American helmets of the Second World War
Again, the military leadership remembered the protective helmets during the First World War. The fact is that this war very quickly turned into a trench, where the heads of soldiers who regularly appeared over the parapet of trenches became the main target of the defeat. They fired machine guns at them, jammed them with high-explosive shells, tried to cover them with shrapnel. It is not surprising that the losses among the personnel of the fighting armies from being hit in the head just monstrously increased. It was then that the generals and sounded the alarm.
The first to invent their own helmet (helmet) were the French. Their model was named "Adriana", the release of this protective helmet on the flow was put at the beginning of 1915 of the year. At the same time, the helmet created in France was assembled from 3 parts: a cap, skirts and a comb. The use of protective helmets in parts significantly reduced the loss of the French. The number of people killed immediately decreased by about 12-13%, and the number of injured was almost 30%. Such a remarkable and relatively easy-received result could not go unnoticed by other participants in the world war. Moreover, Adrian’s helmets were immediately acquired by the Allied states: Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Romania, Portugal, etc. The Germans began to create their own helmet.
So it was during the First World War that the helmet finally became an important attribute of a soldier of any army in the world. In the American army, the first steel helmet appeared in 1917 year. That model copied the British MkI helmet and was not the most successful, which became especially noticeable by the beginning of World War II. The difference between the American helmet and the English was smaller on 0,5 cm field width. The American protective helmet received the M1917 marking, at the end of 1917, mass production of this helmet was started in the USA.
However, by the beginning of World War II, the helmets in the American army did not provide sufficient protection for the soldiers. The helmet of the transition model М1917А1, in fact, copied the outdated model of the helmet М1917. They had to be urgently replaced by a more modern model. For this purpose, a project was returned from the dusty archives, which was proposed by the War Department official Robert Paterson in 1928. According to this project, the helmet should consist of two parts - the steel helmet itself and the balaclava, which was made of cardboard or another light base, which could be easily removed without any damage to the helmet itself. In the future, the creator of the most famous American protective helmet Sydenham developed this idea, while at the same time abandoning the helmet form is still of the English type.
The first tests of the helmet took place at the beginning of 1941, they showed its effectiveness. As a result of the tests, minor modifications were made to the fastening system of the balaclava, which in the initial version was carried out with just one riveting in the arch of the helmet. In November 1941, the helmet was adopted by the American army, at the same time, its production promptly began. The marking of the new helmet - “Helmet steel M-1” patent No. 137.390 was registered by the Virginia Patent Office. In total, 1941 1945 22 M-363 helmets were manufactured in the US from 015 to 1 in the United States, which 9 manufacturers were immediately involved in producing. The depth of the standard M-1 helmet was 17,7 cm, length - 27,9 cm, width - 24,13 cm, weight - 1,45 kg.
The M1 helmet boasts a long service history. After World War II, it was used by the US military during the Korean War. In 1961, a new modification of this helmet with a nylon-based liner was adopted (the filler is 5 layers of nylon fabric; phenol-formaldehyde resin became the link), which replaced the usual cotton fabrics. The purpose of the replacement was to improve the ergonomics of the combat helmet and increase the anti-shatter resistance on 10-15% to the level of 415 m / s when tested with a standard FSP fragmentation simulator with a 1,1 gram mass. A large batch of such helmets was released in 1966-1967 (about a million pieces) and was massively used during the Vietnam War. Only in the 1980-ies, the new helmet has come to replace the M1 helmet - PASGT.
Steel protective helmet M-1
As noted above, the steel helmet M-1 had an original design, which at that time had no analogues in the world. Each such helmet consisted of two parts: a steel helmet, which was made from an alloy of steel and manganese and a lightweight balaclava, which was originally made of compressed cardboard, painted from the outside in olive color. On the inner side of the cap comforter M-1, there were fabric tapes that performed cushioning functions. These tapes were securely fastened with special brass holders. At one time, such a system was created by John Riedel, whose company specialized in the production of protective equipment for American football, including gaming helmets, in which this liner was used.
The external steel sphere of the new helmet, which was called the “steel pot”, has remained almost unchanged since the production of the M-1. At the same time, there were insignificant differences between the earlier versions of the protective helmet (released until the middle of the 1960-s) and their later versions. The first change to the M-1 helmet design was made already in 1944 year. The composition of the steel from which the steel pot was made, reduced the amount of manganese, which made the helmet more fragile, and also changed the direction of the rolling, which transferred the connecting stitch from the front of the helmet to the back of the head. In the future, this seam has become a very important identification mark for collectors of similar military products.
