Bulgarian M72 ??

[ZERO]

Itialian helmet..ww2???

[Opex]

I think there's a further source of confusion over the steel shell's form. Having looked at loads of these at shows and on line, quite a few seem (to me, anyway) to have had the shell reversed during the manufacturing process. Where this appears to have happened, the slightly pointed peak still occurs at the front (so reversal after stamping but before trimming?) and the rivets are still 2 at front/1 to rear (so reversal after drilling, too?) but the bottom side profile curve appears further towards the front than on non-reversed shells. Also, the crown profile looks decidedly different towards the front. There are other variations, I believe - particularly regarding the M51 shell - where stamping or trimming has taken place slightly on the slant fore and aft, again resulting in a slightly odd looking form. Getting back to the differences between the M51 and M51/72, in my opinion the latter is much less streamlined than the former, it's bowl tending more towards ball shape. Well, that's my tuppence-worth!

Many thanks for your input JBR, it is great to read your information, these helmets are so cheap and readily available on the surplus market, but are nevertheless quite fascinating with their differences!

[JBR]

Here's an example of 'back to front' construction currently on eBay: Bulgarian army M51 / M72 cold war steel helmet unissued still in factory paper | eBay

Best Regards, John

[Opex]

Here's an example of 'back to front' construction currently on eBay: Bulgarian army M51 / M72 cold war steel helmet unissued still in factory paper | eBay

Best Regards, John

That is a very good example of the back to front style, and reasonably priced too!!

Thanks for the heads up John!

[angus1235]

I would agree with battlegear - telling a 51 from a 51/72 ins't the easiest thing, but the later model does have a slight lip around the rim which isn't present on the original (although I sometimes wonder whether this is actually an illusion...). Apart from that the 72 usually has larger vent lugs and, almost always, sewn-on rather than riveted chinstrap parts. It is not unknown for helmets to be made up of liners and shells of wildly varying vintage, which could explain yours.

Anyone interested in the Bulgars should check this page - Bulgarian Helmtes' History - but even Ted Muhovski seems reluctant to commit as to what the differences really are.

The m72 is a bizzare helmet in my opinion since they went from the m51 which was effectively a clone of the italian M33, to the M72 which is nearly identical to gheesoviet SSH40/68, but with a seemingly smaller shell size and Bulgarian style rivets/Vents.
The Italian and Soviet helmets already had a fairly similar design, which is why (i suspect) they adopted the design initially, so they could differentiate between the two, yet still remain similar. The m72 variant seems like a fairly unnecessary change and served only to give the Bulgarian People's Army a more Russian look.

[HERUS]

M72 is very similar to M33, too. Even more than M51 if you look the lip.

[HERUS]

This is M72, no doubt. M72 differs mainly with the typical lip around the whole shell.

[James C]

Finally decided to add the later m71 shell type to keep my early shell m51/72 company ,liner is dated 1986 ,my other example is dated 1981 , one thing i did notice is a difference in thickness between the chinstraps including slight differences in the bail stitching area and also the liner is of a different quality

[James C]

Here is a line up starting from the first type M51 with rivited chinstrap up to the last production model M51 /72 . I wonder if any one would know if the last model type is still in use with some units in the Bulgarian Armed forces ? , i did read somewhere the earlier M36 model was still in use as late as 2010 .
I had a spare Bulgarian desert cover so added it for display purposes on the last run model type

[James C]

Here are some comparisons in shell profile between the model types i have shown so far from my previous post if it is of any help to other members ,I feel the earliest Model 51 on the left hand side of all three pictures is by far the most pleasing to the eye as most of the earlier model helmet types always are in my opinion from most nations ,the Yugoslavian M59 is another example i can bring to mind
I made a comment sometime ago earlier on in this thread stating i believed my M72 used an earlier M51 shell with the revised liner system as maybe some sort of hybrid or transitional helmet but having in hand an original M51 now to compare against i can see the differences are apparent with a much more subtle flared brim and again even more so on the reduced Brim example shown in the 2nd picture so there is still a lot I need to further research.
I can see why the M51 was upgraded to 72 spec as the liner has a tendency to rotate around inside the shell to a certain extent due to the Rivit points being the only point of contact and for having a lot of tolerance and nothing else present to stiffen up the liner struts .One more thing i noted was how similar in profile the very first and last model types are aside from the brim differences