OT... Interesting Helmet

[painter777]

Autographed by Band Of Brothers Member, WILD BILL GUARNERE ...
Does it appear to be WWII?
WILD BILL GUARNERE HAND Signed HELMET BAND OF BROTHERS - eBay (item 190322216586 end time Sep-15-09 10:19:42 PDT)

Charlie-painter777

Information

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[STU1]

no, it is a rear seam. W.W.2 helmets are front seam. in the pic of the certificate of authenticity the pic is taken from the rear of the helmet if you look at the border around the outer rim of the helmet you'll see the seam right in the middle underneath the certificate; the seam should be in front for W.W.2 manufactured helmets. regards

Stu

[Bill Hollinger]

There are very late WWII rear seem helmets. This helmet is a Viet Nam or later era helmet.

[Bill Ricca]

It is probably from an individual who showed up at the Forks of the Delaware Historical Arms Society gun show in Allentown, when Bill was a guest.



If you want his signature, just come to a December or May gun show. He is always a guest during those two shows.

[doncb]

The liner is not a WW2 lines. don in fl.

[thorin6]

McCord and Schuller (sp?) made over 20 million helmets during WWII, with McCord making 90% of them.
Quick M1 Helmet ID
Front seam, stainless steel rim, fixed bales, early 1942 to November 1943
Front seam, stainless steel rim, swivel bales, Nov 43 to Nov 44
Rear seam, steel rim (same steel as helmet), swivel bales, from Nov 44 until end of production.
Only way to confim a rear seam helmet is WWII production is to find the heat lot number and check against the charts; not all helmets had the heat lot number put on.
To the best of my knowledge, to date no one has found a picture of D-Day, 6 June 1944, with a soldier wearing, holding, or otherwise having a helmet with swivel bales, although they do appear by early 1945 in combat photographs.
Liners were made by a number of manufacturers, including Inland.

[A. F Medic]

Joe Lesneski signed my WWll stock of my M1. Bidding starts at $2,000. LOL.

[Harlan (Deceased)]

Bill is correct on the vintage of the helmet in the photo. It's a Vietnam era or later design.
(How did you know that Bill?)
The helmet in the photo has the standard lighter 'pea green' paint used in Vietnam era helmets as well.

The original ridged non-flexible chin strap loops (Collector term - 'Fixed Bale') extended below the brim and tended to break off when force was applied.
(Many were broken from GI's sitting on them, etc)

Helmet bodies with the hinged strap loop design ('Swivel Bale') began in October 1943 and this design was the most widely used in WWII.

The early helmets had a stainless steel rim, but the paint chipped off easily exposing a surface that reflected sunlight. (Not very popular!) The rims were redesigned using manganese October 1944. Near the same time the seam was moved to the rear on many helmets produced.

By VE Day 22,000,000 M1 helmets had been produced.

McCord Radiator and Manufacturing Company of Detroit manufactured the bulk of these at 20,000,000 and Schlueter Manufacturing Company produced approximately 2,000,000.

McCord didn't stamp a manufacturers code on their helmets but some had a heat lot number visible. Schlueter stamped an 'S' under the heat lot numbers of their helmets.

'Cork' was mixed with the paint on WWII era helmets, while later Korean era and beyond helmets used sand.

All M1 helmet production was stopped in 1945, but new production began again during the Korean war. The shape of the dome changed slightly and all were rear seam. WWII vintage helmets have a slightly more rounded dome. You can see the difference when you have a WWII era helmet next to a Korean war era helmet but it's slight.