can anyone I D this helmet please

[northern monkey]

I am truly shocked its rare,is there anywhere I can get it verified as to its purpose :- Ie airborne forces museum or somewhere...its just that I was going to let my ten year old daughter take it in to school because they are covering the second world war (in depth)..they even had a Living history group and re-enactors on the school playing fields last friday having battles..explosions ,gunfire and smoke galore ( as you could imagine I was gutted at having to work )...they didnt shy away from depicting all of the allied or axis forces either....( wish i was back at school ) and everyone was dressed in period wartime dress for the day..kids as evacuees, teachers as soldiers ,waff's ...etc

[douglas2496]

Just do a Google image search for glider pilots helmet, you will get lots of matches. It appears in my reference book '6th June 1944 Soldiers in Normandy' by Philippe Charbonnier, and is indeed a rare and valuable British glider pilots helmet of the WW2 period. Dont let your daughter take this to school.

[tinlid]

To answer Northern monkeys question about whether a GP helmet would have earphones & the like, yes they would to be in contact with the tug aircraft.
Because these helmets are so rare you don't get to study them that well,so I can't be 100% sure this is the real deal.There are fakes, & the GP were about I think until 1952 so some would have been made up till then.
Get it verified, because if it is real it would be worth over £3000, possibly a lot more than that, so don't let your kids play with it.
I hope it does turn out to be WW2. Let us know.

[northern monkey]

I've had this since I was about eight or nine years old (I'm 42 now ) but I seem to think it was knocking about the house before then, Its always been kept in the bottom of a cupboard wrapped in a black bin bag ,and has been played with by both of my nutty children (sorry) and myself when I was young.....I didn't think it would be worth £30 never mind £3000.....I feel sick...would the Imperial war museum verify this correctly ?

[Adrian]

I suggest there are more people on the forum who would be able to authenticate such an item than at the IWM. There is a vast collective knowledge here, you just need the right person to see the thread but if you've had it for 30+ years it is looking better. Do you know where it came from?

[northern monkey]

To be honest , I was always into war films and history when I was a nipper (still am) and I used my pocket / paper /milk round money to buy lots of things from flea markets and second hand shops....I bought A A shells ,Gas masks, allsorts and seem to think I bought this off a stall in a flea market in Colne Lancashire for £2 circa 1977/78 (but it also may have / could have been the tin helmet that I have , I cant remember which one it was)....its funny really because when my father passed away, lots of my things were still in the bedroom I used to share with my older brother (I was the runt of the family)...and as I am a contractor and work away a lot of the time , my sister in law started to clear our old room .. and skipped this helmet amongst other things like loads of old boxed dinky toys , it was only my brother going off his head at her and dragging black bags out of the skip that saved them , he then banned her from "helping" clear the house.

Mick

[northern monkey]

The more I think about this , the more im sure it was the tin helmet I bought .. and not this I can remember whinging that I couldn't afford the "tommies" helmet I wanted , and bought what looked like an early "nato" helmet ,but Ive never been sure what it was (will post pictures) just that it was black ,had a badly worn emblem on the front and looks better if worn the wrong way round !! the pics will show what I mean

Mick

[northern monkey]

Had a closer look at the helmet this morning and found some printing on the inside of the leather sweat band.... it looks like A I B 6 T 9....although the B might be an R , its not too clear on the rough side of the leather band , but it is very very clean , under the felt strip covering the rivets is imaculate , the brown paint / shellac ? is really very clean and shiny

Mick

[jimpy]

Im with a couple of the guys on this and would, fairly confidently say, Glider Pilots helmet.

Personally, I would contact the Airborne Forces museum for further help unless anyone can give you a definative answer on here. (The museum has joined with IWM and moved up to the Duxford site.)

I hope that it is a genuine one for you Mick, in any case, I wouldn't be letting the kids play with it, let alone take it to school. LOL

Regards etc
Ian D

AKA: Jimpy

[northern monkey]

Ive just taken a few shots of the rivets ? inside the helmet hope this helps determine its originality

Mick