to be from the Eastern Block to me maybe poland or yugoslaviia. Maybe cold war era.
 

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The above may be correct, but if you haven't yet checked for marks on the inside of the liner (flip the insides out) that is where I have found helpful marks before on helmets that look otherwise similar to others.
 

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The liner, the style and spacing of the rivets to hold the liner, the rim treatment (rolled up or down or not at all. All help determine whose and when. A LOT of them look basically similar at first glance.
 

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The fire helmet looks British with the crowned Lion on crown, could possibly be Aussie too I guess. At first glance the military helmet looks like a Mark 3 "Turtle" Helmet. More research needed.


pict0012.jpg
 

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I'm not sure, but the fire helmet can't be worth anything. Send it to me and I'll dispose of it for you. LOL. JK. Really cool!! I'm a Paramedic/Firefighter myself and love old vintage stuff!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

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diggummup is absolutely right, the military helmet is a British or Canadian mk3 "Turtle Shell" They saw their first combat on D-Day as I remember. They were designed to take the place of the Brodie Helmet, and were definitely a step up. Value wise, not terribly pricey, although you can find people asking close to 200$ for them, a more realistic price is in the 50$ - 80$ range. The Fire Brigade helmet is probably the prize here, I don't know enough about those to date it precisely, but my feeling is WW2 era as well. Hopefully one of our English members can date it by the style of the crown in the logo. More pics of the liner and badge will definitely help.
 

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Cork helmets in Britain were first used in 1935 and are still used today I believe. The helmet appears to be a British Army Fire service hat that was used by all branches of the British military and probably dates to around 1950. Here is a similar one from that era-

1951-army-nfba.jpg
 

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