Pickelhaubes

[Guest Hill 60]

Can anyone tell me when German troops stopped wearing the pickelhaube, please?

I assumed that after the issue of the M16 stahlhelm, the pickelhaubes were withdrawn from service. However, I've seen a photo taken of British prisoners on (apparently) the 21st March 1918 and one of the Germans is wearing what looks like a pickelhaube.

Were reserve troops given the pickelhaube instead of the stahlhelm?

[AOK4]

Hello,

Normally front line troops in active sectors on the Western Front got their steel helmets from 1916 on. Troops coming from the East often were issued with steel helmets as soon as they got in the West.

Troops in less active sectors or occupying units (Landsturm etc.) often never got steel helmets, because there was no real need for them to have steel helmets.

Regards,

Jan

[Guest Hill 60]

Jan - Thanks for that.

[Chris Noble]

Just been reading a few chapters tonight of Terry Norman's 'Hell they called High Wood ' tonight coincidentally. There's a reference in one of the chapters at the suprise of one soldier of an advancing British battalion, of meeting the enemy forces wearing shrapnel helmets that beared resemblance to firemens helmets.

Chris.

[CROONAERT]

Pickelhauben were also manufactured right up to the end of the war (and, privately, afterwards). I have had one in my collection that was dated 1918 (1915 pattern but made of leather, not one of the ersatz materials).

Dave.