Reichsarbeitsdienst Helmets

3 Documents belonging to RAD soldier Kurt Schmale.

In 1938 he received his 4 years service medal.
In September 1942 he received his war merit cross
In February 1945 he received his iron cross 2nd class while serving with a Flak Battery.

Below a photo of RAD soldiers , there is a helmet on the ground , unfortunately you cannot see the decals. On the right a parade ground full with RAD helmets with RAD decals.

Right photo courtesy of Ron R

CLICK HERE / INFO LINK : History of the RAD

Observations :

Helmets provided to the RAD always came from other branches , predominantly from the Heer but also from the Luftwaffe. In many period photos RAD soldiers are seen wearing Heer and Luftwaffe helmets. As such they were never produced at factory level for the RAD.
RAD decals are thus often applied on top of the factory placed decals.
Period pictures with RAD soldiers wearing helmets with RAD decals are very very rare.

Eisenhüttenwerke Thale (ET) size 64 – M35

Ex Luftwaffe helmet with droop tail eagle slightly visible under the RAD decal.
Lot number 3114

Photos courtesy of Anders

Eisenhüttenwerke Thale (ET) size 62 – M40

Liner band date and lot number unreadable
Helmet was originally Heer , you can see the Heer eagle under the textbook RAD eagle
Helmet appears to have received a dark grey overpaint both in and outside while the decal was masked. Seems like some paint still went over the decal in the top left corner.

Photo courtesy of Gwar , member of the Warelics forum.

Eisenhüttenwerke Thale (ET) size 66 – M42

Lot number 1985
Liner band date 1942
The decal is used in Jan Meland’s book : German Helmets 1916 – 1945
- Due to a optical illusion caused by the Heer decal underneath Jan wrote that this eagle has a beak facing downward , this is an error. The decal is the same as the others posted on this page. I included a USB close up so it is clear.
The rank of the RAD soldier is VM which stands for Vormann
The hole in the top could mean it was used as a gravemarker