Need help identifying this turtle helmet

[Karmannkabriolett]

I was recently given this turtle helmet by a friend. He thought it was Canadian military, but I want to say he was just guessing. I was thinking possibly civilian. I can’t find a date mark. I was wondering someone could ID? Military or civilian?

[Rommel1942]

It's military. I have got one like that. They were used by both Canadians and British, but mostly British. You should look really close in the inside (side) of the helmet for the date marking, because it is usually really faded. It looks tome like yours is post war.

Regards,
Finn

[emileverbunt]

This is a British made MkIII helmet (chinstrap posts placed rather high). These helmets were used at the end of WW2. First issued to Canadians and later to British and other allied forces. The MkIII was quickly superseded by the MkIV (low placed chinstrap posts and lift the dot liner attachment) and was used up till the Falklands war with a modernized liner.

This helmet looks like one used by Israel or an other Middle Eastern country.

Nice helmet, pity the cross piece is missing.

Cheers,
Emile

[tinlid]

Hi,
Mk III British or Canadian, Try looking inside at the rear, if you are lucky you might see a stamp. Look at my pics to see where. You could replace the liner with a WW2 one, but the paint work would still be wrong.
Aaron.

[mk1rceme]

Looks like the original paint is under that lighter color. These strip rather well but you still have to be careful to preserve the original paint and texture. Looking at the rim seam, I would guess that yours is a Rubery Owens made helmet. BMB helmets seem to have the the rim seam welded closed...RO&CO. helmets always seem to have a gap in the seam...at least with all the examples I have.

Also, BMB stamped helmets always seem to be stamped 90 degrees to the edge of the helmet and the stamp is pressed hard enough to leave a noticeable bump on the rear outer surface. You can check for that as well.

[noelh]

By coincidence only today I was looking through a book I have. I was surprised to see a picture of Israeli troops in action in 1956 wearing turtle helmets painted sand. I never realised before that they used them. So I would tend to agree with emileverbunt that it might be Israeli. But also in the book is a picture of British troops with sand painted helmets most likely MkIVs though. My own MkIV arrived with and actual sand coating though quite chipped. It was definitely ex British army though and perhaps saw service in Suez or Aden perhaps. I removed the rest of the sand coating which I now rather regret but it was back in the 1980s.

[jimpy]

The Mk4 was in service with the British army up til the mid 1980s when it was superseeded by the Mk6 Kevlar.
There are loads of Mk3 and Mk4s out there, the big problem is finding a COMPLETE one with the liner, chin-strap and head-band.
The Mk4 and Mk3 I believe, was, and is used still by various forces all over the world, including the IDF, and, I believe a lot of other middle and far eastern forces.
A "trick" that we, as NCO instructors, used to do when doing pyrotechnic demonstrations was to put a thunderflash under one, light blue touch paper and stand well back, and then watch the look on recruits faces when they realised just what damage the pyrotechnics could do to a human when misused as the helmet came down in bits!

Regards etc

Ian D

AKA: Jimpy