German helmet liner cord

[Davejb]

Over the past few weeks I have been helping my best friend with the preparations for his Aunts funeral, I have known her since I was 13, and I have always been treated as one of the family, His father was a Para in WW2, his mother was like my own and she called me son 2, his sister is just like my own, his uncle was a semi collector in military bits and bobs and the Aunt was a real classy girl. Unfortunately his father died quite a few years ago, his uncle 6 yrs ago and his mother last year, all of which I attended their funerals. As his Aunt died nearly a month ago, the bungalow and garage needed to be cleared, and it was a large job. However his uncles tools and some books were to be either thrown or go to charity shops but I ended up with some. I was clearing out the Garage into a skip. Inside an old draw I saw some cord, which not only looked old but smelt old, I looked again and thought that this looked like liner cord for German helmets, but it was in a large long strand, some 12 feet in length, I got it home, compared it with one of my helmets and bugger me IT WAS. God knows how his uncle got it or from where, or why its in this length. I,m amazed that I found this, but now the trouble is I need a few more helmets without cord so I can use it, but as its old its a bit stiff at the moment so iI will need to soak it in some fabric softener and stretch it out with some weights to keep its shape and diameter 

[Lenny]

Amazing... I'm sure they used the cord for something else as well though...

[Davejb]

I know ,right. I do have two helmets with fake cord in so I will be changing them over as soon as I,ve brought some life back into the cord. On second thoughts I wont be using fabric softener, I will just use water as I dont want to lose all the smell from the old cord. It stands to reason that this cord was originally on some form of roll, and was cut off in standard lengths in the factories. I have found out that my mates uncle was a dispatch rider in the Royal Signals in the 50s and was in Germany for a time, so I daresay thats where he got this cord from. I think its possible that there was a great deal more than whats left and over the years it was used as ordinary string. He was a keen gardener so there might be quite a few rose trees being tied up with this cord

[Bil4338]

Immediately postwar all sorts of military items would've been re-utilised for various tasks due to a shortage of mundane or just unobtainable items.as these began to be produced normally again the war booty items would've been relegated to a drawer or box in the attic or garage/shed/outhouse.so,your theory is quite plausible.great that it was found by you and can once again be reused in its original role decades later!