US Navy Mk II talker helmet

"Maintain proper circuit discipline"

I occasionally heard that phrase come over my headphones as a young Radioman in the early '70s as I was wearing the

Mk II "talker" helmet.

The Mk II was designed in 1942 and was in use well in to the 1980's.  It was a very large and somewhat ungainly helmet to wear though it did serve its purpose very well.  It was designed to accommodate the wearing of headphones for Radiomen or anyone

using shipboard sound-powered phones.

The Mk II was manufactured by the McCords Radiator Company in Detroit Michigan; 

 the "Arsenal of Democracy".

Its composition is non-magnetic Hadefield manganese steel.












In addition to accommodating headphones it also provided

a great deal of protection to the wearer.

The bowl is so wide it even provided some coverage to the shoulders of the sailor who was underneath it.

Okay, it does look a little like the helmet Rick Moranis wore in the movie "Spaceballs".

Painted sea blue the Mk II, like the Mk I, has cork applied with the paint to provide a textured, non-reflective surface.

The leather chin bales are affixed with brass wire as brass doesn't corrode in the salt water environment of shipboard living.

The liner is composed of a vinyl rubber material by Firestone

 and B.F. Goodrich.

(see ad at bottom of page)

One can easily see in this shot the channels that provide clearance for headphones as well as the head of the wearer.  The padding is very thick and semi-flexible.

The chinstrap is of horse leather and the slider-buckles are made of non-corrosive aluminum.

The chincup has a chamois leather layer next to the skin of the wearer.

I seldom found one of these helmets in which the liner didn't smell of mildew from the marine environment and it was common to have it separated somewhat from the shell.

The rim is a separate piece of magnetic steel...

and the inside of the shell is marked in ink.

This particular helmet was acquired by me for twenty dollars from noted collector and helmet authority Floyd Tubbs in the early 1980's at a militaria show in Lansing Michigan.  I found Mr. Tubbs to be very gracious and always very willing to share his expertise with a new collector.

 

See you next time with another cool helmet from the collection.

Mannie

 

Helmet treasure trove; The Boonsborough Museum of History

The next time you're passing through my neck of the woods drop by the

Boonsborough Museum of History in Boonsboro Maryland.

 

You'll be amazed at what you find there.

 

 

Doug the proprietor has been collecting since he was nine (he's now in his seventies) and he has amassed a very large and very eclectic collection which spans the globe from

antiquity to this century.

 

 

 

 

My wife is his sole volunteer and really knows how to navigate her way along the narrow passageways of the many "back rooms" of the museum.

 

Doug doesn't specialize in anything but he collects everything...including helmets.

 

Here's a little tour of just those that were within easy reach.

 

 

 

I took along the trusty 40mm shell that I use as a pedestal for helmet shoots and was rewarded with this US M1917 from the Great War.  This is a really nice example of one of those helmets which were lavishly decorated on the long boat ride home at the end of the war.  This one is decorated with a camouflage pattern as seen on German helmets (see below) as well as

what appear to be laurel wreaths.

 

My wife, who is quite diminutive, was able to get into the tight spaces beyond my reach to where many of these helmets were residing.

 

She uncovered, and retrieved for me quite a cache of hardware, including

 this nice m.17 German helmet.

Next up was a German m.16 with a really nice geometric camouflage pattern.

 

 

This helmet was mailed home as a souvenir, that's the mailing label, affixed directly to the helmet!

Note that the liner is remarkably intact.

 

 

Here, you can see the leather liner band which characterizes the m.16 as well as the name of the soldier who wore it a century ago.

 

 

 

 

Next off the stack (and it was a stack) came this nice apple-green m.17.

 

 

Note the dust.  I was photographing under less than ideal conditions. 

 I wish I had brought a dust cloth with me

 

 

Again, the liner is in pretty good condition as is the chinstrap.

 

This helmet also has the name and unit of the man who wore it.

 

 

Visible here is the metal liner band which denotes it as an m.17.

 

The stack just kept giving.  A nice Adrian infantry helmet, an Italian M33, and then this surfaced...

 

 

an M1C paratrooper helmet!

 

What a beauty.

 

I wonder if Joe ever though his helmet would ever see the light of day again?

 

Then, thinking the photoshoot was over, we went upstairs.  Doug wanted me to move some boxes so I left my trusty 40mm shell and backdrop behind.

 

Which I ended up regretting.

 

 

 

 

Perched on an antique chair was this m.36A fallschirmjager helmet.

Although the liner was missing, the decal was perfectly intact.

 

Then came the motherlode, and here's where I really regretted the less-than-optimal conditions

 I had for photographing.

 

 

This caught my eye.  It was residing in a dusty corner...

 

the experimental US model 8 helmet of which only 1300 were produced

by the end of the Great War. 

 

 

The hinged visor was intended to provide extra protection for

 machine gunners in advanced positions.

 

What lived on from this experience was the chinstrap closure that would

 reappear in the venerable M1.

 

Produced by the Ford Motor Company they saw only

 limited service in the closing days of the war.

 

 

 

The experimental No. 8 along side the liner of Captain Miller, no not the Tom Hanks Character, but the Doctor from Hagerstown Maryland.

 

 

When next in western Maryland on your way to Antietam National Battlefield, do stop by the Boonsborough Museum of History.  You can't miss it...

 



 

It's the house with all the cannons on the front porch.