HomeMuseumsDecember 44 Museum at La Gleize revisited

Comments

December 44 Museum at La Gleize revisited — 3 Comments

  1. The camo-painted 4-star helmet did NOT belong to Taylor (although his steel pot had been painted in a similar “Mickey Mouse” pattern during July 1943 in Tunisia prior to the HUSKY invasion of Sicily — when he had been the 82nd Airborne Division Artillery Commander and a one-star [Brigadier] General).

    Rather, the helmet belonged to General Matthew B. Ridgway, the original C.O. of both the 82nd Airborne Division and XVIII Airborne Corps during WWII, who also wore the same steel pot throughout the rest of his career, notably during the Korean War in the 1950s. After his death, the helmet was bought at the estate auction by Frank BUCK, who later made a deal with Michel De Trez, who in turn took over the La Gleize Museum ~~ and that’s how Ridgway’s iconic helmet got there. This same helmet was also featured in De trez’s book “American Paratrooper Helmets” (2010).

    To say that this most famous of airborne helmets belonged to Mr. Screeching Chicken instead of the Airborne Commander of Airborne Commanders is committing heresy in All-American Airborne circles… but you’ll be forgiven this time… Now you know…

  2. Can someone find Max Taylor’s original steel pot that had been painted in the “Mickey Mouse” camo pattern just before Sicily?

    Fabio

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

HTML tags allowed in your comment: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>