The same significant distinguishing feature of the early M-1 helmets was the chin slings. In the first earliest version, the brackets, to which the lines were attached, were rectangular and welded to the helmet itself, but this design proved to be very fragile, so it was replaced with a movable bracket. The slings themselves for all the time of mass production underwent only one big change. This happened at the time of the second major wave of release in the years of the war in Vietnam. Together with the shape of the protective helmet itself (the occipital part and its depth were reduced), the method of fastening the sling was also changed - they began to install it on a special clip that prevented quick wear of the mount. Prior to these changes, the chin line was sewn into the arms in the simplest way, but there were also minor differences that were mainly associated with manufacturers: different shapes and materials of fasteners, hooks, different shades of lines, etc. And in 1965, the ways of painting M-1 helmets were changed. Early versions of the helmet were covered with a special mixture of paint and sand (there was an option with cork), but by the beginning of the Vietnam War in the middle of the 1960-s, this color scheme was abandoned, removing sand from the composition.
Unlike the metal helmet itself, the cap comforter has undergone significantly more changes. This mainly concerned the materials from which it was produced. For example, the first versions were made, as noted above, from compressed cardboard. However, due to rapid wear, especially in a humid climate, it was decided to abandon cardboard for good, turning to fiberglass. Fiberglass liners were most common in the period from 1944 to 1965, when plastic began to be used as a new material for the lintel.
In the M-1 helmet, the cap comforter repeated the shape of the helmet, connecting with it with a special leather strap that pounced on the visor of the steel helmet. Inside the balaclava there was a special suspension consisting of lines, from which two main systems could be distinguished: the central and occipital. The occipital system was simpler and consisted of attached to the most balaclava and sling. The central system was much more complex — it was a centrally adjustable “parachute” and a leather-covered ring. Thanks to this system, the creators of the helmet managed to solve the problem of producing helmets of various sizes. Now every fighter could easily fit the helmet exactly for themselves. At the same time, the suspension carried out a much more important mission: when it hit the helmet, the strained slings absorbed the blow, saving the soldier from hitting the helmet itself. Also, in addition to the main task, the comforter had a second one, which was to save the soldiers from injuries outside the fighting.
The substantial weight of the helmet had a detrimental effect on the cervical vertebrae. For this reason, parades and official events were worn, mainly, only balaclava. Due to this fact, the designations of combat units, insignia, kind of troops began to appear on the helmets. If we talk about the signs of distinction, the cap comforter allowed not only to draw them on itself, but also provided the possibility of mounting metal external signs. For these purposes, used a hole located in the front part of the balaclava.
Varieties of helmet M1 since the Second World War
Parachute helmets М2 and М1С:
The special parachute helmet under the designation M2 was created simultaneously with the ordinary M-1, but had a number of changes: the A-shaped fasteners for the leather chin holder were installed in the liner suspension system, and the chin strap itself was attached to special D-shaped arms that were welded to helmet In 1944, the M2 helmet came to replace the M1 model. In a protective helmet of this design, it was decided to replace the D-shaped arms with “simple” movable fasteners, which were put on M-1 helmets, and on the chin strap there was a place for a button designed to fix the helmet on the fighter’s head more firmly.
T-14 photographer helmet
In May, the 1944 of the year developed another original M-1 helmet model, which was intended for military cameramen and photographers. Despite the fact that the T-14 helmet model passed a series of tests at the European theater of military operations, this helmet could not be widely used in the American army. The main difference of this helmet from M-1 was the rising frontal part, which allowed to bring the equipment to the face, without removing the helmet itself.
USAAF Mk3 flak helmet
Model helmet, designated USAAF Mk3 flak helmet, was created specifically for the air force. The basis of this helmet lay steel sphere from M-1 with built-in suspension without a balaclava. Protective shields with cork gaskets were attached to this suspension. This structure of the helmet was due to the fact that it was necessary to wear it over the headset.
Information sources:
http://www.helmets.ru/cat_usa.htm
http://www.shovkunenko-book.ru/arsenal/zaschitniy-shlem.html
http://warspot.ru/40-amerikanskie-kaski-vtoroy-mirovoy
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