Winter Auction 2025 Preview (#1480577)

Very unique combination of decals on this recently surfaced Luftwaffe blue helmet.  This M42 helmet was recently acquired in the southwest US by a picker, and has never been cleaned (there is a light dusting of rust where the paint has worn through).  Helmet is marked EKL64 over the steel lot number of 2328.  Liner is original to the helmet, which is also dome-stamped on the inside.  Helmet features very worn Feldherrnhalle decals.  On the left side, beneath the FHH decal is an SA Eagle.  

The Panzerkorps Feldhernnhalle was a late-war German armored corps formed in 1944 from the remnants of earlier “Feldherrnhalle” units—formations that carried an SA-linked honor title commemorating the Feldherrnhalle in Munich. Though part of the Wehrmacht rather than the SS, the corps retained a distinctly political heritage, making its insignia and equipment unusually identifiable. It saw heavy action on the collapsing Eastern Front, fighting in Slovakia and Hungary and later in the bitter Budapest operations. By early 1945, the corps was a patchwork of battered panzer and infantry elements used as a mobile fire brigade against overwhelming Soviet pressure. It ultimately retreated into Austria and surrendered in May 1945.

Original items from this formation are scarce because the unit existed only briefly and was largely destroyed in the field.  Before researching the unit, I could not figure out why decals would exist in this configuration.  A counterfeiter would never assemble decals like this.  The only logical explanation is that the wearer was a product of the hodgepodge "origin mix" mix of this unit's men and equipment.

Starting bid is extremely low to encourage bidding, and because I have no idea of the true value of this helmet.  The new owner can apply some light vegetable oil to the helmet to arrest and correct the rusting.  There is NO pitting on this helmet.  Some modern wire is applied to the helmet chinstrap rings, ostensibly to hang it on a wall.