Description
Product Description: This netted US WW2 Helmet is a very desirable piece, and a fantastic display object. The shell is a wartime, front seam, swivel bail M1 helmet. The original wartime factory applied cork textured OD green paint on the exterior is mostly intact, with only light wear and minimal age patina. An officer rank bar insignia for the rank of Captain is soldered to the front of the helmet shell. This insignia shows light wear and age. The exterior of the helmet features original wartime issue type US helmet netting, with a tear where the insignia is. The OD chin strap is the original factory applied strap, and is complete and undamaged, with uncleaned old patina on the blackened metal fittings. Inside, this attractive helmet has a nice liner without insignia painted on it. The liner exterior retains nearly all of the original paint. The inside of the liner features a complete interior lining system, with no damage. The liner utilizes khaki webbing and a snapped-in nape strap, and the leather liner chinstrap remains present, with typical wear. This netted US WW2 Helmet has outstanding visual appeal and is a choice piece of headgear. The condition rates as excellent.
Historical Description: The US military adopted the M1 helmet in 1941, near the outbreak of WWII. This helmet was a replacement for the outdated 1917 pattern “Kelly” helmet, which saw only limited use very early in WWII. WWII production M1 helmets featured a rim around the edge, made of a separate steel strip, with the seam in the front. Early helmets had chin strap bales that were fixed, and simple wire fittings that were brazed into place. Later wartime production helmets had a more complex “swivel bale” chin strap attachment system. The M1 helmet had a removable liner, initially made of a pressed composite material with a cloth color, later replaced with a more rigid liner made out of a plastic material that did not have a cloth cover. The shell itself was made to be one size fits all, and was made by only two manufacturers, while the liners were made by a variety of different companies. For camouflage purposes, the United States Marine Corps issued a cloth cover for this helmet, while the US Army generally used a helmet net for this purpose. M1 helmets existed in a variety of paint finishes, including gray helmets for US Navy use, and were further customized with a variety of indicators such as rank or unit assignment.
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