Possible mistake
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Third Man
MoviemanCin — 10 years ago(February 03, 2016 11:25 PM)
The soldiers (I assume they were soldiers) who helped the police hunt down Harry Lime appeared to be wearing WW II German helmets. Is this a mistake, or was that really what they wore in Austria just after WW II? This doesn't seem to make sense. I would think they would want to distance themselves from the Nazis, not imitate them.
Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, and / or doesn't. -
AnyID — 10 years ago(March 15, 2016 09:11 AM)
The unhelmeted, overalled soldiers are wearing wartime issue ski caps too. Would imagine that equipment and uniforms were retained (both countries, like many others in Europe were effectively broke) but stripped of the more offensive insignia. Certainly German (and I think Austrian) firefighters at least into the 1970s were wearing overpainted WW2 coal scuttle helmets, and I'm pretty sure there's a pic of a German policeman wearing one at the time of the Munich Olympic massacre
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AnyID — 10 years ago(March 15, 2016 09:21 AM)
Just did a quick Google search which showed a photo of Austrian Army soldiers in the 1950s, equipped with American jeeps but wearing WW2 era Wermacht greatcoats, helmets (and rifles), but with the eagle and swastika removed