M1 fixed bale front seam & inland liner

[Esquire]

Hi,

I recently bought this M1 & liner here in NZ. It is a fixed bale front seam M1 with an Inland liner (51). The helmet has been painted green at sometime and has non-US, probably British, chin straps fitted. I saw a photo here on the British chinstrap thread that had a similar buckle, hence the association.

I'm guessing its a McCord with a possible heat stamp of 136A? 106A? (1942?) (highlighted with chalk in the pic), with the liner manufacture discontinued by Inland by 1943.

There are four different color paints on it seen around the rim by the bales; what looks like the original OD, a light green, a sand, and the overall green. It may be just house paint blobs or a kids camo, then painted overall in glossy british racing green? There are marks on the outside that may have been stickers or tape.

This may be a completely bastardized helmet, with the color and strap and all, but I guess my question is has anyone seen anything painted like this before, or odd straps added that have an official purpose, or is this just someone using whats to hand?

I'm scared to do any paint stripping on it and will probably just leave it as is, though I have bought some replica chin straps that I may or may not put on. There may be a story there somewhere.

Cheers, Esq.

[Bullet]

Umm.. there seems to be an issue with your images, you might want to try and upload them again.

[Esquire]

Thanks for that. How' are they now? I've re-uploaded and they're displaying for me now. Cheers, Esq.

[Bullet]

All good now.

[PaddyD00]

Heavily Post War messed with unfortunately. Liner looks to be good though missing a bunch of components. I guess for a local pickup its aight though . Never saw that color ... no. Cant weigh in on that. I dont fiddle with any helmets personally so I would say leave as is.
Z

[huntssurplus]

Interestlingly enough I have an M1 with a very similar tourquoise color. No chinstraps though. Interesting indeed...

Hunt

[Burning Hazard]

Shell looks like a Schlueter fixed bail as the rim is more flared out, any pics of the bails? They should be much more "curvier" than the squarish McCord bails.

Pat

[reneblacky]

Has UK style equipment strap as a chinstrap! My Aust used WW2 Jeep has them.

[Anderson]

Good spot Rene on that strap. That rather suggests someone has assembled bits for a display helmet.

[Esquire]

Hi Again,

Thanks for all the info, the green color is probably more green than turquoise, but other photos on this forum also show similar green variations. Possibly screen settings etc as well.

As for the possibility that it is a Schlueter I thought they all had a large S stamped below the heat stamp, which this one does not. I've added a pic of the bails (bales?) below. Interestingly I could not see any crimp or weld marking between the bail welds, which I though is a defining feature of the rim. Though it may be hidden behind the strap. Not sure on that.




As for the straps, this post; WW2 British chin straps has the same buckle, but interesting that they might be tie downs.

Thanks again, Esq.