Thomas W

Austrian sapper officer wearing an Austrian Stahlhelm M.1916 with a cloth cover.

Austrian Berndorfer M.1916, painted khaki brown, worn by a member of an Austrian assault battalion.

Officers of an Austrian assault battalion, wearing extremely wide, deep versions of the Austrian Stahlhelm M.1916, painted khaki brown. Some sources claim these very wide versions were manufactured in Slovakia.

Austrian Stahlhelm M.1916, painted khaki brown, as worn by a sapper of an infantry trench-mortar squad:

Stalhelm M.1918 with ear cutouts, as worn by a flamethrower carrier in a Reichswehr flamethrower squad:

Camouflaged Stahlhelm M.1916 and M.1918, as worn by men of an unidentified line-pioneer company:

Stahlhelm M.1918, with the chinstrap attached to the metal sweatband inside, not the flared bell of the helmet. This one is worn by member of the Freikorps unit III. Marine Brigade Löwenfeld soon after the war:

Stahlhelm M.1916, with a cloth camouflage cover, as worn by a portable-flamethrower carrier of the Garde-Reserve-Pionier-Regiment:

Stahlhelm M.1916 with a square-dip visor, as worn by a flamethrower pioneer of Sturmbataillon Nr. 5 (Rohr):

Camouflaged Stahlhelm M.1916, as worn by a flamethrower pioneer of the 9th Company of the Garde-Reserve-Pioni9er Regiment.

A much smaller Stahlhelm M.1916 in field gray, with a very shallow dip visor, worn by a man in Bayerisches Landsturm Infanterie Bataillon Würzburg Nr. 1.

First we have the Stahlhelm M.1916 in field gray, with the floppy chinstrap connected low on the flared bell of the helmet. This one is worn by a shock trooper of Landsturmbataillon 18, XIII Army Corps:

Right. The black lines were a different method of disruption than colors without black lines. Black lines were one approach; no black lines were a different approach.

The black lines were deliberately included in order to break up the regular shape of the helmet in a way that color alone could not. The point wasn't to conceal but to disrupt. It was an attempt to trick the eye into seeing shapes that could not possibly represent a helmet.

For disruption. In other words, to break up the round shape of the helmet, which gives it away more easily to observers. The camouflage was intended to make the helmet appear to be made up of jagged pieces, which would hopefully pass for leaves, chunks of earth, or battlefield debris when seen by the enemy.

Photo taken from an album compiled by an officer in the American Field Service, the volunteer ambulance drivers who served in France. The handwritten caption on the back says "Percy Wannamaker and a French torpille (pronounced 'torpil.'). I took this in front of our second post at Constantine." Actually, it's a German Wurfgranate 16, for the grenade launcher we're discussing...

Weird photo that shows a grenade launcher on the right and its base plate in the foreground, with German and French helmets, ammo boxes and drums for the MG 08/15, a small propellant tank for flamethrowers, some kind of hose with an attachment on the end, and some kind of machinery with a framework made of metal rods. The handwritten message on the back says "Destroyed German machine-gun nest," but I don't know...

Artillerymen of 7. Sächsisches Feldartillerie-Regiment Nr. 77 attending a grenade-launcher course in Zeithain:

Bulgarian grenade-launcher squad, Battle of Doiran, September of 1918:

Photo of the 37th Brigade assault school, July of 1917. The stamp on the back is from the 12th Company of Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 74. Note the French Chauchat machine rifle held by the trooper on the right.

The entire flamethrower-pioneer rig for the Granatenwerfer 16, from left to right: a. crate containing 12 grenades, with a sandbag on a sling lying on top of the crate; b. grenade launcher in its wooden carrying frame; the pole leaning on the case is used to adjust the grenade launcher by pushing or pulling it along the ground; c. the launcher base plate, which has been severely chopped down in order to reduce weight. Each platoon of the Garde-Reserve-Pionier-Regiment was armed with one grenade launcher, for a total of three per company and 12 per regiment.

Modified grenade launcher used by the Garde-Reserve-Pionier-Regiment. It had lightening holes cut in the base, and the steel base plate was eliminated. This cut the weight in half. Note the carrying frame made of wood.

Grenade-launcher squad of Sturmbataillon Nr. 6:

Something I've never seen before... This flamethrower pioneer's Totenkopf is at a cockeyed angle on the cloth oval on his sleeve! The cloth oval is in the proper vertical orientation, but the Totenkopf is skewed. Maybe it was in the process of falling off when the photo was taken?

One mystery solved... I posted a photo of this guy somewhere in this massive thread. Turns out he was a 1920s circus performer named Gabdin Brons, who had a "Game of Death" and performed "death jumps" (high dives). That's why he wore Totenkopfen on his flying helmet and chest: http://cgi.ebay.com/...=item58825219b9 The guy who sold me the photo said it depicted some kind military man. Oh well... Let the buyer beware.