The M1 Helmet

this is a us m1 helmet and it's common enough and it's iconic enough that you probably recognize it the united states army and well the whole u.s military really used this from 1941 all the way up until the 1980s through the second world war the korean war the vietnam war was all the m1 helmet and this is a relatively recent one this would have been one of the last ones to be issued in the 1980s but knowing that doesn't really tell you the age of the helmet inside because the steel pot that is the shell the cover of this helmet the army didn't distinguish between one that was made in 1941 or one that was made in 1966 they just kept reusing them and refurbishing them and so if you have a us army helmet in fact that the last time that the steel pots were manufactured in the us was in 1967 and so even though this helmet served into the 1980s the metal inside could have served through three wars you don't really know that's one of the interesting things about the united states army helmet the m1 helmets but this particular helmet is so complete especially with the liner that it probably served up until the very end my guess is that it wasn't put out on the market until after it was replaced by a kevlar helmet sometime in the 1980s i can tell you from the start i'm not really an expert on collecting m1 helmets i know people who are i know people who have hundreds of these sorts of things and they'll talk to you a lot about things inside like how the bales these things here are affixed or what you look for for the markings on the inside of the helmet and they're really just people that are more expert than i am if you want to figure out the value of your m1 helmet i can say that this particular one was made after the second world war and it's not one of those that is most valued by collectors but of course i'm the history guy and i'm just interested in history and even though i can't tell you the history of how every part of this helmet might have served through its long career i can say that the history of the m1 helmet is quite interesting it might even take me more than one episode to cover the entire thing and it certainly deserves to be remembered european armies were already using steel helmets when the u.s entered the great war in 1917. there was discussion of helmet design at the time but for simplicity the us decided to adopt a helmet being used by the british called the helmet steel mark 1 but popularly although somewhat inaccurately called the brody helmet the history of that helmet's the subject of another episode the u.s originally purchased 400 000 mark 1 steel helmets from the british and then started to manufacture them in the united states as the m1917 the us helmets did differ some from the british counterparts notably the u.s changed the magnesium steel alloy to so-called hadfield manganese an alloy that is an average 13 percent manganese thus claiming to improve the helmet's ballistic performance by 10 percent the m1917 also had a different suspension than the british mark one modifying the lining to design to provide a cotton twine mesh and replacing the cowhide chin strap with a web strap and a new buckle arrangement the us produced 2.7 million m1917 helmets before the end of the war there was some discussion though during the war of creating a distinctly american helmet a u.s army technical memorandum in 1973 explained design objectives of this development were multiple patriotic to design a distinctly american helmet diplomatic to avoid a charge of favoritism in selecting a foreign helmet and functional to provide a superior helmet for us troops the new design tried to address the largest failing of the brody helmet that is that it offered little covering for the sides of the head there are at least 15 different designs tested models 2 3 five a six eight and ten were infantry helmets seven was a sentinel's helmet nine was a machine gunner's helmet twelve was a tanker's helmet fourteen fourteen a and fifteen were aviator helmets and the so-called liberty bell was a variant of model 4. some of these ideas were surprisingly medieval looking the 5a model was described as the most promising model but was rejected because it looked too much like a german stall helm and there was concern that our troops could come under allied fire while the us rejected the design the swiss army chose an almost identical design in practice the huge supply of m1917 helmets produced made replacement unlikely both during the war and for many years after as the us military faced relatively lean budgets but still after the war the ordinance department continued to experiment still focused on the number five model as being most promising however ballistic testing in 1926 actually demonstrated that the steel composition of the new 5a helmet was actually inferior to that of the model 1917. the design was heavier interfered with rifle firing by 1932 the army given up on the design instead the army designed a new lining for the m1917 that improved fit the old model tended to slide around the new model was called the m1917a1 this new helmet didn't actually go into full production until 1941 when more than 900 000 were produced but the army still wanted a deeper helmet with more protection for the sides an attempt to improve the protective coverage and ballistic limit of the m1917a1 