Helmets

I recently acquired the Osprey Men-At-Arms book on the Chinese Army from 1937-49, which covers the so-called Sino-Japanese War (1937-41, as distinct from the one in 1894-95), World War II, and their civil war from 1946-49, which we all know was won by Mao and the Reds.  Remarkably, in the mid 1930s, the Chinese were trained and equipped by the Germans, and this included a substantial number of their 1935 pattern helmet, with which the German soldier of WWII is primarily associated.   Seeing Chinese men, with their Asian eyes, wearing these helmets is somewhat of a hoot.  So that brings me to this week’s blog.

 Origins.  Back in the middle ages, swords, axes, arrows, crossbows, and various other edged weapons made armor necessary, including helmets to protect the head.  By the Renaissance, firearms had developed and gradually progressed in power to the point where armor became impractical and obsolete.  Helmets were replaced with tricorner hats, fancy hats, kepis, service caps, spiked helmets, or whatever, more “head decorations” so the men wouldn’t have bare heads, than any serious form of protection.  None of them were made of metal.  The peaked cap, the hat which we usually think of generals and high ranking officers wearing, was a fairly common form of headgear even for enlisted men, though their common variant was much simpler, with leather straps and not braid.  The kepi is similar to a baseball cap, though with a leather brim and a flat top – most often associated with US and CSA troops in the US Civil War. 

 Then World War I broke out, and the vastly more prominent role of artillery and machine guns caused some nasty head wounds, which were scarcely protected by the various non-metal hats the soldiers were wearing.  The French wore kepis, the Germans had their extravagant and unique leather pickelhaubes (spiked helmets), the British and Russians had peaked caps, and the standard American headgear was the campaign hat, similar to Smokey the Bear and state troopers.  By 1916, the major combatants (except the Russians and Japanese) were upgrading to something more substantial.

 In principle, a steel helmet is a pot-type thing, worn on the head, secured with a chin strap, designed to protect it from shrapnel and indirect shots from rifles and small arms.  To be built strong enough to deflect a direct shot would make it far too heavy to wear.  Since the human head is consistently shaped – whether you’re German, American, French, British, etc. – naturally helmet design tends to follow that shape, so most helmets look pretty much the same.  Nevertheless, some countries managed to come up with something unique.

 Germany.  The Germans adopted the steel helmet with a brim at the front and a skirt around the side.  The initial 1916 model looks somewhat awkward, and has two large lugs on the front.  They kept this design until 1935, when the smaller and better-proportioned helmet was introduced, which carried them through the war until 1945 (with a 1942 variant).  This M35 is by far my favorite helmet.  There are Durer prints of this helmet from the Middle Ages, which shows how far back the design went.  Even so, during WWII many German troops, mainly mountain troops and the Afrika Korps, reverted to cloth kepis.  The Fallschirmjager (paratroopers) had their own special helmet, something like the regular helmet with the flanges reduced to almost nothing.

After WWII the Bundeswehr (West German army) adopted the US M1 helmet, while the NVA (National People’s Army, i.e. East German Army) used a new design, most often seen in “Star Wars” worn by various Death Star personnel.  Other Star Wars Germanisms: Han Solo’s blaster pistol (broomhandle Mauser), the MG34 carried by solo when they take Chewie to the detention level to rescue Princess Leia, and of course Darth Vader’s mask.

 Sometime in 1979 or 1980, when we were living in Paris, my dad went to the DC area on a business trip, and brought back 4 items from a place called Unique Imports, later called the Collector’s Armory:  a German WWII helmet (painted grey-green), a US WWII helmet (painted dark green), a replica MP40 Schmeisser (WWII German submachine gun), and a replica CAR-15 (short version of an M-16 – he couldn’t fit the M-16 in his suitcase, whereas the MP40 has a folding stock).  We still have all 4.  Sometime in high school I replaced the Wehrmacht decals on the German helmet with Waffen SS decals.  German WWII helmets come in several different sizes, in 2 cm increments.  Mine is the largest, 70 cm.  The far left picture above shows a German NCO, in parade dress, wearing the helmet with the German Army decal on the left side.

