How to choose the size?
The cover fits on helmet 68 and 66. For a better fit, it is recommended to soak the cover in warm water, spread it out on the helmet and dry it on it.
The Germans had six helmet sizes: 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, and 70. Each helmet size could have a "smaller" and "larger" liner for two adjacent head sizes. The SS decided not to make covers for every size, but since it was impossible to have a universal size with this type of fastening, they grouped helmet sizes into three groups (60-62, 64-66, and 68-70). One cover size was made for each group, respectively, sizes 1, 2, and 3.
Size 60-62 helmets are too small for a modern reenactor, so we will not be making size 1 covers.
Description
A helmet cover in the Planetree 5/6 camouflage pattern for the SS. Reversible, reversible: green shades for summer and brown shades for fall. An early version: camouflage with dark spots reminiscent of tree shadows against large, light fields of foliage. Without belt loops for attaching grass (they only appeared in 1942). Attaches to the helmet with three metal hooks and a special pocket on the visor. Dense cotton fabric.
This camouflage is a unique and complete replica of the Planetree camouflage, not just a similar pattern. The Planetree camouflage measures approximately 1.3 by 2.1 meters with no repeats, whereas modern rotary printing is impossible to print a pattern of this size. The Germans printed the Planetree pattern by applying paint to the fabric through a huge stencil. Sometimes, this resulted in smears and drips of paint (which are also present on our copy). Cheaper copies use only a section of the camouflage pattern, repeated every 40 cm, to simplify and reduce the cost of the original design. This explains the low price; cheaper covers are also available here.
Helmet covers were usually made from scraps of fabric from the side of camouflage smocks.
Historical reference.
At close range, a well-camouflaged head saves the rest of the body. Proper helmet camouflage allows you to look at the enemy almost point-blank and remain undetected. Any flat camouflage (paint, mud) is inferior to three-dimensional camouflage (cover, net, grass), because three-dimensional camouflage changes the very shape of the helmet beyond recognition. This is why, at the beginning of the war, due to the lack of camouflage, helmets were most often smeared with mud, and by the end of the war, most helmets had cloth or metal mesh. The SS troops were much more likely to be issued with camouflage covers than the Wehrmacht. However, in the SS, only combat units were issued covers, and even there, not everyone had them. The remaining SS men continued to use nets, mud or paint.
