Weekend Helmet Finds Dutch KNIL and Salty M-1

[MySonsDad]

Me and the kid headed out this morning to a small, local, monthly militaria swap meet, not too far from home. Small turn out today, being the anniversary of 9/11, here in the states, but we always stumble on to something good.

The kid walked out with a west german gas mask and I came home with these two helmets. The first pickup is this Dutch KNIL helmet, which I’ve been looking for, for some time. This is the type of helmet my grandfather likely wore when he served in the Royal Dutch Army, during WWII. The shell is in very good shape with no dents or dings and still retains all of it's original OD paint. The linger has seen better days but is complete and I think with some TLC we can bring her back to life. This helmet still has the leather neck skirt still attached. If I have done my homework correctly, this is a US made KNIL, do to the absense of the oval hanger opening on the back of the helmet and being voide of the Lion Plate.























The second pickup is this salty old front seem, US Navy issue McCord. This one’s been around a while for sure, we can count 3 layers of paint on her, not including the original OD paint. Still has the original chin strap, well most of it anyway. Who knows how long this lid served and on what ships, if these things could only talk. Looks like it's last duty was a Repair Locker 5 helmet. I already had the liner, it’s got USN markings on it and was just looking for a shell to mate up with.











We also hit a couple of our favorite antique stores and while we didn’t bring anything home from them, we did stumble on a couple helmets that I’ve been trying to dig up some information on.

The first was a Belgian M-38 Dispatch Riders Helmet, but I can’t find much info on these. It was in near mint condition and had a $35 price tag on it. Don’t know if that is good or bad, maybe someone could enlighten me.

The other helmet I found intriguing was what I believe to be and Austrian M57 (M1 Clone). The shell looked identical to a US M1, including the stainless rim however, it had a clip on either side, near the bails, used to hold the liner in place. I understand that these clips were introduced in 1976, or there abouts and some of the early M-1’s, surplused to Austria were retrofitted with these. The helmet was complete with plastic liner (bummer it didn’t have an original US liner). Can’t find much info on this helmet either, maybe someone here can fill me in if they know anything about these Austrian M1 clones?

And the kid picked up a West German gas mask of some type. It was a good day of digging around.

Russ & Son

[António Fragoeiro]

Hi Russ, those are really cool helmets you picked up, your collection is really coming a long.
Cheers.
Nuno

[thefight]

Nice finds, nothing wrong with a little salty.

Alec

[reneblacky]

I believe the sun neck flap denotes NL East Indies, well Pacific theatre use- I maybe wrong also. Did the US mfg these wow I did not know that, one very interesting Helmet
Very nice

[MySonsDad]

Alec, I absolutly agree and in fact, of the 20 some lids on the shelf, believ it or not, this Navy M-1 might be my favorite, but then again, I'm a Navy Vet.

Rene, Yes some of the KNIL helmets were manufactured in the US by a company called MILSCO, out of Milwaukee around 1940-41 due to German occupation making procurement from the Netherlands impossible. As I understand it, the Germans also issued this helmet to volunteer units, on the Easter Front, after a re-paint and reline with a Germain M-31 liner.

[dutch guy]

You have a really nice Dutch helmet over there! A small lot of Dutch helmets were indeed reissued to the Romanians, but those are really rare!

[MySonsDad]

THanks Dutch Guy. Yes I have read that some of these helmets were used by the Romanians but I have no knowlage of how to tell one from the other. Assuming this to be a KNIL issue but I guess I should investigate further.

Regards,

Russ

[dutch guy]

I'l send you a pm!