Anyone know what kind of helmet this is?

[bolo]

I do have a French Adrian helmet and when I tried wearing it I was surprised just how comfortable it felt, for a steel helmet.

I have a WW2 French Model 1926 with a brand new replacement liner I bought from a seller in France, and it's very comfortable, it's almost like wearing a hat, the M26 is an improvement of the early WW1 M1915 has a stronger shell with better quality steel and the liner design feels more comfortable with the spring tension.

I wore it for an a couple hours just to break it in and get the "feel" of it for evaluation

[Flying10uk]

It would be interesting to learn how the French arrived at their design of helmet because it surely can't have been by accident that they got it so comfortable.

[WebSmithEddy]

It is likely post-war Dutch, converted from British or Canadian helmets.

I have one just like yours that I bought years ago. Mine also has the leather neck flap.

Mine has "VB5512SLO" on the underside of the rim in back, and the number "56" stenciled on the metal liner strap.

[Jim]

Is there any and if so, what are the differences between the Brit Brodie and American Kelly helmets?

Concerning Helmet comfort, I was in the US Army back when the old "steel pot" was still around. It was a remarkably useful piece of equipment but not made for comfort being "one size fits most." I have a small head and the old pot used to wallow and wobble all around my head. Comfortable it was not!

I have a late German Border Guards 'Stahelm' in a good size for me and it is a wonderfully comfortable helmet to wear. I also have an old Swiss helmet resembling the stahelm style. It is also overlarge for me but still more comfortable than the old 'pot.' Maybe the liners made a difference. They fit over as well as around the head whereas the old GI helmet just had a narrow, about 1" head band to support it.

Attachment 77778 Attachment 77777

[Flying10uk]

I believe that the U.S. made version of the British Brodie helmet had a different style of liner and possibly the chinstrap to the British version.

[browningautorifle]

I was in the US Army back when the old "steel pot" was still around.

I wore one of those for 25 years before the Kevlar came out...once adjusted they were not too bad. Lots of guys had small heads too...just over size 6 for instance...kind of like fitting it to a pool ball... Makes me wonder how you had it fitted...?

[matthanne1]

Had the 'pleasure' of both types- even fitted properly on my 7 3/8 brain housing unit, the M1 did not sit deep enough to prevent the bobblehead effect, which we never realized until the kevlar came out. We just got used to it. The 'kevlar' sits lower and thus lowers the CG. If you add a helmet pad, the M1 is even worse, the kevlar less so. I do admit that the kevlar could also (when you hunched down in a sleep position) rest on the older flak vest and thus let you catch a few Zs. But then I never had to use my M1 to shave or boil water with, went to DS2 with a kevlar. Since then, I became an 8th grade teacher and have examples of both in my class for when we get to VN and post-VN in the social studies curriculum.

[Flying10uk]

I was recently reading an interesting article, which I found on-line, on the Post War East German helmet and basically it said that the design was copied from a proposed new design of steel helmet that was thought up towards the end of WW2. It didn't go into production because Hitler didn't like the look of it even though it provided better protection than the helmets the Wehrmacht were then using.

[matthanne1]

For reference, one design adopted by the KVP was the M54 which had an appearance of a hybrid between the Fallschirmjager and the M35; the other was the M56, drawing more closely on the rejected 1943-44 prototype and which is the more widely known NVA one.

[bolo]

the US M1 steel helmet is the only helmet that is big enough to fit me, some are too small, depending on the type of liner, the late M1 liners that snap in and can be removed for cleaning are usually too small for me, the extra space used for the snaps makes it too narrow for my wide head.