One of my classmates happened to own a German Luftschutz helmet. Initially, I didn’t believe it to be authentic because it was so different from the German stahlhelm. Anyway, I did read up on it and found that it was worn by the old men and boys who constituted the last ditch effort to defend Germany from the Soviets.
Here’s an example;
You mean the Volkssturm? Only if they were lucky enough to get helmets…
Yes, I know the majority of them, in fact, did not get helmets.
Even then, quite a few of them were actually of the stahlhelm pattern used by the regular German military. Still, I’m surprised that my friend actually got a hold of a gladiator-style helmet. When I first saw that helmet, I thought it resembled the WWI-era pickelhaube because of the ear cutouts on the sides.
A picture of the Luftschutz helmet in use in berlin 1943.
