PFC Armand R. Beauchamp was a member of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR. He jumped in both the Normandy and Market Garden Airborne Operations of World War II. Beauchamp was killed in action in Opheusden, Holland, on the night of 6/7 October 1944, when a mortar round scored a near direct hit on his foxhole. The mortar round also wounded his best friend, Roy Zerbe, who later underwent over forty reconstructive surgeries. Beauchamp's body was recovered from the dyke three days later by his company commander and others. Equipment that Beauchamp left behind, including his helmet, was collected and stored at a local barn-like building that was used for a short while as a field hospital. Once the Allies retreated from Market Garden, this terrain was never part of a military campaign for the rest of the war and the Army never recovered all the equipment that remained in the barn.
This helmet was picked up after the war by Ben Overhand, who as a young boy accumulated American equipment and souvenirs for years, making him a well-known and respected Dutch collector. Robert Hoffman, a collector of German SS militaria, obtained the helmet directly from Overhand and traded it to Kelly Hicks in 2001. Hicks later contacted Roy Zerbe and Dick Winters (former commander of E Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne) about Beauchamp. Both said he was a handsome and dashing guy (an amateur actor from New Mexico) who made it all the way from Camp Toccoa through all the tough fighting of World War II.
In April 2010 the Wilson History and Research staff visited the gravesite of PFC Armand R. Beauchamp at the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial in Margraten. Accompanying the staff was the WHRC founder, Robby Wilson, who wished to visit the site to pay respects to the original owner of this American M-2 helmet currently in the WHRC collection. PFC Beauchamp was laid to rest in the Netherlands American Cemetery 65 years prior to the WHRC visit
