The Stahlhelm

WHAT AN INTERESTING STORY THIS OLD HELMET HAS TO TELL

History teaches that the German Army lost two World Wars in a period of twenty seven years. But ironically, the German nation may have gained more by losing than by winning.

In the United States there is a maxim: "It matters not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game." And it seems the German Army "played the game", well. The Allied Armies gave a begrudging tip of the hat to an enemy which refused to quit, even in the face of over-whelming numerical superiority in both wars.

Millions of soldiers fought in World War I and World War II and of them all, the German soldier alone, has emerged as the ideal soldier; brave, loyal, dedicated and efficient. There are some who feel that the defeat of the German Army in both wars was a matter of quantity over quality. That opinion is not valid, however, for a soldier can be found in every army in the world who can match the best German soldier in any quality.

Every army in existence in the world today can point with pride to a number of spectacular victories, yet the German soldier is still the worlds general choice as the ideal soldier. For this honor, if indeed it is an honor, the German soldier must give proper credit for his fame, to the man who designed his wardrobe. Allied soldiers in both World Wars cast envious eyes on the German soldiers' uniform. Psychologically, the uniform the German wore made him "feel like a warrior". At the out-break of World War II, the German army represented also the highest paid solider in the world. The best dressed and the best paid soldier and given a cause of vengeance, the German soldier of WW II in particular was a chilling example of good soldiering. Their confidence and "Espirit de Corps" carried them to the very brink of an almost impossible military accomplishment.

The most distinctive feature of the Germany army uniform in both wars is the item which has come to symbolize German militarism in even the remotest corners of the world today. . . the helmet.

Two items of World War I vintage which the German staff felt adaptable for use in the modern military techniques of World War II were a gun and a helmet. The gun, developed at the end of World War I, was inspected by the conquering Allied armies and thought to be inferior that it was ignored. It became, in World War II, known as the "88", a weapon which struck fear into the hearts of men who had to face it. The helmet was the second item which it was felt could not be improved upon. Both decisions, to reactivate the "88" and to continue with the MI6-M18 model helmet (and later modifying it) proved to be master strokes.

In a background mist, when only a soldiers' helmet showed above the fog, a German troop moved out, during World War I. An observer, seeing nothing but helmets and rifle barrels, remarked: "Damned if it doesn't seem like the helmets are going to war by themselves" .

In May, 1940, a citizen in a town in Holland pulled a corner of his curtain back and saw a soldier wearing a German helmet standing in the street nearby. His chest was constricted. The German helmet bore a terrible significance to him. In a town in Hungary, a petty government official notices that when the first German helmet appeared in town, the Communists had disappeared. With mixed emotions he regarded the odd-shaped helmets of the German Army and recognized it as a symbol of Anti-Communism. But still it was not the Hungarian helmet."Too bad, he thought," its German. I would like to put one on and go calling on some of those Socialist trouble-makers. A Russian veteran of World War I watches the Germans move through his village. He was one of millions of Russians who had surrendered to the Germans in 1915, and sat out the war in a German prisoner-of-war camp. Fighting for the Czar had not been his idea of a "cause", and he had looked upon the Germans as liberators, back then. Now he was once again looking at the familiar German helmet and he wondered if he were not dreaming. His life was better now under Stalin than it had been under Czar Nicholas, but when he needed the Germans in 1915 they couldn't come and now that he didn't want them, here they were. . . same helmets. . same men?

In London, an ex-sergeant of the British Army sat in a cinema watching a newsreel of the German invasion of Holland and cursed at the relative ease of their victory. Except for the greater mechanication, they were identical to the World War I troops. Two young men sitting beside him were engaged in conversation. One of the boys said, "Looks like we're going to be in it again. Only this time we won't take so long in doing the Germans in." The ex-sergeant laughed out loud. "That's what I thought a few years ago, kid," he said, "You'll learn to respect the German too, because he's a damned good soldier. And the back of his neck don't get wet." "What do you mean the back of his neck doesn't get wet?" . . . "It's their helmet, kid, see? It covers his ears and the back of his neck and not just from the bullets. When it rains, the water don't run down the back of his neck, under his collar. Very uncomfortable feeling, that." The German helmet has become symbolic of as many different things to people as there are people. To some, it is an arrogant symbol of ruthless power. To others, a death sign, the mark of a big bully pushing innocent women and children into a gas chamber. To some, it signifies an era of brief but glorious revenge on it's enemies. The most general emotion which the German helmet arouses in the world, though, is one of toughness. Its wearer, a faceless man who went about the business of fighting a war in a cold, unrelenting manner and one who feared nothing but instead was feared. And the helmet, because it was so different in shape from others and because it was the first thing recognize able on a soldier, and because it was the German army, became the object of fear. Incredible!

Floyd R. Tubbs, "Stahlhelm - Evolution of the German Steel Helmet", Self Published, 1971