 France.  The French replaced their kepi with the Adrian helmet, which had a larger brim in front, and a crest on the top.  They also supplied the Italians, some Russians, the Romanians, and some Americans with the same helmet.  They kept it through WWII, until the Free French were supplied with US helmets.  My brother has our Adrian helmet at home, probably picked up somewhere in Paris at a flea market.  We looked, without success, for pickelhaubes at these flea markets.  The far right picture above shows French soldiers in WWI wearing the Adrian helmet.

 Britain.  Like the Germans, the Brits sought inspiration in medieval designs – and like the French, kept the same design for two world wars.  US troops traded their campaign hats for British helmets when they arrived in France.  The British design is fairly flat with a brim, and is symmetrical front to back.   We bought this helmet from Unique Imports some time in the early 1980s, and I still have it – but the lining is very small, so the helmet is very uncomfortable to wear.  The middle picture above shows Bill Donovan, the founder of the OSS and CIA, as a colonel in the US Army in World War I; his helmet has a cover on it.

 Japan.  In the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05 – stay tuned for that blog!) and WWI, the Japs used a peaked cap.  By WWII they had a proper steel helmet, some conical thing; what would normally be a chin strap, though, is simply two cloth strips tied together under the chin.  More often than not, though, wartime pictures of Japanese soldiers show them wearing their cloth service caps.

 Czechoslovakia.  The Czechs developed their own helmet, somewhat of a trapezoidal deal like an overturned bucket.  The Czechs had a fairly advanced arms industry despite only having an independent country from 1919 to 1938.  The Germans, no slouches themselves regarding weapons and tanks, adopted two Czech tanks to their own panzer forces, and used many Czech weapons.  And the British Bren gun is ½ Czech in design, the name itself being a combination of Brno (town in Czechoslovia) and Enfield, as in Lee-Enfield.

 Among the other countries, we really see little more than different variants of a rounded bowl conforming to the human head. 

 US.  The US has had three major helmet designs.  First was the British helmet from 1917 to 1941, then the M1 round helmet (with a plastic liner).  This lasted through WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.  The M1 is really what we most think of as the US steel helmet, as it lasted for the longest time and unlike the initial British copy, was an original design.  It’s best pictured in the film poster for “Full Metal Jacket” (see above).

Then in the early 80s, just in time for the Grenada invasion in 1982, they upgraded to the Kevlar helmet, which was so reminiscent of the WWII German helmet it was initially nicknamed “the Fritz”.  In fact, right after WWI, the Americans did design their own helmet, which highly resembled the German 1916 model, but it was rejected – and later adopted by the Swiss as their own.  The Kevlar design was a more recent copy of the German model.  By now we’ve seen enough Gulf War and Iraqi War pics (e.g. film cover of “Gunner Palace”) to recognize this design.  It looks considerably better with the desert cammo cover than bare (as so often with SWAT teams and paramilitary police units). 

 Russia.  The Russians didn’t upgrade to a steel helmet until 1936, with the current design dating from 1940.  This model also served most of the Warsaw Pact and many Middle Eastern nations.  While similar to the US M1, the “bulge” occurs in the middle of the side, rather than 2/3rds back as with the US model.   See above, second from right.   

            I bought one of these from some surplus store, but I must have bought the small or medium size helmet (I have a size L head) as the lining is too small for me to wear this helmet comfortably.

 Italy.  In WWI the Italians used the French helmet, while in WWII they had their own design, fairly close to the Russian 1940 model.  The famous picture of Mussolini wearing the helmet is a good example.

 Poland.  The Polish developed their own helmet in WWII, which looks like a softer version of the German helmet. 

 Holland/Romania.  During WWII, both shared a similar helmet – a bit like a US M1 but slightly elongated, as if the axis was tilted back to the back of the helmet. 

 Denmark.  Probably the ugliest one of all (and as a big non-fan of the Adrian, that takes some doing) the Danish helmet really looks like a huge washbowl turned upside down with a silly flange, except around the front.