Steel helmet M35 of the Spanish Army

This helmet is a German M35 steel helmet, as worn by soldiers of the Wehrmacht. However, an eagle of the Spanish army is attached to the front – how can that be?

In the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, the German Reich stood alongside General Francisco Franco, who staged a coup against the Spanish Republic. By setting up the Condor Legion with supposedly purely private “volunteers”, the Wehrmacht covertly supported Franco’s supporters. The German Reich hoped to be able to test its newly developed weapons systems under “real conditions” and to test combat tactics against supporters of the Spanish Republic, such as the Soviet Union. The attack on the town of Guernica by bombers from the Condor Legion, after which Picasso painted the famous painting, is infamous.

The Spanish nationalists obtained German steel helmets during the Civil War. This helmet appears to date from this period and to have been modified afterwards. The German soldiers on the ground did not wear Wehrmacht uniforms, but yellow and olive-colored ones so as not to look like regular soldiers. After the Civil War, the Spaniards painted the helmets a similar shade of yellow and later painted them over with this shade of green. The Spanish eagle made of brass with an enameled red cross is firmly attached to this helmet. The helmet also bears the three-part Spanish leather lining, which was fixed in place with additional rivets. This is equipped with a much thinner felt padding and is therefore likely to have been more uncomfortable to wear than the original lining of the M35, but was more resource-efficient to manufacture.

Spain produced their own model “Modello Z” based on the design of the German steel helmet and even used the M35 until after the Second World War.

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