M35 Normandy Camo over Winter Camo

Product Description: This M35 Normandy Camo over Winter Camo helmet is an incredible, top shelf helmet, with a really impressive look. During the course of WWII, this early helmet received a coat of white snow camouflage paint, which was later overpainted with a brushed-on “Normandy” pattern in tan, red and green. This tri-color camouflage paint is about 95 percent intact, with even, honest field wear that reveals the snow camouflage finish beneath. There is normal, uncleaned age patina to the paint. The interior of this extremely attractive M35 Normandy Camo over Winter Camo helmet is complete, and shows honest field wear. The smooth, factory applied paint inside the skirt and dome is nearly all there, with typical wear. The liner is an early one, with a reinforced aluminum liner band. The leather liner retains its drawstring and is complete and undamaged, with normal toning from age and use. The chinstrap is a wartime one, with a steel buckle, and is complete and full length. The interior of the skirt is stamped with the lot number “4806” as well as “ET64” indicating it was made by the firm of Eisen und Hüttenwerk AG in Thale/Harz, size 64. This is an untouched, all-original helmet, that undoubtedly saw actual field use in multiple theaters of operation. It is in excellent condition.

Historical Description: The helmets used by WWII German soldiers were issued with a variety of solid paint colors applied at the factory. Different units deployed to combat zones had different methods to break up the iconic German helmet silhouette, for camouflage purposes. Some units issued fabric covers or camouflage nets. In other units, helmets were painted with camouflage colors. Among the most widely utilized camouflage paint finishes were solid tan for desert environments, solid white for winter use, and the tri-color camouflage scheme known to collectors as “Normandy” pattern camouflage. This camouflage style was certainly used in Normandy, famously by Fallschirmjäger-Regiment 6, and also by many other units. But it was also used by various units in all the occupied countries along the German-fortified “Atlantic Wall.” The Normandy camouflage scheme is characterized by the use of red, green, and tan/brown/yellow paint. In some cases, the entire helmet would be over sprayed with the tan base color, and then areas would be further over sprayed with the red and green. Other helmet painters chose to simply spray areas with the various colors. These paints were, generally speaking, the same pigments supplied to units for the purposes of camouflaging vehicles. The paint was usually applied in unit workshops, using industrial type spray guns, rather than by the soldiers themselves. Every painter had his own style, and there were probably infinite variations in the way the helmets were camouflaged. Normandy camouflaged helmets were regarded by enemy GI soldiers as attractive souvenirs, and they remain very desirable collectibles today.

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