ITALIAN TROPICAL COMBAT HELMET.

A fabulous souvenir from the North African desert war being the standard Italian combat helmet of WWII, painted in a desert hue of pink. Web images can show how much of the paint finish is left, thankfully enough to give this helmet the character it has. Interestingly the colour that has been painted is virtually identical to the colour painted to the British Long Range Desert Group and SAS vehicles of the North African campaign and the same colour has even been used until the 1960’s with the SAS Land Rovers, nicknamed the Pink Panthers. The helmet belonged to one of the most important Italian combat units in North Africa the Bersaglieri. It is complete with its Bersaglieri plume holder and the remains of the plume itself. The plume holder itself, which comprises of a metal and leather construction is also frail, the leather pouch for taking the base of the plume is being held to the metal back plate with the addition of contemporary wire. To the interior the whole section of leather of the Italian interior is complete with the helmet but has completely detached itself from the felt lined liner band. The helmet is with its original drawstring and another very interesting feature is that the original owner of this helmet has managed to obtain a British elasticated webbing chinstrap and fitted it to his own helmet. The British helmet straps being elasticated did not have the need for opening and closing a roller buckle strap. On one side the strap is secured to the strap posts by original period wire, on the opposite side the original period wire has disappeared and has been replaced by a modern green plastic coated wire. This helmet was last owned by us approximately 18 months ago, was sold and has recently been traded back to us.

Code: 95841