mkII (&mkI or earlier) Helmets Steel, British & Commonwealth, show yours

[tinlid]

At first glance this looks like a normal No.2B home guard with textured khaki green paint, but on closer inspection you will notice this helmet does not have a rim.
Well it does, it's just hidden, underneath, in whats called a Dutch bend.
Just another variant of the grade 2 helmets, for some reason the lining securing bolt has been painted textured khaki green too?
The shell is dated 1941 & made by EC&CoLtd, liner is also 1941 & made by TTC.

[Watchdog]

Good afternoon gents,

This is a very useful thread for me as I have never paid as much attention as I probably should to these helmets so I am learning quickly!

I know this is a "show yours" thread so here is one of mine, nothing special just a run of the mill type I think but I would value any opinions on this one.

The shell is stamped RO&CO MKII 1940 and has no other markings. The liner is very small, about 6 1/2 I think and has no markings at all. The paint visible on the inside appears to be the base colour and is underneath the textured finish of the outside. As can be seen on the inside there are three areas of paint run which all go in the same direction together with a small amount of paint sag on the underside of the rim correspondingly opposite the areas of run. So, I wonder if this has been repainted at some point. Whatever happened to this helmet occurred a long time ago as I found it in an old loft years ago and it was covered in so much accumulated filth that it was a health hazard which had to be sympathetically decontaminated.

Any thoughts?

Regards

Mark

[tinlid]

Hi Mark, What you have there is a perfect army Mk2, exactly what any British helmet collector would want.
By 41/42 the textured paint would have been on the inside as well.

[Watchdog]

Nice one, just what I wanted to hear!

Maybe I should trust my "collectors nose" a bit more but British kit has never been my mainstream of interest (perhaps because I was a regular soldier in the British Army myself for 24 yrs - irrational I know as I am very much into the history of the British Army) so I need to be "safe rather than sorry".

Many thanks for the reply.

Regards

Mark

[Mark K]

At first glance this looks like a normal No.2B home guard with textured khaki green paint, but on closer inspection you will notice this helmet does not have a rim.
Well it does, it's just hidden, underneath, in whats called a Dutch bend.
Just another variant of the grade 2 helmets, for some reason the lining securing bolt has been painted textured khaki green too?
The shell is dated 1941 & made by EC&CoLtd, liner is also 1941 & made by TTC.

Aarggg I have past up on a couple of these style Mk II helmets over the years in Antique stores as I did not like the Dutch style rim on them they as were were heavily textured and the manufacture stamp was un legible .
I thought them to be of European manufacturer with British liners.

Regards Mark

[canti44]

Hello all,

just like to show you my latest aquisition which I couldn't resist because I think it's so unusual and iconic looking. A Roman Catholic priest's MkII ? I assumed before it arrived that it would be painted black inside and out like ARP helmets but on closer inspection it retains it's original green paint on the inside. Will someone kindly clear this up for me?

The liner is a 1939 dated BMB and is a rather small 6 3/4. The shell itself is very faintly stamped and I can just make out a C possibly with a smaller D below it and 39. There are other stamps but too faint to read unfortunately. Apologies in advance for the poor photographs but the light quality is bloody murder at this time of year.




Hope you find it of interest,

Cheers,

Ian.

[tinlid]

Hi Ian,
Up until early 1939 helmets were painted smooth khaki green inside & out for home front use, then in that same year they decided to paint them black.So yours was over painted black to conform to this order.
Great looking helmet.

[NCA]

Heres a few of mine

[tinlid]

Some nice helmets,love the anti-glare/sparks goggles.

[Jerry B]

Heres a few of mine

Very nice collection.