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RETURN TO HELMET COLLECTION PAGE HELMET COLLECTORS WEBPAGESandLINKS TO HELMET BOOKSupdated 22nd April 2004 Note for 2025 and beyond - this page has not been updated since 2004, and is shown for historical purposes only; many of these websites have vanished, some are still there but at new addresses, most of the books are out of print. But once upon a time they all existed or were obtainable, and many helmet collectors (including myself) learned a lot from them This is firstly a list of helmet collectors webpages, all I know of as of late April 2004. As you page down you will also find links to websites where you can buy most of the important books that any helmet fan should have. Many links and Google searches for 'helmets' and 'helmet collection' I have followed go to dealers rather than collectors; dealers pages can certainly be good for pictures and information (usually accurate - but for a laugh a minute go to Manions, for example, even I know more about helmets than they seem to...) but what I'm interested in is enthusiastic collectors, helmet fans, individuals who are doing this for fun rather than profit, people who might take great pleasure and interest in their collections. And who like to talk about them too. Please do let me know if you have any links I have missed - especially if you know of a guy called Andy who used to run a helmet website (Andy's Helmets) out of New Zealand that is no longer accessible. Many of these pages are quite excellent - one or two are brilliant, both in design and content. Some are a bit neglected but still worth a look. Have a look at these helmet fans' pages, do, and tell us what you think. And if you know of any I haven't listed, please let me know. The pages are listed in random order - WORLD WAR 2 HELMET REFERENCE PAGE - http://home.wxs.nl/~stein049/ (A fairly new and still in development site by Gert Stein, a Netherlands collector. Covers only British and Dutch WW2 and before helmets at the moment, but is very well designed with excellent photographs and is easily navigable. Good information well presented. Fine! Will possinbly turn out to be a star site. Check it and see! RUSSIAN HELMETS - http://www.personal.kent.edu/~rclawson/RussianHelmets/index.html (A small but very useful website by the well-known expert Robert Clawson, with some updates and addenda to his excellent book RUSSIAN HELMETS - see below in the 'Books' section for information.) MY MUSEUM - http://www.mymuseum.fr.st/ (Another French-language site - though with a hint that an English-language version may appear. Sebastien has an extensive collection, particularly of French helmets of all eras. The site is intricately designed, with a lot of good photographs, and a neat slide-show method of presentation, but some of the photos in it are a little small. This site was originally hard to use with any browser other than Internet Explorer, but that has now been changed and it is now compatible with Firebird or Netscape. A good site, well worth checking regularly for updates and changes.) MATS' HELMETS - http://hem.crossnet.se/rundqvist/helmets (A new site, hot off the editor, from Mats Rundqvist in Sweden, concentrating on the easily overlooked but important area of helmet covers. I know almost nothing about these so this is a site I hope will expand and increase, and that I will be checking on regularly. I've learned quite a lot in just one visit - just what you want from a website! Design is simple, the pictures are excellent, and the text informative.) JOSEPH'S MILITARIA AND HOMEFRONT COLLECTION - http://homepage.ntlworld.com/kdds119/josephsmilitariacollection/ (A slightly odd but fascinating site that does exactly what it says on the header. A lot of images of British WW2 home-front items, and a fair amount of helmet presence. Could be a bit better organised - the thumbnails are a bit cramped and the text is sometimes a little vague - but it has the great advantage of genuine enthusiasm and definate interest in the subject. It's good, I like it! Some good links too, so well worth investigating.) MILITARY HELMETS OF THE WORLD - http://www.quanonline.com/military/military_reference/helmets/helmets.html (A rather odd site, from a dealer in the Southwest USA, who seems to be trying to incorporate real information as well as sales material on his website. Frankly it is not well constructed - navigation through the whole site is confusing and difficult - but there are some very good large pictures of some quite rare US helmets. But take care when reading his captions and information - they are not always accurate!) REG'S LIDS - http://www.richardeg.com/Helmets/Helmet_Index.html (A new site from one of the frequent posters and keen participants on the Military Helmet Collectors YahooGroups list - nicely laid out, and good photography. Has the air of something that will develop well.) KAISERSBUNKER HELMETS (A site devoted to Great War history, with two sections of interest to helmet fans - the first is on the helmets used by the Canadian Expeditionary Force, the second to the various forms of helmet used by the