helmet but also to take advantage of recent advances in things like steel alloy manufacture liner materials and mass production methods army ordinance magazine noted it was apparent that a washbin type helmet originally designed to protect soldiers entrances from fragments of shells bursting overhead would not be adequate in a war of movement where missiles could come from all directions and even from below in the case of parachute troops part of the motivation for the new design came from robert p patterson a federal judge who in 1940 was appointed assistant secretary of war patterson was central to the mobilization of the military in preparation for war patterson had served in france with the 306th infantry regiment where you earned the silver star and reportedly some enmity for the 1917 helmet in 1940 a first draft was issued to american industrial firms and to the metropolitan museum of art the specific requirements for the helmet shape were research indicates that the ideal shaped helmet is one with a dome-shaped top and generally following the contour of the head allowing sufficient uniform head space for indentations extending down in the front to cover the forehead without impairing necessary vision extending down on the sides as far as possible without interfering with the use of the rifle or other weapons extending down the back of the head as far as possible without permitting the back of the neck to push the helmet forward on the head when the wearer assumes the prone position to have the frontal plate flanged forward to form a cap style visor and to have the sides and rear slightly flanged outward to cause rain to clear the collar opening so this is essentially a pot that covers your head covers your forehead enough that it covers as much as it can without obscuring your vision it covers the ears enough that it covers as much as it can without interfering with your ability to file your rifle it covers the back enough that it covers as much as the back as it can but still allow you to lay on the ground and fire prone without it pushing the helmet forward it's got a brim on the front and flanges all around the sides so that if it rains the water is directed away from your clothing all in all it's a very elegant design surprisingly though in all the testing the army couldn't identify a better alloy than the hadfield manganese steel used in the m1917 so the m1 steel helmet was essentially just an m1917 with the rim cut off and extended down the sides and then slightly flanged to redirect rain the metal used in the m1 was the same metal and thickness of the model 1917 more unique though was the suspension system the us decided to use a two-part helmet with the liner and suspension separate from the steel shell this isn't a new idea it was an idea that had been tested with the model 5a the separate liner offered a number of advantages but most notably was that it made it possible by a much more snug and stable fit and the liner didn't actually require new invention something very like what the army had in mind was already in use john tate riddell had invented a plastic suspension helmet in 1939 for football the army at the suggestion of george patton used the six seam suspension system used in riddell's football helmet the suspension system was placed inside a plastic liner originally cloth and pregnant with plastic and made by the hawley company the lines in suspension offered essentially the protection of a hard hat or construction helmet and then fit snugly inside the steel shell both pieces together weighed a total of just around three pounds initially called the ts3 the new design was tested at aberdeen proving ground and at fort benning georgia was determined to provide more coverage be more stable more comfortable and have better ballistic protection than the m1917a1 a note though on ballistic protection the inland could possibly deflect a bullet coming in an oblique angle or a ricochet and there are plenty of examples where it saved soldiers from bullets but the helmet could not stop a head-on shot from a rifle at any angle protection was designed around protection from shrapnel and debris from artillery the helmet was standardized as the army m1 helmet on april 30th 1941 and approved on june 9th the army ordinance department was given responsibility for procuring an initial 962 thousand helmets with liners after which the quartermaster car would be placed in charge of procuring the helmet liners the hadfield magnesium steel is 1 8 inch stick the depth of the helmet is 7 inches the width is 9.5 inches and the length is 11 inches the steel was smelted at the carnegie steel company and the sharon steel company and the shells produced by mccord radiator and manufacturing company and schluter manufacturing company over 22 million were manufactured by september 1945. unique about the design was that both parts had their usefulness individually the office of the quartermaster core noted about the liners it served as a field hat in temperate zones as a sun helmet in the tropics as protective headgear over a woolen cap or torque in cold climates and of course as a lining for the steel helmet in all combat zones furthermore modifications of the liner were used by jungle troops parachutists and armored troops and as an interesting bit of americana the m1 helmet liner was a perfect