french colonial infantry m1915

[James C]

hi i wouldnt say brass ,maybe copper plated mild steel or maybe its just rusted mild steel i dont honestly know

[Tinhat]

Is it magnetic?

To be honest I'm undecided on the badge, the badge on mine has less detail on it (the ropes and the anchor shape) I've compared it with other badges in books and mine is the same as them. The drawn images in books show the detail. The reproduction badges on ebay have the detail have the some detail but are different to yours.
The mark left on the helmet looks to be from a standard flaming grenade badge.

I'll see what else I can dig up.

[James C]

hello again steve ,im sorry but ive refitted the insignia to the helmet and dont want to remove it again if i can help it so cant tell if magnetic or not ,i know what your saying about the flaming bomb mark but i have to disagree with you on that score i can definately see a difinitive outline including the anchor points on the shell ,perhaps the photo isnt as good as the naked eye ,im a patient man steve so no rush ,oh and while your digging if you bump into Didier give him a shove in this direction ,i think he got lost cheers james

[Tinhat]

James, I have done some searching in the last few days and results aren’t good. I understand you will be reluctant to hear that and I’ve put together my reasoning behind what I’m saying.

I’ve searched many sites for images of these type of helmets, many of them French which has been a slow process with my effluent French. I added pictures below of badges from helmets that look good and these line up with pictures I have in books. There are differences between these badges and your badge, mainly in the rope of the anchor and the shape of the anchor itself. The definition in the rope is much clearer in yours and there is more 3D shape to the anchor.




This could be down to different patterns and I searched and searched for a helmet that looked completely original with this badge on but didn’t find one. What I did find was 2 sites selling reproduction badges, new and aged which are the same as yours.




While I was searching completed listings on e-bay I came across your helmet, the vendor you purchase from (solo-antik) has a lot of dubious Adrian helmets, in the last few years he has had all of the scarce helmets and today he is listing helmets that would go for high prices if there were 2 people that believed them to be original. To me he deals in fakes, his wording is careful, but he knows what he is selling. He has the only other helmet I could find with this badge on (bellow) which I believe to be a fake.



I have to admit the front of the badge is very convincing, aged with both shades of blue, the back gives it away, where the bracket is welded the colour is too fresh compared with the corrosion around it. I thought it may be a repair but this would have affected the paint on the front of the badge. The repro badges are sold with no bracket attached. I decided to take my badge off to compare, you can see the difference between the two.









Unfortunately I think the badge is reproduction, the helmet is original and it has been misleadingly sold. Steve.

[James C]

hi steve ,thanks for digging deeper could you bear with us while i digest your findings ,in the meantime the only referance picture i could find in defence of my style of badge is this hand drawn guide ,not a lot to go on i know ,james

[James C]

hi steve please dont think ive forgotten about this thread ,ive been researching as hard as i can to vindicate this colonial infantry badge ,im still going to stand by this example being authentic ,but what i will propose is this particular badge i have on my m15 should be fitted to the model m1926 version i have seen a few original examples with the exact same detailing on the ropes and anchor etc here's a referance pic of such a helmet during ww2 worn buy african troops of a french colonial unit allthough its not clear enough to see the badge in detail on these m1926's at least it proves this style of badge was in use during the 1940 campaign i will continue my research ,watch this space ,thanks james

[Tinhat]

Hi James,
I was hoping somebody else would join this thread, and I don't want to become entrenched in my opinion and wouldn't take any satisfaction in being proved right.
Here is a really good link to French helmets that was posted on another thread. .: World War Helmets - Casque Adrian modèle 15 :.
Steve.