German Imperial Army. Nicely done pages, the section on the CEF looks thorough, but I am comparatively ignorant about German Imperial helmets so will take his word for it for the moment!) PETER SUCIU'S HELMET AND MILITARIA COLLECTION - http://www.nyc-techwriters.com/militaria.htm (A site from a collector in the USA - well designed, informative, and obviously enthusiastic. Some excellent pictures, well displayed, the site has recently been updated as of April 2004.) JACOB ANDREASEN'S WEBSITE - http://www.ww2-militaria.dk/ (Jacob is a Danish collector whose interest seems to be mainly full uniforms and combat kit - but of course he does have a number of helmets! Mostly WW2 German. A very well constructed site, very good photographs. In Danish, it has to be said, buy well worth a visit. Please note - new address and complete revision as of March 2004!) RADOVAN'S COLLECTION - http://www.geocities.com/collect_helmets/ (Frankly, this is a bit basic at the moment, but at least it is a start! The more helmet webpages we have, the more information there is to share, and that is the whole point of both collecting and the Web.) ALEX D'S CASQUES DE COMBAT - http://alexdhelmet.free.fr/ (Newly revised with more pictures added - March 2004. A very good site, lots of excellent photographs, but very little text. Alex has a great knowledge of helmets, especially French. It would be good if he has the time and energy to expand this site. Please note - you can usually get more than one picture of the helmets by hovering your cursor over the 'master' picture. Nicely organised site - clever web-design!) FRENCH HELMETS - http://salg71.free.fr/index.html (NB NEW ADDRESS as of March 2004!) ("De l'Adrian au Spectra, les casques de l'armée française." Exactement! This site is French-language only, but well worth the effort. Completely redesigned and rewritten as of February 2003, now including a lot of information on post-WW2 French helmets. Very nicely designed too!) MARKKU KARVONEN'S HELMETS - http://www.pottia.net/ (An excellent site, though low on informative text (ie there is virtually none except captions!) but the photographs are excellent, brilliantly clear, and Markku has a continually growing and very interesting collection. Recently updated early 2004 (and with a new address!) - and well worth checking regularly) ROY RYNNING'S HELMET COLLECTION - http://home.c2i.net/rrynning/index.htm (This site is no longer available ( April 2004) -
but I'll keep the link in for the time being as Roy may be moving
to another provider.) STEFAN'S HELMET PAGES - http://www.geocities.com/mil4sale/index.html (Stefan is a Swedish helmet fan and excellent fellow, and there are lots of good images of Swedish helmets here, including some unusual and rare early models, and this site also includes some clear information on the evolution of the Swedish liners. Some good photos and information of other helmets also. Design is a bit basic at the moment, but its certainly well worth visiting often.) TEODOR'S BULGARIAN HELMETS - http://helmet.0catch.com/ (Mostly Bulgarian helmets and helmet history - with a gradually expanding section on Ted's 'other' items including hiw own collection - this site has good clear photography and excellent informative text. I learned a lot from this site, it's full of information and very well constructed. The first stop for anyone with any interest in Bulgar helmets! Revised April 2004, and always improving.) FINNISH HELMET JUNKYARD - http://netti.nic.fi/~junkyard/helmets.html (I can't tell whether this is from a helmet fan or a Finnish militaria enthusiast, but there's good information here.) JEANNE D'ARC M45 HELMET - http://debellocollections.free.fr/DBC95-Casque-FR-mle45.htm (These pages are solely on the M45, but in painstaking detail. Fascinating.) GERMAN HELMETS 1916-60 - http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/utah/894/helmethistory.htm (Simply a tabulated list, no photographs, but may help in understanding and identifying the various German types from the pickelhaube up to the Bundeswehr steel helmets.) HELMET COLLECTORS/YAHOO - http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/militaryhelmetcollectorsclub (An often excellent, informative and entertaining helmet collectors mailing list - and (April 2004) very much better and with greater active participation than there used to be. The contributors are informative and interesting, and come across as pleasant and interesting people, all with helmet collecting in common. Some are genuinely funny and very entertaining; there's a lot more British participation than there used to be - is there a link?!? I have most definitely learned useful helmet knowledge from this list and would recommend it without reservation now. Join! Contribute!) JUKKA'S HELMET PAGES - http://www.kolumbus.fi/cabpilot/ (Jukka has recently totally redesigned his site, and has now totally abandoned his interest in steel helmets for his collection of aviation flight helmets and his in-house Fouga Magister (I am not making this up!). This site is still worth a visit because it also has lots of excellent photographs and information