The M1 Helmet of World War Two – the “steel pot”
All postwar chinstraps are made of blackened steel, are marked DOT on the rivets and usually bear a anchor under the flip tab of the buckle. Please read my companion article providing an overview of the fibre helmet liners used in the M1 helmet of WWII that will appear soon.
The metal band of the rim material has a seam where the ends of the strip meet. The interior of the liner has been left unpainted and is more 'orange' than the High pressure liner. A distinctive characteristic of early war examples, due to the type of steel used, is that they were prone to generate stress cracks on the shell.
The M1 Helmet of World War Two – the “steel pot” - A composite image showing the bales. The use of clasps is postwar.
The M1 Helmet of World War Two - A Basic Overview. The amount of reference material available from books and websites on the US M1 steel helmet is vast and in most cases of a very high standard. Due to this we are merely choosing to touch on the basics of what to look out for when identifying and dating an M1 helmet to the Second World War. The most notable clones were from Austria, Germany and Belgium. Through it lifetime minor changes and updates were implemented to improve protection and user experience, such as paint texture and colour, rim material and positioning, chinstrap bales, chinstraps and of course the liners. However in general terms the actual helmet design changed little. The Helmet in detail Perhaps the first thing to look out for when examine an M1 helmet is the shell. The shell can tell you a lot about the helmets age and in some cases its usage. For example the US Navy often tended to over paint their olive drab helmets with shades of blue, grey, yellow, orange, white or red and so on, for the various functions performed by their personnel while aboard ship. Up until late 1943 the rim of the helmet was stainless steel with its join at the front. The paint tended not to stick to this rim and chipped off easily with many period M1s show this characteristic clearly. After this point the rim changed to manganese steel, which was the same material as the shell, and the position of the rim join moved from the front to the rear. It is worth noting that the Austrian and Israeli M1 clones in particular used a stainless rim with the join position at the rear, however the shell texture was different to US wartime M1s. Shell texture during the war used crushed cork which gives a dimple like appearance. This texture tended to wear more easily, and as can be seen on the left image above, is clearly shiner than the what was later used. Sometime postwar, between the end of WWII and the Korean War, the helmet texture changed to sand and the colour of the helmet changed from OD fs33070 to OD 319. The two images below highlight the texture differences. These were realised to be too fragile and so were soon replaced by rectangular shaped fixed bales. Fixed loop baled helmets are rare and naturally are quite sought after. Beware of forgeries and reproductions. The Liner in detail The lining system of the M1 helmet went through a variety of changes, both in material and design. The lining was quite unique for the period in being a separate body that slipped into the steel shell, as opposed to other helmets of the era, where their lining systems were either pinned, sewn or bolted to the shell. Worth noting is the French postwar M51 helmets adopted this liner concept. The liner body is hard and made up of a composite fibre material, which can take some flex but would split under too much pressure. The liner shape is a clone of the steel shell and fits snugly into place. However it is not uncommon to see scuff marks or scratches, especially on the exposed rivet heads. The outside surface of the liner was OD, reflecting the colour of the shell, but in some rare cases liners have been found where they were left unpainted. The inside of the body was left unpainted and has a 'Tortoise-shell' look to it, which can be seen on our header banner. The liner shell also has an air-vent above the frontal rivet, which was a feature on wartime liners. The edging of the liner was folded inwards making a thick rim, which characterises this particular liner. Hawley liners suffered badly from the climate and were somewhat fragile and were later replaced. Early washers were rectangular in shape while later washers were 'A' shaped, which became standard in all later liners. The sweatband of the Hawley was non-adjustable and snapped into the webbing studs. The forehead area was covered in leather only. The leather chinstrap swivelled on its bales but could not be removed. The nape area of the liner also had webbing with studs where a nape strap could be attached. This feature remained constant on all liners, but it is interesting that many liners are missing their nape strap. The Hawley seems to have mainly been issued to the Pacific theatre and interestingly photographs document Airborne soldiers wearing the Hawley in their M1C helmets on D Day. They were thinner than the later high pressure liners and tended to split under pressure. They have herring bone twill webbing and adjustable sweatbands that could be unclipped and removed. The webbing colour also changed from the white of the rayon to light khaki. The sweatband was also made of HBT with the contact surface being lined fully in leather as opposed to the sweatband on the Hawley. The 'A' washers remained aluminium, while the chinstrap bale became simply a stud where the leather chinstrap could be clipped on, allowing easy removal. The buckle of the chinstrap was square and painted OD, refer to the Low pressure liner image above. The lining configuration and materials stayed the same in high pressure liners as they were in low pressure liners. However brass 'A' washers and studs were used by some manufacturers. The chinstrap buckle also seems to have changed to black from OD, but this could be due to late war production rather than liner manufacture. The most common makers seem to have been Capac Manufacturing Company and Westinghouse Electric Company. Other than Hawley all liners and including those of the Korean War era had a frontal air-vent situated just above the rivet, which was also used for attaching insignia. Postwar most of the manufactures resumed their civilian roles. Micarta and Capac seem to have supplied liners for the Korean war era, although some WWII era liners and indeed shells saw service much later. The OCAD Collection has a Vietnam War era helmet example with a WWII issue shell and Vietnam war era liner, which highlights this. Worth noting also is that the webbing colour changed after the war to dark OD, and so if a WWII liner configuration has dark OD webbing then it is most probably Korean War era. The set of images below give a basic overview of a Korean War era M1 liner. Vietnam Era liners and those issued before the M1 was replaced in the late 1980s have a certain thickness to the body. The outer surface is similar in colour to the shell and is quite rough textured. The interior of the liner has been left unpainted and is more 'orange' than the High pressure liner. The webbing configuration is also notably different as can be seen in the example below. The air-vent has been withdrawn.
The sweatband was also made of HBT with the contact surface being lined fully in leather as opposed to the sweatband on the Hawley. However in general terms the actual helmet design changed very little, and so identifying an example as being original World War Two may seem like a fairly challenging prospect. The sweatband of the Hawley was non-adjustable and snapped into the webbing studs. Sydenham Manufacturer McCord Radiator and Manufacturing Company and Schlueter Manufacturing Company Ulbrichts Witwe No. On the earliest shells the jesus met at the front. Early war examples had a raised bar brass buckle. The use of clasps is postwar. It was during the First World War that the dating wwii helmets for a modern combat helmet was first recognised. Let's start with some basic rules: - The shell - 1 all the caballeros with fixed bails dating wwii helmets hold the chinstrap have been produced during WW2, from April 1941 to October 1943, then started the production of swivel bails.