M.40 Heer Normandy Nebelwerfer Unit Helmet

[M45]

I have also seen such photos and also unit markings stenciled inside the rims of helmets, but these were usually pre-war. Some army and many Luft pre war DD M35 helmets have unit markings. I could certainly be wrong, but it seems it could have been an intelligence violation to have unit markings inside of later wartime helmets and was probably much less frequently done compared to the pre-war years.

While the wehrmacht was usually in control of battlefields after battles up until late 1942 and could usually recover their own equipment, after that time the wehrmacht was usually not in control of battlefields after battles. The unit markings on the two late ND M42s I just posted would have been issued after 28 AUG43, some time after the tide of war had turned against the Germans.

 

[Hambone]

What I can state definitively, with 100% certainty, are the following: 1) German combat helmets had names and/or FPNs at least through 1944. 2) Sometimes these were in the rear rim, sometimes with a marking pencil in the liner, sometimes both. 3) The markings were usually done by the individual soldier or perhaps a soldier(s) assigned that task for the unit. I’ve been collecting and studying German helmets since the mid-80s, with a particular interest in names and FPN helmets.

Rarely (or scarcely) will one see a unit marked helmet. That was a pre-war phenomenon. Such unit ID marking of a helmet was replaced with feldpost numbers (“FPNs”). The purpose is to get the helmet back to the soldier to whom it was issued, or at least the unit, should it be lost (e.g., fell off a truck or left on the battlefield or elsewhere). Helmets were necessary and mandatory important issue items that fit an individual soldier, hence the need for a name and FPN. Losing your lid was right after losing your weapon as far as “gear crimes” go. The FPN system was “secret”, like the RBN / RFN, which allowed necessary marking to a unit without betraying unit intel info. With a last name and FPN a lost helmet gets back to the soldier without revealing any unit intel if found by the enemy. That’s the point of an FPN and name in a helmet. I believe that there are wartime period German regulations on this, which further document what we already know, 100%.