Alexander & Sons Restoration
A Savage Snow War On a freezing day in January 1940, near the village of Muurila, a Red Army soldier crept through the snow. He placed himself as close to a tent, as he dared; he knew it contained his Finnish enemy. He lobbed his grenade and waited for the consequences to unfold. This hostile …
A Infamous Helmet If there is one helmet that is universally recognized as epitomizing the evil of the Nazis regime, it would be the shiny black helmet worn by the SS in the 1930s. It is hard to pinpoint exactly why. This type of helmet never saw combat. It wasn’t worn by concentration camp guards …
Starting in March 1940 German helmet factories were ordered to produce a rough textured matte finish on their helmets. This finish was achieved in most cases by aluminum oxide powder.
A helmet customized for Battle Some of the most unique German helmets of WWII were worn during the Battle for Normandy. The terrain of thick green hedgerows, rolling green meadows, golden fields and orchards created diverse but deadly battlefields; one that necessitated good helmet camouflage for survival. To help their helmets blend into this environment, …
An Experiment on the Northern Front As the Great War raged across Europe in the winter of 1916, a steamship named St. Peter docked at Arkhangelsk, a northern sub-arctic port town in the Russian Empire. The ship had come from Brest, France and carried in it’s hold 15,000 French steel helmets. These helmets were part of an experiment, destined for the Russia’s Imperial army. Like all …
Fight for the Post Office At 4 am on September 1, 1939 German sappers cut the power to Danzig’s Post Office plunging it’s Polish staff into total darkness. No doubt a fitting act foreshadowing the dark times Poland would soon endure. World War II had just officially started, and the Free City of Danzig was about to be in the middle of the war. The now …
U.S. Marines in China On the 21st of March 1927, Stirling Fessenden, the American chairman of Shanghai’s International Settlement’s Municipal Council, issued a declaration of emergency. Generalissimo Chang Kai Shek’s Nationalist army was marching toward Shanghai. For several years China had been experiencing spasms of violence as the factions of warlords, gangsters, Nationalists, and Communists …
A Helmet for a Desert Front When Adolf Hitler agreed to send an expeditionary force to North Africa to shore up his beleaguered Italian ally, it was understood by the German military planners that the conditions which this force would be fighting in were different than any front the Germans had hither to served in. North Africa …
More Helmets for an Expanding War The German helmet of World War II is often broken down for distinction in three different models. The M35, M40 and M42. In truth according to the German high command there was only one model, the Model 35, so called because the first years of production was in 1935. The other models, …
A Helmet for a Titanic Battle The largest battle the World had ever seen would take place at the Russian city of Stalingrad between August 23, 1942 and February 2nd, 1943. Before the battle ended, both sides would sustain a combined total of over 2 million casualties. Throughout this titanic battle, the German army would utilize different …
