East German M56 Helmet Overview, History, and Variants. 

I believe the "sniper face veil" you demonstrate on the strichtarn helmet cover/ jacket hood , is actually a mosquito insect net, to protect the face in forest areas..............but ,as you say, would offer some camouflage element. The Swiss jacket netting is printed in a camouflaged pattern, while the DDR netting is plain grey green.

I have a WW2 German 1st pattern Pith helmet with the same Made in Germany stamp What I have found it was a Export stamp used on stuff sold in surplus / camping stores

Very nice helmets! The condition of the M56/76 is just amazing! As for the camouflage cover, I believe it’s actually a hood from a jacket, which soldiers really liked to place on their helmets as well. Great video!

Thank you for this vid. I’m here because I actually just found one at a scrapyard of all places, and was trying to date and ID it. It’s the later variant, but still very cool, and in great shape other than the mud on it from being thrown out.

I have a west german M 1A1 in black, no idea why its black but it was originally in olive green which you can see inside of it.

I have M56/76 version from 1979 with just few little scrathes,I bought it for 70 euros(50+20 for shipping) on ebay from german antique shop in Coburg

The "rainy" helmet cover is (nick)named _"Ein Strich, kein Strich"_ which translates to "one line, no line". JFTR de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strichtarn

The "Made in Germany" is a US import stamp that was at the time required by US imports law - whoops I see someone has already mention this - sorry!

- I have one, it is the same final version as yours except its heat stamp shows as "size II, dec '61". And it doesn't have any rivets, it's hard to tell the exact year it was made, because it looks like they used old helmet shells from the 60s (My helmet is brand new and has the final version's leather and plastic liner system). I still love the M1 helmet more aesthetically but put it side by side with the M56, the M56 still has something that looks sturdier and cooler, its leather chin strap system looks very nice. You are right, it is the best helmet of the cold war. * Edit: It has 2 rivets on the front, in the many years of owning it I rarely removed its cover, so I forgot it had 2 rivets.

The inner liner of the 1950s version is pig leather. So it appears rough and unfinished..

Шлем с заклепками более ранний и встречается гораздо реже. Приобрел такой и с нетерпением ожидаю его прибытия, он довольно редкий в России. А вот М56/76 достаточно много в продаже.

I got the one with the rivits for £35 in the North East of England

I’m a bit gutted about this one! I found about 3 of these in a shop in Bristol, all about 40 quid but passed them up, because I wasn’t a fan of the style. What a bellend! 😂😂

ngl I hated these helmets, they felt like an insult to the Germans under the Soviets' little prison umbrella throughout the Cold War. And besides it looks far too similar to the M23s worn by the Danes during the war. As much as everyone insensibly hated the look due to wartime bias, the design of the Stahlhelm was the most practical and sensible and realistically, tactically effective design for a combat helmet, hence why the shape was adopted by NATO countries when we switched to more bullet resistant Kevlar materials for our headgear!

a helmet with rivets is rare in Russia.

Awful looking thing. I can imagine why Hitler vetoed it, the Stahlhelm is waaaaaaay cooler than this!

worst helmet in history in my opinion sheerly because of its inferiority to the old stahlhelms