Splinter helmet cover and other things

Hi guys,

Here are a few pieces of interest, including a fine used original example of a B.Rawe&Co Splinter helmet cover on an ET64 SD m42 helmet. This will be added to a mannequin project, as seen on these pictures. Cheers!

cover looks to be real. These can be tuff to judge un till you handle real ones. What's odd on these is the weave of the thread . Its not a tight weave like a zeltban this really makes no sense as you would want it as water proof as possible. But these I feel were designed to be reversable to white so hence single sided cloth with white interior. Most have a small code on them.

Most field made covers are made of zeltban material .

This one is as real as it gets. They are really not that tough, it's all or nothing, they either have all the textbook details of issued covers or they don't. The weave pattern is typical on these, the Zeltbahn made covers are either post war or war time field made if you have solid provenance to back a claim on a specific individual. The WSS covers are of a different fabric, thinner, but they are held with metallic hooks and do not overlap the rim whereas the Splinter covers and the full white ones do since they are tightened with a string.

They were indeed designed to be reversible so it would make no sense to use a fabric which would allow one printed side to bleed through the other side. Here's an example of the white side use. I have another showing the Splinter rim and on white side but I have to browse my database.

As for the codes, they are a few variations for depots and full makers name as well.

Looks like a textbook original to me. The better fakes are made of the same type ribbed white on one side / camo on the other material. There are known original makers and markings. Originals are tough to find. A buddy of mine bought a cool M.40 Heer helmet at an estate sale years ago for like $150 and one was folded up in the liner.....I had to pay big for mine.....Congrats Scharf.

Hambone said:

Looks like a textbook original to me. The better fakes are made of the same type ribbed white on one side / camo on the other material. There are known original makers and markings. Originals are tough to find. A buddy of mine bought a cool M.40 Heer helmet at an estate sale years ago for like $150 and one was folded up in the liner.....I had to pay big for mine.....Congrats Scharf.

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Hello Hambone, I know the fakes you refer too. They fail to come even close to the real ones, fortunatly. I too have a friend that found one folded under a liner, he found it in France.

And thanks, I am really glad, that's a dream come true. IMO, these are far less common than WSS helmet covers, but that's a whole other story.

The markings are here with some field repairs. The factory premisses still exist but are abandonned.

B.Rawe&Co, Nordhorn.

Went to an estate auction east of Topeka Ks years ago. Was a lot of common German medals and badges and some not so common. Common badges went expensive while I got a clipped LSSAH cuff title for $30, likely because so difficult to read the script. I spotted a nice splinter pattern helmet cover and a minty zelt in a mixed pile of field gear and watched it like a hawk. Bidders were walking away as they sold the field gear. Got the pile for $2.

the ordnance tan fieldgear looks great. that camo 98 pouch is big money as im sure you know

frankie said:

Went to an estate auction east of Topeka Ks years ago. Was a lot of common German medals and badges and some not so common. Common badges went expensive while I got a clipped LSSAH cuff title for $30, likely because so difficult to read the script. I spotted a nice splinter pattern helmet cover and a minty zelt in a mixed pile of field gear and watched it like a hawk. Bidders were walking away as they sold the field gear. Got the pile for $2.

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That's quite the catch, even with inflation! Lol

Bigdibbs88 said:

the ordnance tan fieldgear looks great. that camo 98 pouch is big money as im sure you know

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Yup, I threw these in as fillers, I realize that it is not not camo per say althoigh it's been designed for base camo purposes of course!

The pouch was bought from a collector, for a decent amount IMO, came from Normandy but sadly was a bit cleaned by the former owner. Fortunatly, I have the woodwork photos so to say, presented on the forum already. At least, it's a real one, and not a buba'd pouch