Need help from the M1 Clone Expert
Article about: Hello fellow collector, i just bought this Indonesian Air Force (TNI AU) shell along with the WW2 british canteen in the antique market. The TNI AU roundel inside the shell The comparison wi
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Re: Need help from the M1 Clone Expert
Very interesting helmet, can't wait to hear what the story is behind it...so many M-1s, so little shelf space left
Regards,
Russ & Son
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Re: Need help from the M1 Clone Expert
If you notice that post war helmets from NATO countries all took on the US M-1 shape, some moreso than others, such as the Belgium helmet and a few others. OTAN = NATO spelled backwards
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Re: Need help from the M1 Clone Expert
I am not at all sure you are right in believeing this is a French mle51. Quite apart from anything else the 51 has a rather distinctively higher and more vertical contour to the shell than the original M1 or any of its relatives, and the front peak is very short and more horizontal compared to a typical M1 (the front and peak are almost at a right angle compared to an M1). If anything your helmet looks to me much more like a version of an M1 than a mle 51, but then I do concede it may be the photographs.
And I have not seen a chinstrap welding like that on any 51 - you have a very distinctive shape there, almost triangular or heart-shaped - and this is unlike anything on a 51, where the shape is (where it exists) more rectangular. See here .: World War Helmets - Les fournisseurs du casque Mle 51 TTA type 2 :.
I'm not trying to be contentious for the sake of it - I was as fascinated as you by your helmet but had no useful idea to offer even after a fair bit of research. Another thing worth considering - why would a French helmet be in use by Indonesia? They were exported, certainly, but usually to nations that had historical links with France, which Indonesia does not.
I'm happy to be proved wrong on anything I have said, but I don;t think we have a real answer yet.
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Re: Need help from the M1 Clone Expert
Apart from having reasonable beliefs about what it is *not*, I really have no idea what your helmet is. Like you I have never seen anything quite like it. So far as I know there was no locally-made Indonesian M1 copy, but then, who knows? There could have been. Could be something Chinese, but its not like anything I have seen. Definately not S'pore. Or Australian. Really, this is completely baffling. How annoying it will be when someone tells us its something obvious that we've all overlooked.
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Re: Need help from the M1 Clone Expert
I agree, not French M51. Detailed pics of chinstrap and liner might help.
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Re: Need help from the M1 Clone Expert
I think there is a possibility this could be a rare Indonesian clone? or some type of euro made export model? helmets made for export could be a little different than a standard M1
it looks like it was made a long time ago, not something of recent manufacture
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