Hopefully this worked better.
Hopefully this worked better.
I’ve only gone and found another MkIV with a 1958 date. The liner is a later MkV and dated 1979. It is the same stamp as my previous MkIV, same letters, numbers and maker. Again like the 1958 and the 1956 MkIV I have there is a red oxide primer under the OD which is definitely something exclusive to these years of production. I wonder how many other manufacturing years are out there waiting to be discovered
Hi friends, I have just thought I'd post picks of a mk3 I found this week. It's starting to rust a bit, but has a good thick textured paint coat and is nice and original I think.
It looks to have olive green paint but not too sure - what do you think? It seems to look different in different lights!
Thanks as always, Shaun
Hope of interest, my only MK3 in my collection. This one I believe is flashed to the Coldstream guards.
I was just reading back over this thread and thought I might give some input to a couple of the points mentioned above;
1. Red Oxide primer (aka "Read Lead") beneath the green topcoat. This was typical of many earlier field equipments and certainly of just about everything connected to the '44 and '58 patt types of field kit. Anything in green metal from field cookers to picks and shovels was treated in this way. Even during my time '75 - '99 when the NATO IRR paints had been in service for years we held stocks of red oxide too for routine maintenance of field kit. Of course it is still issued but no use for helmets
2.Helmet liners issued seperately. This has long been the case in the British Forces right up until the issue of composite helmets which are personal clothing items and not routinely re-issued (except for base refurbishment). Again I use the admin references from my own service but the earlier principles were the same but with different documentation; All field equipment (including '58 patt webbing) was nominated "unit stores" and was accounted for on a"scale (of holdings)" known as the AFG1098 after the actual document. This was issued on an as required basis. In the case of webbing etc and steel helmets these were issued when an individual joined a unit and withdrawn when he left it on posting to another. This was recorded on AFG1033 the Issue/Receipt voucher. In theory the helmet body (shell) and chinstrap were issued without the liner because every soldier held a helmet liner on his personal clothing account AFG 1157. In practice it was not unusual to find that the helments in the AFG1098 stores were complete with liners. This was due to the unit Quartermaster having unofficially ordered liners from supply and whilst this was not strictly authorised, unless suspiciously large numbers drew attention it was likely to go unnoticed. I doubt it would be so easy in todays computer controlled environment! The individual would then fit his own liner and "scrim up" the helmet ready for use. The helmet body,chinstrap and the three parts of the liner all had different part numbers (there was also a part number for "Liner complete"). Having said all that however, there was as with many things a slightly different part number (NSN) that would produce the complete helmet! During WWII I am sure that an individual kept his helmet for the duration as constant issue and re-issue would have been an extra burden on an already stressed system but the process would have existed none the less I should think. Of course, with the MkV liner the "sock" (can't recall the proper name) is washable no smelly hygiene issues.
Sorry if this is abit boring but I thought it might help with understanding something that members are clearly thinking about!
Regards
Mark
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing he cares more about than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature with no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
why is it that the vast majority of online sellers display this helmet (and the venerable MkIV) backwards?
'just wondering.....
What an interesting and informative thread. Can I ask for your thoughts on my newly acquired 1944 dated BMB Mk III helmet?
The shell obviously has a post-war applied coat of smooth white paint, the interior appears to be a textured black paint. The liner, I believe, is not of British design, its framework is brown in color and the liner size is 58, applied in a white paint or ink.
My questions are, what country or organization would have painted these helmets white and who made the liner?
Hello mate,
is that a partially obscured BMB stamp inside the shell, I can’t tell? If so that’s Briggs Motor Bodies, a British wartime manufacturer of Mk III’s. The liner looks Belgium to me so possibly a mkIII reissued in Post-war Belgium in some kind of civil defence role? That’s my guess, others will know more.
Cheers Ian.
That is a BMB stamp with a date of 1944.by canti44
its not a Brit liner......"58" gives that away as does the texturing of the faux leather liner "fingers"
...as for who painted it white...I'd suggest virtually every country who used them....they seemed to progress through military hands into Civil use....and if you're in the CD and relatively senior you got white. That said, squaddies worked in snow environments and other military applications can't be discounted...Fire Brigades, Range staff etc often wore/wear other colours.
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