Deutsche Schutzweste WW1

[zuluwar2006]

Here is a new addition to my collection. 

A new Ww1 face armor for MG machine gunner (Splitterschutz). 

An extremely rare model improvised from the previous model I have posted allready. 

[zuluwar2006]

On 03/08/2019 at 12:03, zuluwar2006 said:

Here is a new addition to my collection. 

A new Ww1 face armor for MG machine gunner (Splitterschutz). 

An extremely rare model improvised from the previous model I have posted allready. 

 

[zuluwar2006]

On 15/07/2019 at 03:37, Jools mckenna said:

I would like to get the armour expects opinion of this. I have a photo of 2 named German officers and one of which is wearing something that looks like one of the french skull caps. Is it one or is my imagination?

A French squad demonstrates how to wear the new skull cap.  The normal kepi would then be worn over top.  

The French Army had suffered massive casualties since August.  Medical personnel noted that many of the wounded and dead showed injuries to the head.  Shrapnel balls and bursting debris could easily maim or kill a man if they hit him in the head, and the cloth caps that soldiers wore offered no protection.  Even the spiked German pickelhaube helmet was only made from leather and offered no practical protection. 

One French general, Louis Adrian, proposed a solution to reduce the amount of casualties.  Adrian had noticed that reports from the front noted that mess tins, made from metal, usually stopped shrapnel and sometimes inadvertently saved lives. He designed a  metal skullcap, or une cervelière, to offer some protection.  At first, the French supply corps argued that the war would be over before any helmet could be issued, but Adrian persisted and the design was approved in December, and the condition that it be rudimentary and easy to make.  The first skullcaps were received on the front in January.

The little metal cap was intended to be worn under the kepi, the blue French infantry hat.  However, many troops took to wearing the skullcap on top for better comfort.  The little helmet, nicknamed “the brainpan” by the troops, was made in three sizes and had holes drilled in the sides so that it could be hung from a cord. The troops found that it made an alright pan for cooking, as well as an emergency chamber pot. 

700,000 were produced and 200,000 issued by February.  It offered better protection than nothing, but Adrian knew that something more developed was required, and set to work on a new infantry helmet.

 

 

[zuluwar2006]

A very interesting photo of an Austro-Hungarian armored train. Note the size of the train compared to the soldier and the cannon positioned to defend the front side. The train was also provided laterally by some loopholes for machine guns. Eastern front. 

[zuluwar2006]

Another photo from grabenpanzer

[zuluwar2006]

 

Saxon infantrymen from either Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 101 or Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 101, pose outside a dugout capable of accommodating twelve soldiers. Testimony to the fact this is a frontline position are the 3 Grabenkeule (trench clubs) hanging on the walls of their trench. The prospect of hand-to-hand combat was quite real for these men.

Trench clubs were used by all sides and typically were manufactured in a regiment's Tischler Werkstattsomewhere behind the lines.

[zuluwar2006]

An American soldier wearing a steel helmet with visor and a body armor. 

France, Boucq, 12 June 1918.

[zuluwar2006]

A very rare photograph with a german soldier with a Trench club (grabenkeule). 

[JohnC]

I thought readers of this thread might like the photo below. It's from "The War Illustrated" of 18th August 1917. No details are given in the surrounding text beyond the caption.

[zuluwar2006]

Two Austrian officers in Caporreto, the one on the right, is holding a Trench club (grabenkeule). 

[zuluwar2006]

MY NEW ADITTION ON TRENCH CLUBS [GRABENKEULE]

A VERY RARE AND ORIGINAL TYPE OF GRABENKEULE, WITH SPRING COIL AND SQUARE IRON HEAD.

NOTE THE END OF THE WOODEN HANDLE WITH THE IRON FINISH, IN WHICH THE COIL IS ATTACHED. 

REGARDS

D.

Edited 10 July , 2020 by zuluwar2006

[Steve1871]

Hey Demitrios 

You have that huge post on your rare bayonet collection

You also have a nice collection of scarce to rare trench clubs and body armor. Have you started a large post on these clubs/ armor like you have on the bayonets. It would be great to see different types, explain what is rare or not, what to look 

[zuluwar2006]

Thank you Steve!!! 

More than 2 decades of collecting all over Europe!!! 

