Grey M1 helmet.

[canti44]

Hello all,

I picked up this salty M1 helmet many years ago when I was a kid. I guy I used to work for suggested it was a Marine's helmet - it being painted grey - but I've found no evidence of this and presume it's USN. He was a helmet collector himself though, was he right? Did the Marine's paint their helmets grey too? What would the K4 painted on the front stand for?



Its liner has SU72 inside it which I guess indicates its year of manufacture but I'm wondering about the age of the shell itself. If it is much earlier I'd like to get a liner to suit. It's a rear-seam swivel bale helmet with a heat stamp number 1227B. Any information regarding its age and likely origin would be great. Many thanks,

Ian.

[37Webbing]

Look at this USN Radioman's helmet:
Mannie Gentile: Combat Helmets of the 20th Century: U.S. Navy M1 Radioman Helmet 1974

It is in my opinion the same type of grey paint.
In short, yes, your helmet is a USN helmet not Marines.
But a very nice, and "salty" lid

[aj4010]

Almost certainly Navy, made after 1944. Your liner sounds interesting, the SU72 mark is not one I've heard of before. Any chance of some photos?

Best Regards,

Andy

[canti44]

Thanks for that. What I really want of course is for the shell to be late ww2 and get a nice liner for it at some point. Looking on this excellently informative forum I've already picked up a few interesting pointers. I read on here somewhere that two welding spots either side of the rear seam indicate ww2 manufacture as well as vertical paint cracks on the rear of the helmet. The heat-stamp number is pretty high though in the four figures rather than the three so it may be later. I really don't know.



The liner I presume would have been put in in the 1970's unless 72 refers to something else. I always thought it was US72 but of course it's back to front as you can see in the pics. I only noticed that yesterday!

Cheers guys.

[SteveR]

The helmet is late 50s or early 60s mayby later by the chinstrap attachments.

[aj4010]

The 1227 heatstamp dates the pot to around March of 1945 I believe. The SU is indeed US upside down, which would indicate a post WW2 liner, I don't think 72 would be the date. The pics did not show, so its a bit of guesswork on the stamp.

Best Regards,

Andy

Edit.
What is odd about this one is the stress cracks. I thought these problems were mainly fixed by 1945? A bad batch of steel maybe?

[António Fragoeiro]

From what i know, this is a navy lid.
I really like seeing the variants of the known helmets.
This is a model i would like to have.
Cheers.
Nuno

[NickD]

from the heat stamp you're looking at a manufacture date of about April-May 1945 the chin strap dates from the 1960's onwards im not seeing the pics for the liner & i cant help with the makings on the front.

[canti44]

Thanks all, I'll try to amend the liner pics. Don't know what I did right on the first post but I can't seem to repeat it. I had a feeling it was a late war helmet after reading a number of posts on here. I know that old pots were in continual use and were often refurbed with new chinstraps and liners etc. Do you think it is worth restoring with an equally salty liner and chinstraps? If so, what should I start looking for? Cheers!

p.s Liner pics now successfully uploaded above.

[aj4010]

That is one mixed up liner stamp. The liner is a mid 60's to 70's one I believe. You can date the sweatband too, have a look at the rear of it, find the DSA number. Something like DSA 100 -- (two numbers.) The two numbers will be the year of manufacture, ie 69 76 etc.
With the stenciling on the front of the lid, well it's a Navy thing, and usually indicates where the helmet should be stored on board. The trouble is, that there is no set Navy format, it varied from ship to ship.

Best Regards,

Andy