Mannie Gentile: Combat Helmets of the 20th Century

Saturday, June 22, 2024

How I mount my helmets.

I am frequently asked what my system is for mounting my helmet collection.

First off, a little bit about my particular taste. I like my helmets to be displayed with the chinstraps fully visible, it provides an ovoid shape, which, to me, is suggestive of the face of the soldier who wore it. I also like the mounts to be as unobtrusive as possible and have the helmets seem to "float". I worked at a large public museum for seventeen years, and this technique I took with me when I left.

This nice lobstertail picklehaube is in the " H is for hats" exhibit at the Grand Rapids Public Museum in Michigan. As I watched my colleagues make the installation, I found myself fascinated with the elegant mounting system - a simple bent rod, and I copied the idea for my collection.

If you have the wall space you may find that this system is much more satisfying than using shelves.

You start with quarter-inch or three-eights inch steel rod. I buy mine at a supplier in ten-foot lengths - which is the cheapest way to buy it - but it is also available in any big home improvement store.

I hacksaw the rods into fourteen-inch lengths. To facilitate the right-angle bend I heat the metal, at the point of the bend, cherry red. With one end in the vise and a vise-grips clamped to the other end, I make my bend. I often use a square to check my work but after a few of these one develops and "eye" for the correct angle. One should wear heavy leather gloves for this, and remember that the metal stays very hot for a few minutes.

Note that the rod is about six-inches long on one side and eight on the other. The long one is the one that will be driven into the wooden 2x2 and the short end will support the helmet.

The brackets were primed and painted with two coats of semi-gloss white.

Making the 2x2 mounting strips involved using my table saw, miter saw, and drill press.

1/4" holes were drilled through the 2X2s to support the rods.

The 2x2s are ready to be mounted to the wall.

Toggle-bolts are used to mount the 2x2 wooden strips against the wall.

I cut my 2x2s about six feet in length which provides enough space for five or six helmets.

The long end of the bracket is pounded into holes 1/4" drilled into the 2x2. The fit must be tight enough to keep the bracket from turning on its axis and causing the helmet to fall. After mounting, the rod and the 2x2 will have their paint touched-up.

To distribute the weight a little more evenly on the liner, I cut four-inch length of shipping tube and fit them over the bracket. If you want to do this in a sound archival fashion you should cover the tube in unbleached muslin, or, as I do, spray them with clear acrylic, which is acid-free.

And there you have it...helmets "floating" against a well-lit wall.

I hope you find this helpful

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

Mannie

Friday, June 21, 2024

United States Mk I/m1917 combat helmet - souvenir

First things first. I know of no instances where US troops utilized camouflaged helmets during the Great War; such helmets, as the one in this post, were painted after the hostilities were over.

This is a nice British-made Brodie helmet issued to US troops, a stop-gap practice while America was still ramping up for war-time production.

Reddish/orange, brown, three shades of green, yellow, blue, and black with painted foliage comprise the decoration of this helmet. These imaginative designs were inspired by the similar designs that were mandated on German helmets in the final year of the war.

The Army tried to proscribe practice, but the returning doughboys seemed to generally disregard that order.

Then, the Army changed its mind, somewhat.

Chris Armold, in his wonderful, and nearly comprehensive book, Painted Steel discusses this in length, and was a primary source for much of this information.

Here are some details of this helmet.

Headband spacers are short lengths of rubber tubing, which provided some resilience if the helmet is struck.

British-made Mk I helmets have several characteristics which distinguish them from the nearly identical American-made m.1917. Including the joinery of the rim in the rear of the helmet. Note how the two ends are lapped over one another, whereas the American rim is joined with a butt-joint.

American m.1917 rim seam.

Similarly, the Mk. utilizes split-pins to affix the chinstrap loops...

the m.1917 uses rivets.

The chinstrap and suspension of both the Brodie and the Mk.I are overly-complicated and poorly engineered. That strap in the very dome of the helmet holds it all together, and if that thin strip of leather were to break, the entire assembly will fall out. That will be remedied in both successors of these models - the mk.II and the m.1917A1. The profile of both later helmets was identical to that of the earlier models.

Attempts are made at providing cushioning.

A tiny fragment of newspaper is pasted to the front, but the words are not discernable.

This image also provides a nice view of the anti-reflective, sand, substrate. Where the British usually used sand, generally, American helmets used sawdust to achieve anti-glare properties.

The blue somewhat surprised me. I haven't seen that hue on other "camouflaged" American helmets.

The leather chinstrap is robust, as is the brass buckle. Generally, the buckle on the American helmet is steel.

The leaves are simple, yet imaginative.

At the bottom of it all was the influence of the camouflaged German helmets. Apparently the Americans were very taken with that idea. An interesting difference was that, in the final year of the Great War the Germans were officially ordered to camouflage their helmets, but it was quite the opposite for the Americans.

I acquired this helmet two years ago, when a privately-owned museum was thinning its collection.

I'm very fortunate to have such a lovely example.

Thanks for stopping by.

I'll see you next time with another cool helmet from the collection.

Mannie

Thursday, June 20, 2024

Spain - Marte II combat helmet...so long Franco.

Spanish beauty.

In my opinion, the Spanish Marte II is one of the most attractive helmets ever made.

Introduced in the mid-1980s, the Marte family of helmets represents Spain's first truly-modern combat helmet.

The shell is a combination of Aramid resin and Kevlar.

This helmet is an indicator that post-Franco Spain was moving away from it's unfortunate association with the trappings of WWII Germany, Franco's good pal Hitler, and the steel M.42-style "Z-helmet" which proceeded the Marte family of helmets.

In 1977 Spain held its first free-election in decades and many historians view that election as Spain's entry into the modern world. With that era came the modernization of the Spanish military, and a new ballistic combat helmet.

One could argue that the profile retains the Germanic influence, but this is true for nearly all composite helmets from the last decades of 20th century to today.

The helmet comes in sizes small, medium, and large, with the medium-sized helmet coming in at just over 2.5 pounds.

Spain was the first country in Europe to adopt the modern composite-type helmet that is nearly universal today.

If I am reading him right, Joseba Reuvelta claims that this helmet provides the highest level of protection (level 5). I'd like to look in to that a little more.

A flaw of this otherwise well-designed helmet, and it is a pretty significant flaw, are all of the through-holes drilled into the shell to accommodate mounting furniture for the suspension and chinstrap. Each of these holes presents a serious weak-point for the helmet.