The images and the entire text used on this and all other USMBOOKS web pages are the copyrighted property of USM Inc.  Those images and the text may be used by others ONLY AFTER completion of a formal international licensing agreement and payment of a licensing fee! It is therefore, illegal for anyone to take any of the material found on USMBOOKS.com and use it for their own purposes without our written permission, irrespective of any excuse they may feel they have for doing so.

As almost all collectors are aware, most NSKK (Nationalsozialistische Kraftfahrkorps or National Socialist Motor Corps) crash helmets were designed and built like this one EXCEPT that they had leather ear flaps and a leather cape that covered the back of the neck. Those are the NSKK crash helmets that are most commonly encountered these days.

On the other hand, there are plenty of existing Third Reich period pictures that show NSKK musicians and marching bandsmen wearing helmets that have been slightly modified to get rid of the ear protection and the cape in the rear that were important if riding a motorcycle. For use in a marching band the ear protection and cape interfered with the wearer's mobility and hearing, so it was simply removed.

The helmet we offer here is exactly that - a Nazi era standard production NSKK leather crash helmet modified to suit one of the many musical instrument player that accompanied NSKK formations. NSKK musicians helmets should be considered a rare sub-category of NSKK crash helmets in general.

The cape at the rear was disposed of entirely, the ear protectors on the side were either heavily modified or done away with and the roller buckle chin strap found on most NSKK helmets was replaced with an adjustable slide chin strap.

The helmet we offer on this USMBOOKS web page has these modifications, and those modifications were made during the Third Reich, and before the helmet was acquired in Germany by the American GI that brought it back to the United States in 1945. As mentioned above, we know that because we actually removed it from the GIs footlocker ourselves where it had been stored since 1945.

The helmet is of course, very well made of heavy leather, with a 3-½ inch tall die-struck light metal silver eagle on the front which has a 5 inch wingspan. The light leather liner is in very good used condition, still tied with an original brown shoelace. The chinstrap is still reasonably supple but was broken in three places when we unpacked it, so we had leather strips added to the back side to reinforce the strap in the three places where it was broken.

The helmet will display very well just as it is, and it would be a unique addition to almost any Third Reich collection. We haven't even bothered to dust it off.