helmet for soapbox derbies and was commonly used as such and each one of those had their own beautiful unique design that added that extra bit of speed the shell without the liner served numerous purposes a shaving bowl cooking pot carrying eggs and washing socks a veteran once commented in an army magazine that could be used as a seat pillow and nutcracker it also makes a fair tent peg pounder and a chock for breakless truck or trailer let's not forget the times that many of us had to dig in with it she might not have chosen a gi helmet to wear to her kid's sister's wedding but it made up for its lack of style by its versatility it was a beauty parlor laundry cooking pot wash basin all rolled up into one a little community in size seven [Music] the new helmet however didn't start production until june of 1941 did not start being issued to troops until 1942. in the early part of the war soldiers were still wearing the m1917a1 this coincidence affected public perception as defeats such as pearl harbor wake island and the philippines became associated with the old model helmet while the resurgent military starting with the guadalcanal campaign from 1943 on became associated with the new m1 helmet it was a symbol for america itself there were minor changes during the war mostly to the chin strap and bales that connected it after initial experience in north africa a breakaway chin strap was designed as the original could cause neck injury if they humble was affected by a concussive blast the liner was changed to be solid plastic after the plastic impregnated cloth proved to break down especially in jungle conditions in the pacific gi's made a couple of changes themselves the m1 was covered in all of drab paint textured with cork designed to avoid shine that might give a soldier away on the battlefield but the helmet turned out to get quite shiny when it was wet which could happen a lot on the battlefield soldiers at first created their own cloth covers early ones made of burlap or nets that could hold foliage for camouflage the covers or nets could be stuffed between the liner and the shell some soldiers fabricated white covers for camouflage and snowy conditions in europe while covers for the army were usually field made by the soldier the marines did get a distinctive cloth cover that was used in the pacific the effectiveness of the m1 helmet in the second world war was impressive a post-war army report found that the m1 helmet cut battle casualties by 8 percent meaning some 76 000 soldiers in the end what is most amazing about the helmet was how little changed it was the army continued to evaluate new designs but when a new production run of a million helmets was run in 1966 and 1967 the venerable design was virtually unchanged the color was at one point darkened and after the war sand was used for texturing rather than cork a new nylon liner was approved in 1961 in that time the army tested aluminum titanium shells designs that included multiple sizes were evaluated nothing offered sufficient advantage to warrant a change soldiers in korea and vietnam went to war with essentially the same helmet as soldiers did in 1942 but in 1965 chemists that dupont invented a new kind of polymerized fiber initially with the idea of creating a lighter weight tire as a response to predicted petroleum shortages the new fiber was called kevlar after vietnam the army started experimenting with materials for both vests and helmets that would reduce weight layers of kevlar were determined to offer as much as one third better ballistic protection than the old steel pot although the weight about three pounds was almost the same kevlar hummus began testing as early as 1976 but the first kevlar helmets part of the personal armor system for ground troops or p-a-s-g-t were not issued until 1983. the new helmets became standard in 1985 and the m1 was fully phased out for all u.s units by the end of the decade but even then veterans still had a soft spot for the steel pot master sergeant mark mason was quoted in the december 1982 issue of the new york times the uses of the steel pot is a wash bit bucket for dousing fires or bailing out flooded fighting positions are well known he complained the new helmet is a little too thick to make a good shovel and with the built-in webbing it doesn't make a good wash bin or bucket the pas gt has been replaced itself most recently by the enhanced combat helmet which replaces the kevlar with an ultra high molecular weight polyethylene material the new helmets are far more bullet resistant than even the kevlar designs and are designed to integrate with communication systems and mount things like night vision equipment but frankly they still don't make a good shovel and that's one reason why the m1 helmet deserves to be remembered i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guy short snippets have forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section i will be happy to personally respond be sure to follow the history guy on facebook instagram 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Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 196,137

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, us history, m1 helmet, military headgear

Id: UzEgRtBl_lM

Length: 15min 10sec (910 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 12 2020