on Jukka's other enthusiasms and life, like his time in the Finnish Navy, which clearly does more blue-water sailing than I expected it did. It's a lively and entertaining, and very informative site, a credit to the WWW.) GERMAN WW1 HELMETS IN THE FINNISH ARMY - http://home.tiscali.be/be033830/jukka/jukkahelmetgallery.htm (A contribution to another website by Jukka Juutilainen, see above. Exceptional detail, everything you might need to know.) MICHELE TAGLIAVINI'S HELMET PAGES - http://www.tagliavini.fsnet.co.uk/ (Currently - April 2004 - in the process of being reworked, but nothing has been done since April 2003. It's a well-designed site in Italian and English, with some very good articles on primary topics - German fakes, Italian M33 history, the Yugoslav NE44, etc.) BIBLIOGRAPHY OF HELMET-RELATED BOOKS - http://www.sjvls.org/bens/bf004hl.htm (Exactly what it says on the header. Very useful bibliographic detail on helmet books and websites, remarkably similar to this one.....maybe because I contribute to it!) ODYSSEIOS' HELMET COLLECTION - http://it.geocities.com/odysseios (Odysseios is an Italian collector, and this is a record of his growing collection. Good photos, but could have a little more text and detail. This one is well worth visiting regularly to see what he has added.) JOSEBA'S COLLECTION - http://www.cascoscoleccion.com/portada.htm (Yes, he's el Jefe! The scope and depth of this site is constantly surprising. It's well-designed, detailed, with loads of historical background, technical detail, and fine photographs. Truly, it is a benchmark we could all do well to aim at. And it is regularly updated and improved. Fantastic. It has one drawback - for poorly-language-educated British people anyway - and that is that it is solely in Spanish...but hey, buy a dictionary, use Babelfish sometimes...it is more than worth a bit of work to get into this site. A Masterpiece, absolutely the best helmet site on the web. Recently updated, March 2004, with some great new pictures. I finally understand the difference between the Finnish M62 and the Swedish M37-65; Gracias, jefe!) STEEL POTS WEBPAGES - http://www.steelpots.com/resourcepage.htm At the time of writing - 22nd April 2004 - the Steel Pots site has been offline for several months. An enquiry to Chris Arnold brought forth that he feels he does not have the time to properly maintain and update the site. A pity - but why delete it altogether? It was/is a very useful online reference for anyone needing information on US helmets. We certainly hope that Chris Arnold will be able to bring it back online in the near future, so we hope the following notice will apply again - (Chris Arnold's website devoted to the US steel pot, and it is as good as you might expect if you have the books. One excellent feature is the 'Floyd R Tubbs Gallery' which features photographs of helmet collections - all types, not just US. A very good site with lots of useful knowledge.) GERMAN HELMETS - http://www.german-helmets.com/ (A very well designed site solely devoted to German helmets. If you want to know and can't read Baer in the original, you'll find it here - in fact, you'll find corrections to Baer here. A fine site. Redesigned to great advantage in late 2003. Excellent!) ANDREA CORVI/BLITZ MILITARIA - http://utenti.lycos.it/blitzmil/Pagina%20collegamenti.html (To be honest I'm not quite sure what this site really is - is he a dealer or a collector, or both? But there's some interesting photos, and if your Italian is better than mine you should be able to work out his intentions.) FINNISH WAR HELMETS - http://www.mosin-nagant.net/Finn-Helmets.html (Part of a site on other militaria, this has some fascinating text and photos of, yes, Finnish helmets! Why are there so many Finnish helmet sites?) WW2 MEDIC HELMETS - http://home.att.net/~medichelmet/ (Part of the web-presence of Alain Batens, a Belgian collector , primarily of combat-medic related items. It's detailed and quite fascinating - he must have an extraordinary collection. Try following up on other related articles via this site or references to him on Google - there's a cornucopia of WW2 information there. A surprising site, exactly what the WWW is for! I found this site - http://home.hetnet.nl/~oostvogels/milit-eng.htm - via such a search. It is quite fascinating.) MILITARY CAPS AND HELMETS - http://www.arrakis.es/~boisan/ (A Spanish collector's site - mostly military headgear other than helmets, but well produced and detailed, well worth a visit. In English and Spanish. Lots of links to other military and other hat and headgear collectors - it's a whole new world!) and now some links to sites where you can buy helmet books - ELMETTI / HELMETS - PAOLO MARZETTI - http://www.tuttostoria.it (The fourth edition of Marzetti's absolutely essential helmet encyclopedia was published in September 2003, and is widely available from specialist bookdealers (but not Amazon!). You can also easily get it from the publishers, Tuttostoria, in Italy. Their website address is given above, and the specific page for the Marzetti book is http://www.tuttostoria.it/specificheing.asp?ID=366. Contact