This is a rare photo of a Ww1 german or Austrian soldier, with a grabenkeule (Trench club) with coil spring. 

Regards

D. 

[PJ13]

On 16/07/2019 at 04:30, Dave1418 said:

An excellent image especially the pre war revolver and picklehaub plate on the front of the steel helmet 

 I was researching this particular body armor  and found this thread and the reference to this pattern as used in Weimar Germany.

 

I obtained a set of this style armor circa 1990. It is missing the lower lames. The armor is actually identified as Polish and designated WZ 16 according to some.  The only reference I have found is in the Kijak book on Polish helmets and the few other images I've found are captioned as being from Warsaw, dated 1930-1934. This photo as well as the other in this thread illustrating this armor are actually of Polish police circa 1930s. The eagle on the helmet is not a Pickelhaube plate but the large Polish state emblem (in the photos posted below, a smaller eagle is worn)  . 

 

The designation WZ 16 implies the original pattern date of 1916. So the question is, was this a WWI era issued body armor (and if so, by whom - Germany, Russia, Austria or the Poles themselves?), or designed during the war and not manufactured or, if produced and issued, not in any great numbers.  

 

I'd really like to find a photo of this armor in use during WWI and that might answer some of my questions.

 

 

Edited 8 December , 2020 by PJ13

[zuluwar2006]

On 08/12/2020 at 17:56, PJ13 said:

 I was researching this particular body armor  and found this thread and the reference to this pattern as used in Weimar Germany.

 

I obtained a set of this style armor circa 1990. It is missing the lower lames. The armor is actually identified as Polish and designated WZ 16 according to some.  The only reference I have found is in the Kijak book on Polish helmets and the few other images I've found are captioned as being from Warsaw, dated 1930-1934. This photo as well as the other in this thread illustrating this armor are actually of Polish police circa 1930s. The eagle on the helmet is not a Pickelhaube plate but the large Polish state emblem (in the photos posted below, a smaller eagle is worn)  . 

 

The designation WZ 16 implies the original pattern date of 1916. So the question is, was this a WWI era issued body armor (and if so, by whom - Germany, Russia, Austria or the Poles themselves?), or designed during the war and not manufactured or, if produced and issued, not in any great numbers.  

 

I'd really like to find a photo of this armor in use during WWI and that might answer some of my questions.

 

 

Dear friend, 

Excellent research you have made, I have to search deeper in my archives to see if I have anything to help you on this. 

Regards

D. 

[zuluwar2006]

An extremely rare photo, which recently sold for 700 euros on eBay. 

A german soldier, posing, wearing a Grabenpanzer (Trench armor) and an elephant mask for the protection of his face. 

A very rare combination. 

The smaller colored photo is from the site of our friend, member in here, humanbonb. 

Regards

D. 

 

[zuluwar2006]

A VERY RARE FRENCH TRENCH CLUB.

This ounded on Arras.

Very flexible, as you an see on photos.

it has the number 2 on the iron ball.

47 m long

1 kg weight.

diameter of the spring oil is 27 m.

very durable construction and with great flexibility.

[zuluwar2006]

A very rare ww1 photo. 

British soldiers with german trophies, bayonets, helmets and a grabenkeule. 

Regards

D. 

[zuluwar2006]

Another rare photo with german soldiers with grabenkeules (trench clubs). 

An austrian ww1 trench club. 

[zuluwar2006]

Some interesting photos and schedules from the italian trench body armor and "farina" trench head shield. 

 

[zuluwar2006]

Some rare photos.

ww1 soldiers with grabenkeule and trench armors. 

Regards

D. 

[zuluwar2006]

Cervelière trench armor

The Adrian Modelé 1915 helmet is the emblematic attribute of the hairy that everyone knows.
Yet we must know that at the beginning of the war our dear soldiers were not provided with it.
Indeed from the beginning there is a large number of wounds to the head of the soldiers.
The hairy are then equipped only with kepis and the losses due to head injuries are considerable
In December 1914 a sub-intendant named Louis Adrian, proposed a metal hull to put under the kepis.
It will thus be ordered urgently these hulls which will be called "Cervelière".

It was very impractical and after a while we can find the adrian helmet 1st model on 1915.

