WWII Military Police Helmet Story

NOTE: For some reason, I’m not getting the writing prompts on my stuff. Not a big deal, but the prompt had to do with collections. Here’s my story.

Military Police once upon a time (and still might) wore distinctive helmets. Most of the time these were black in color, had the letters “MP” on it. Sometimes they had a band, and then the unit.

I started collecting them a few years ago. Then I had to stop. I realized if I continued to do so, I was going to need a separate room just to house them.

But the one’s I did collect were interesting.

There’s one from my old unit, 1st MPs.

There’s another from the MPs out at West Point.

Then I’ve one that is beat up as Hell. It’s a steel helmet, what back in WW II was referred to as a “Piss Pot.”

This one had once been painted and looked like it had been used to pound in tent stakes. The paint has pretty well flaked off. The helmet is of the style used in WW II. The people I purchased it from found it in a chicken coop on their property. They couldn’t shed any light on how it got there.

If my research is correct, I more than likely have a key part of someone’s family history. It had been discarded like trash.

I did my best to make out the numerals and information on it. It’s in very bad shape. If I’m correct, then this helmet might have been at one of the key battle of WW II.

I’m sure the helmet is the real thing. it doesn’t look showroom fresh to me. MP helmets tend to go through hell. Rarely do they look like something that came off the show room floor. I can honestly tell you, that when an MP is finished with the helmet, it’s usually pretty well trashed.

And they probably won’t turn it in, but hang onto it.

The condition of this helmet and lack of a backstory convinced me it was real.

He did tell me that the former owner of the farm had been in WW II. But he knew very little beyond that.

So I bought it.

When it arrived, I unpacked it, and it was in worse condition than I thought. I wondered about its story.

The first thing I had to do was try to figure out the unit it came from. MP helmets almost always have the company number painted on one side. In the case of my 1st MP helmet, I have the big number 1 on one side. It might also have the unit crest or division patch on the other.

The numbers on this one in were in bad shape. A lot of the paint had either flaked or worn off.

Using the age-old tradition of connecting dots, I was able to decipher the number.

The helmet had come from the 503rd MP BN. A quick Google Search provided some back story.

First, the unit had been founded as the 303rd BN. It was a National Guard unit back in 1922. It was deactivated as a Guard unit in 1938, and redesignated as part of the regular Army. But it didn’t resurface as an active unit until 1 Feb 1943 when it was reactivated at Camp Maxey, Texas.

It was deactivated on 13 March 1946 at Camp Kilmet NJ.

NOTE: The 503rd has been activated and deactivated a few times since. Once as a training battalion and more recently as an active part of the 82nd Airborne Company.

But during it’s brief career in WW II, it saw a lot of ground to include the invasion of Normandy.

One story I found from a former member concerned the Battle of the Bulge.

First, a little background. As any student of WW II knows, the Battle of the Bulge was the last big offensive the Germans launched. They’d found a weakness in Allied lines, and gambled they could do something to disrupt our efforts. The entire idea was to get a seaport again. They also felt they might be able to force us into a settled peace through this operation.

It was a gamble that almost worked. All that stopped it was the stubborn resistance put up by the troops that were there. A change in the weather allowed allied air power to flex it’s might and cut off already strained fuel supplies. Then there was the arrival of Patton’s Army.

The story I stumbled across, and I wish I could find it now, was from one MP that was there. He and two other MPs were at a crossroads. An officer arrived telling them some tanks were coming down. These were the remains of a tank company, and to make sure they got directed in the correct direction.

So they’re waiting. A moment later here come tanks. He’s out there directing them where to go. As he does, he realizes there’s something different about these tanks. He’s looking at them and the soldiers who are riding them and all at once it clicked.

These were German tanks. And he’d been waving them forward. Apparently, the Germans didn’t think much about it because they let them be. Some even waved back.

What he didn’t know was the Germans had infiltrated the area using captured uniforms and vehicles. And MPs were people they would have wanted to impersonate. The tankers may have thought these men were on their side.

Realizing they were now behind enemy lines, he waved one more time. He got in the jeep and he and his buddies got out of there.

Talk about God looking out for you!

NOTE: I did give a talk at a local school about the helmet. Sorry, it’s not the best audio or video. You can hear and view it Here.

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