Serbian / Croatian / Bosnian helmets with inscriptions

[joaobr]

The Serbian helmet has a shaved red star and some Bosnian inscriptions on the inside. They are: "January 1988", "May '89. This helmet was used in January 88" and also "guja". I don't know what the last one means.
On the front flap, it says: "II S V" with pen and "P7Z", crossed out on top.
I don't know what conflicts this type of helmet was used for. Would you have any good ideas?

 

The other helmet is a German model from DDR. It was a model used during the Croatian war by the Croats, together with other models of helmets.
There is an inscription on the liner that I can't quite understand ... I would appreciate any help!

 

I hope you enjoyed it and would like to know your impressions and what you think !!!

Thanks

[Terra Borealis]

Nice find. The inscription reads 'This helmet was worn by an '88 January class'.  It is written in Serbian ekavian dialect. To my understanding, Yugoslav army admitted new cadets twice a year--in September and January, which is why the term 'januarac' was used. It is essentially a made up word, an army jargon loosely translated as 'Januarian'. 

 

The word 'guja' is a slang for snake. The inscription on the liner appears to be someone's name, maybe 'Beržaj Stjepan', which sounds like a Croatian name (last name first, as per local custom). 

 

Hope this helps. 

Edited April 28, 2021 by Terra Borealis

[joaobr]

5 hours ago, Terra Borealis said:

Nice find. The inscription reads 'This helmet was worn by an '88 January class'.  It is written in Serbian ekavian dialect. To my understanding, Yugoslav army admitted new cadets twice a year--in September and January, which is why the term 'januarac' was used. It is essentially a made up word, an army jargon loosely translated as 'Januarian'. 

 

The word 'guja' is a slang for snake. The inscription on the liner appears to be someone's name, maybe 'Beržaj Stjepan', which sounds like a Croatian name (last name first, as per local custom). 

 

Hope this helps. 

Hello!

 

Thank you very much for the explanations! It helped a lot to better understand the inscriptions !!

 

Thank you very much

[Valter]

On 28/04/2021 at 23:00, Terra Borealis said:

Nice find. The inscription reads 'This helmet was worn by an '88 January class'.  It is written in Serbian ekavian dialect. To my understanding, Yugoslav army admitted new cadets twice a year--in September and January, which is why the term 'januarac' was used. It is essentially a made up word, an army jargon loosely translated as 'Januarian'. 

 

The word 'guja' is a slang for snake. The inscription on the liner appears to be someone's name, maybe 'Beržaj Stjepan', which sounds like a Croatian name (last name first, as per local custom). 

 

Hope this helps. 

Just a small corection - there were also december and june classes, or intermittent classes. The september class was somehow "elite," as these were usually guys who would go to university (they ended one year service in august/september, and in october university lectures in Yugoslavia started).

 

Stjepan Beržaj is Croat, no doubt.

 

Nice and intersting helmets here.

 

Just one warning - there's abundance of fake balkan war helmets, which are just JNA/YPA helmets (which are really abundant) with added paintings, inscriptions, stickers ... Years ago one such scrupuous seller posted a pic of "croat war helmet" for sale with visible traces of spray-painting on the ground around it. The helmets posted here seem genuine/unbotched to me.