 

[zuluwar2006]

The "Farina" helmet represents an important landmark in the development of the combat helmet. After the invention of the gunpowder, the medieval helmet and the armours have lost their importance until they disappeared. During the World War I, the helmet was used again in the battlefields and the first to be adopted was the "Farina" helmet.

The helmet was given to squadrons composed of infantrymen and sappers that had to remove passive obstacles on the battlefield before the infantry action.

The helmet was designed and produced by the Engineer Ferruccio Farina whose laboratory was in Via Ruffini n. 10 in Milan. The name and the address were written on the oval stamp inside the fore brim of the helmet that had also got the size in Roman numerals (I-II-III). The helmet was composed of three main parts painted with green-grey opaque non-glare paint. The shell was in oval plate fixed by eight tacks; the fore brim was formed by four overlapping steel sheets fixed together by five tacks; also the back brim was in plate and four centimetres high.

At ears-length there were other elements in plate and a grey leather wimple with metal buckle. The front brim of 8 or 12 centimetres distinguished the "high" model from the "low" model. The "high" model reached a weight of 2250 gr. while the "low" model weighed 1850 gr.

In the first models there was not a ventilation system and so it was used later a shell in plate outside the protection brims, permitting in that way a better air circulation. These models with ventilation had got both the versions with "high" brim and the versions with "low" brim. The problem of the ventilation was definitely solved when a crest similar to the "Adrian" helmet was adopted to cover a hole on the top of the shell. This change was made on the helmet of both models to which a third intermediate version was added.

There was not a standard padding and at the beginning it was used on the battle cap worn backwards. Later, a cloth headgear was stuffed with horse hair and cotton wool. In some cases, two pieces of natural rubber were fixed inside the front brim to improve the helmet stability. In spite of the attempts to improve the wearability of the helmet, the "Farina" helmet remained uncomfortable and heavy. The production was stopped with the massive distribution of the 15 Model and the following versions.

 

•  

[Mark Finneran]

Zuluwar2006 some absolutely stunning items in your collection, and please please forgive me for stating the obvious. You are no doubt hugely genuine and yes as Steve says you should open a museum. I am just a little fearful about some of the Imperial German helmet plate and/or face masks. (pre-COVID).

As all collectors will have experienced at some point, the purchase of a fake or replica sold as original still continues. It is amazing on ebay how some trench art pieces (MG) are sold as WWI period items and are seeking incredible prices yet are clearly made in India or Pakistan. Front armour brow plates are reproduced and no doubt body armour too. Some WWI german MG items sold as original are/were made in Vietnam!!!  The targets for 'fakery' are very very varied and extensive.  My point is considering how professionally vain and proud WWI German machine gunners were (with some justification) I have yet to see any period imagery that depicts such 'masks' being worn, either by sentries, machine gunners, or snipers etc  other than the standard. Some masks have indeed appeared on ebay and as for buying from auctions even they can make mistakes. I just would not wish genuine collectors being duped and considering how crudely such pieces were made, if indeed so, to accumulate period materials and manufacture would not be that difficult in the hands of a skilled tradesman. You only have to ask the German helmet experts about paint schemes and the skills of the fraudster. Or watch youtube how to age metal! Personally I purchase nothing unless there is a period image or verification from a reputable museum and their archives. They are great items and potentially super rare but I would urge caution. I know many would agree with me without dampening anybody's super enthusiasm.

Mark

[zuluwar2006]

A very rare  pair of Experimental Iron side shield to apply on ww1 Italian Adrian Helmet (ceek-guards), which is a copy of adrian helmet. 

This is for protection from Trench Fighting Assoult of Arditi Troops, with hanging hooks on the italian lippmann helmet (Italy M16 helmet). 

This helmet is an italian copy of adrian helmet, also referred to as the "Lippmann Model".

The helmet is a two piece construction compared to the French made Adrian of four sections. This helmet has the crest spot welded and being  rivetless.

The italians simplified the construction process of the helmet and eliminated many of the weaknesses of it's French progenitor. Note that the ventilator crest of this little Italian job is spot-welded, all rivets are eliminated on this helmet, giving it improved structural integrity over its French forebear.

On photos an italian lippmann model helmet and a photo from an arditi special trooper with lippmann helmet and iron side shields, as well and experimental side shields. 

Regards

D.