British Mk 1 or 2 Helmet

[Lehotsky]

Hi all, just starting my collection. I picked this up at the local store the other day and was trying to figure out which model it was and if it had the correct liner.

[jimpy]

Hi Lehotsky

First off welcome to the forums.

Now about the helmet, and, as always, I am willing to stand corrected by others more knowledgeable than me.
There is no denying that it is a British/Canadian helmet, but there are a couple of things worrying me about it, namely the chin-strap and liner.
As far as I am aware, the liners were BLACK and it was not fitted with a leather strap. I believe that the US Brodie helmet was fitted with a leather chin-strap, but this is not one of them.
There are a few threads kickng around on the forum about British/Canadian helmets and how to differentiate between the various ones.
Hope this is some help.

Regards etc

Ian D

AKA: Jimpy

[battle gear]

hello, you have a WWII British shell with a post war Greek army liner

this was used by the Greek army after WWII , the chin straps were made from British pack straps

[gi0rgos p]

hello, you have a WWII British shell with a post war Greek army liner

this was used by the Greek army after WWII , the chin straps were made from British pack straps

That's indeed a Greek helmet, used from the late 40s (Civil War) to the late 50s by the army and up to the late 60s by Police/Gendarmerie. The shell itself is a British, wartime dated MkII, made by Rubery Owen & Co.

The liners were locally manufactured and fitted, made of this brown synthetic material, while headbands were made of aluminium.

There is actually a load of these being offered for sale, many of which are mistakenly described as British ones. I see questions about these on several fora from time to time and it seems that they have reached pretty distant places...

So, if you are not into Greek militaria of the post-war period, just stay clear of helmets with these features!

Regards, Giorgos