Old War Horse-My Latest Pickup

[Vegard T]

The knowledge on this forum is breathtaking.

Kind Regards,

Andy

It amazes me sometimes. very nice old warrior, she definitely deserves to be taken care of, good to see that is happening

[aj4010]

It amazes me sometimes. very nice old warrior, she definitely deserves to be taken care of, good to see that is happening

Oh yes, the old war horse has found a safe home.

Kind Regards,

Andy

[greimers]

You may find that is an Australian emblem

[Vegard T]

Sorry if this is a bit off-topic, but since we have so many helmet experts in this thread already, I can't help myself

About the chinstraps: I've seen 2 types of chinstraps for the MKII helmet and I'm wondering: Were these just picked at random, were they picked because of the different producers, were one of them an early model and the next a later model? I've seen pictures from combat in the early parts of the war where soldiers are wearing both kinds of chinstraps, so I'm just wondering.

First one(One of mine):


Second one(Borrowed from this thread):

[aj4010]

You may find that is an Australian emblem

Strewth, mate. What Aussie emblem is it?

Andy

[tinlid]

There were mainly 3 types of chin straps used, the MkI with wide end loops used at the start of the war,then the most common one which most people associate with the MklII helmet which had smaller end loops like yours shown. Then in 1941 the MkIII elasticated chin strap was introduced, & with the lining nuts & bolts as the war progressed they started cutting back on materials.

[Vegard T]

Wow, thanks a lot for the information

[joseph barrett]

Here is a picture of a MK.1 chin strap note the larger end loops. There was also a Mk.11A and a Mk.111A the Mk.11a is the same as the Mk.11 chin strap except magnetic steel springs were used instead of non magnetic The non magnetic ones were needed for front line helmets the Mk.11a chin straps were used on helmets for civil defence, to tell them apart the Mk.11a's were marked with a letter m or a * in black ink or white paint. The Mk.111a is similar to the Mk.111 except it has a 254mm section of non elasticised webbing connected by chrome plated loops positioned in the centre these were made in relatively small numbers and were designed as a war economy measure, the picture of the MK.111A Chin strap is the best I can find. Aaron I am not 100% about this but was the MK.1 chin strap used on the Mk.11 helmet? I always thought it was just used on the MK.1* helmet mainly because the Mk.11 helmet started life with Mk.11 chin strap lugs which were designed for the Mk.11 chin strap.

[tinlid]

I can't see any reason why a MkI chin strap was not used on a MkII helmet, but I've never seen one. The idea of making the end loops smaller on the straps was to stop it moving about, that's why they made the loops smaller, so whether they used up the remaining MkI straps on the early MkII's or only used the new MkII straps on the MkII lugs I don't know. Has anyone got a MkIIIA chin strap?

[greimers]

The insignia / unit emblem is for the Australian Seventh Division.