Canadian 1942 AG/C Mk II

[Mark K]

In May of 1942 Aluminium Goods Ltd. of Toronto Ontario won a tender to manufacturer 66,600 Mk II helmet shells under contract by The Department of Munitions and Supply for the Royal Canadian Air Force this was to be there sole contract and they did not produce any other Mk II helmet shells for the duration of the war.
This makes the AG/C Mk II the rarest of all the Canadian manufactured Mk II bodies and they are extremely hard to come by I have been looking for one to add to my collection for some time now and was lucky enough to acquire this particular Mk II from a friend and I am very happy to be able to add it to my collection.
It is so marked AG/C ,Mk I ,Steel batch code G 12 and is dated to 1942 the liner is a 1942 VMC II in a size 7 1/4 IMO this helmet has had a hard life and was well used and has a nice patina on the shell it would appear to have suffered some post war abuse as well as the rim was deeply dented in a few spots and suffered from what would appear to be fairly fresh paint loss I have managed to cold press out the dents and straighten the bent rim and think it will display rather well.

Regards Mark K

[SHINDENKAI]

Hi Mark,

Congratulations on your new MK.II !!!

Another beauty.

Cheers!
Taka

[Walkwolf]

Yep - Nice lid. I'll have to keep my eye out for one.........

[Mark K]

Many thanks Steve and Taka she is a little beat up but IMO it just adds to her charm I will be keeping my eyes peeled for one in a little better condition but would only display it along side this example and not replace it.
There is one other Canadian Mk II helmet shell that still eludes me the last order for helmet bodies was awarded in September of 1942 to C.L./C. but they never completed the order till late January or early February of 1943 so consequently 90,000 helmet bodies from this particular run will be found dated to 1943 and they are as well quite hard to find.

Regards Mark

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Mark, nice find.

I have one of these too.

Cheers, Ade.

[Gunny Hartmann]

Nice lid!...

[SHINDENKAI]

Nice AG/C Mk. II there, Adrian.

Thank you for posting.

Cheers!
Taka

[Mark K]

Nice example Adrian I find the steel batch codes on these rather interesting I notice yours is stamped D 5 while my example has G 12 stamped in the helmet body and Taka's example is stamped E 13 very curios.
I have always been fascinated with steel batch codes on Canadian helmet bodies and how they correlate with production dates the only one that I can make any kind of sense out of are the C.L./C. helmet bodies as they used consecutive steel batch codes through out there entire 1940-1943 production run so this does allow one to at least make an educated guess as to if a helmet body was produced early on or late in that particular year IMO it would make for an interesting research project .

Regards Mark

[SHINDENKAI]

Hi Mark,

I can see a faint "5" on the right side of D from Adrian' s example.

Cheers!
Taka

Oops, I didn't see you already wrote the 5 after the D, sorry.

[Mark K]

Hi Taka thanks I noticed it as well after I put my glasses on LOL and have edited my previous post my eye sight is not what it used to be and seems to be getting worse as I grow older sigh .

Regards Mark