them at info@tuttostoria.it for the current price including postage to wherever you are. I bought mine in October 2003 and it cost 66 euro including postage to the United Kingdom. This edition is a great leap forward from the third edition - being at least 40 percent larger for a start, as well as completely redesigned, and now including some colour pictures. It's also updated to mid-2003! No doubt, this is an essential and very valuable reference for all helmet fans. I recommend it without reservation.) CASQUES DE COMBAT - THE ENCYCLOPEDIA - http://members.aol.com/ustyre29/CASC/ (This is the other really important helmet book. Or books, as it is a three-volume set. The price is big, but so are the books. Editors Pierre-Paul Struye, Jean Dagnas and Yves Plasseraud have produced a wonderful thing here. Any serious helmet fan should have these; go on, don't buy that dodgy-looking might-be-Japanese thing on Ebay (you know it's probably a Swedish M26 underneath...), cut down on food for a few days, do anything reasonable or at least not life-threatening to get these books. I've had mine for years and scarcely a day goes by when I don't refer to them. And I'm not even on commission.) RUSSIAN HELMETS - http://www.bender-publishing.com/ (On this publisher's site you will find Robert Clawson's excellent book RUSSIAN HELMETS - FROM KASKA TO STALSHLYEM 1916-2001. A fine book which does exactly what it says on the cover. Worth every penny, and I use it frequently for both information and simple pleasure in the author's enthusiasm. If only there were a similar book on every other nation's helmets, especially the British! NB to specialist collectors and publishers - we really need a comprehensive book on British helmets!) STEEL POTS - http://www.bender-publishing.com/ (Yes, we're still on the Bender books site, where you will also find Chris Arnold's two excellent books on the US helmets STEEL POTS and PAINTED STEEL, as well as an English-language translation of Ludwig Baer's HISTORY OF THE GERMAN STEEL HELMET, which in this edition takes us only to 1945, thereby leaving those with an interest in Bundeswehr, NVA, and Bundesheer post-war helmets pretty much as ignorant as we started. Unless we can read fluent German and have the two-volume Baer. I'd certainly recommend STEEL POTS without any qualms, but I don't have the Baer in this English version. And I can't read German properly either, so a complete English-language Baer would be a wonderful thing!)) U.S. COMBAT HELMETS - http://www.schifferbooks.com/military/uniformsus/ (At the Schiffer Books website you will find a variety of fine books by Mark A Reynosa covering all aspects of US helmets. Well worth acquiring as they give detailed information that may be lacking in the more encyclopedic Casques de Combat or Marzetti. They are sufficiently different in tone, emphasis, and illustration to the Arnold books to be essential complements. Mark Reynosa's website is at http://home.pacbell.net/m-a-r/helmets.html) FINNISH HELMETS - http://www.mpkk.fi/englanti/museum.html (Here you should find enough information to make contact with the kind and helpful Information Officer of the Finnish Military Museum who should be able to supply you with a copy of Stig Roudasmaa's excellent book on Finnish helmets Teraskypara Suomen puolustusvoimissa [The steel helmet in the Finnish Defense Forces]. It is mostly in Finnish as you'd expect, but with a substantial English language section which Explains All. This is a superb little book, which should be in any helmet collector's reference library. Please remember to say that you are prepared to pay money for the book and postage!) TIN LIDS - CANADIAN COMBAT HELMETS - http://www.servicepub.com/upclose.html (Canadian helmets may at first seem a pretty small subject, and yes, this item by Canadian collector Roger V Lucy is a small book, just 48pp, even if it is A4 size. But there's a wealth of information in here. On almost every page I found something I hadn't previously known or even imagined. It's well-written, deeply researched, and packed with knowledge. Highly recommended for all helmet enthusiasts as it has good information on many aspects of general 20th century helmet history.) COLLECTOR'S GUIDE TO SWISS MILITARY HELMETS - email me (Jean-Paul Soulier's book on Swiss Helmets is still available, in the revised 1999 edition. But it is hard to get. I do not know of any website or dealer that handles it. I got mine from M. Soulier direct. I understand that he is reluctant to have his email or street address published, so if anyone wants to make contact with him with a view to buying the book, they should email me in the first instance.Complicated, but it works.) A COLLECTOR'S GUIDE TO SCANDINAVIAN MILITARY HELMETS - Volume 1, DENMARK AND NORWAY - Currently - March 2004 - available from Stefan's website! (Otherwise it is very difficult to obtain! All I can advise is regularly try one of the web bookfinders like http://www.abebooks.com/ or http://www.bookfinder.com/ and hope.) And what happened to Volume 2, Sweden and Finland then, eh? Mr Anders Skotte?) HELMY WOJSKA POLSKIEGO
- JACEK HIJAK - |