Original WWII Italian M33 Helmet with 1st Alpini Regiment Stencil & Shield - Full Liner

Original Item: Only One Available. The personnel for the mountain (Alpini) divisions was drawn from Italy's mountainous Alpine region and tended to be of superior quality. In addition to being well trained for mountain warfare, they were expert in the handling of pack artillery. The mountain divisions differed from a standard infantry division in that each regiment had its own artillery, engineering, and ancillary services associated with the regiment on a permanent basis. This made each regiment of a mountain division relatively self-supporting and capable of independent action. By design, a mountain division consisted of a divisional headquarters, two mountain infantry regiments, an artillery regiment, a mixed engineer battalion, a chemical warfare company, two reserve mountain infantry battalions, and divisional services. The divisional headquarters included an anti-tank platoon.

Each mountain infantry regiment included its own headquarters company, with a platoon of flamethrowers. Each regiment also included three mountain infantry battalions and regimental services. At full strength, the firepower for a mountain infantry regiment was 27 heavy machine guns, 81 light machine guns, 27 45 mm mortars, 12 81 mm mortars, and 27 flamethrowers.

The M33 Helmet (Elmetto Mod. 33 in Italian) is a steel combat helmet designed in the 1930s in Italy, and was the standard combat helmet of the Regio Esercito up to World War II, and of the Esercito Italiano well into the Cold War. Designed by Nicola Leszl for the Mussolini Government, these have become extremely hard to find on the collectors market today, especially WWII examples that have not been refurbished.

The front of this helmet has a great stencil for the 1st Alpini Regiment. The alpine stencil does appear period, but is in very good condition for its age. The side of the helmet has a very interesting shield decal with the colors of the Italian flag with a white shield behind it to one side. This may denote that the decal is added, but we have not seen many examples so we cannot say for sure. The other side of the helmet has a plume holder. The liner is in good shape overall and the wartime leather chinstrap is intact. The liner is perforated 59 for the size.

A very nice example of the Italian M33 helmet from WWII, ready to display!