Origin of the Portuguese M40 steel helmet. The Kobe helmet.

[Jack59]

In the early 30s, the Japanese did a few steel helmets side project. One of them (Kobe Seiko) was a reinforced helmet with a riveted steel plate inside the front of it. Originally planned to protect the highly vulnerable machine gunners. The project was rejected because of the additional weight at the front of the helmet leaving it very unstable & heavy (1.4 kg).


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Meanwhile the Portuguese wanted a new helmet. The Japanese sold them the remaining lot of their reinforced helmets project as export helmets. Quickly they realized the same issued of weight & instability as the Japanese. A special 4 points chinstrap did not help either.


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A total of 13 seen rivets were holding both the chinstrap & the steel plate.

Les casques de combat du monde entier de 1915 à nos jours. Vol 2

The helmet was simply too heavy. Nevertheless the Kobe helmet shape served as a model to create the M40 helmet adopted in 1940. Manufactured at the Braço de Patra armament factory, it remained in service until the 70s.
FYI: once rejected by the Portuguese Defence Department the "Kobe helmet" were all issued to the "Policia Segurança Publica" Public Safety Forces.

See also: World War Helmets - Casque Modele 30 "Kobe"

[Jack59]

Here are photos of my M40 helmet. Enjoy
The helmet was solid, weighting 1.280 kg.










The original padding as been replaced by foam that as dried since.


Hard to say if it's a name or a manufacturer stamp.


The joint of the aluminium head band.


The chinstrap is a leather double buckle adjustment type.






Originally the air vent slugs held the bales attachments.
Later on they were removed to simplify production.
The bale attachments were then welded in the shell.




The M40 helmet was adopted in 1940.
It was manufactured at the Braço de Patra armament factory
& remained in service until the 70s.

The chinstrap, originally made of leather was replaced by the British MK2 helmet one for the early overseas units. Paolo Marzetti HELMETTI. page 300




Portuguese soldiers leaving for the Azores in 1941.




Goa, mid 50s early 60s.




The Carnation Revolution 1974.


Could be easily confused with the Spanish M21.

[Greg Pickersgill]

Well, I'm a big fan of the M40 in all its forms (I have a small mountain of them, some written up on Warrelics over the years) so it is always nice to see it remembered. However as to a similarity to the Spanish M21 I see little other than a passing resemblance at best.

By the way, if you wanted to refer to the piece on WWH on the Kobe ( World War Helmets - Casque Modele 30 "Kobe" ) a simple cross-reference would have been sufficient. Or at least a much larger source credit.

[Jack59]

Thanks for pointing out the missing cross-reference Greg, World War Helmets deserve all the credit for that fascinating link between the M40 & the "Kobe" helmet. Imagine the lucky person who manage to find a "Kobe", if ever! Now as for mistaken M21's & M40's helmet, how many young collectors have mistaking one for the other at first glance, myself not to long ago.

[Greg Pickersgill]

I think finding a Kobe, even in Portugal, would be a bit of a 'holy grail' moment. I've not found any idea of how many were imported - my guess as it was essentially a trial project it would be hundreds at top, rather than thousands. Most long gone to recycling now, unfortunately for us Portugal helmet fans. Never seen one for sale anywhere, and I used to check the Spanish Todocoleccion 'ebay' regularly (seemed to cover Portugal as well).

Everyhting I know about the Kobe comes from first the CASQUES DE COMBAT books, then Marzettit's ELMETTI, and later the WWH site. The two books were my foundation course in helmets, and while both have some deficiencies now they are still valuable. My first helmet sensei was Joseba, whose site I still refer to regularly (CASCOS DEL SIGLO XX ), and then WWH ( World War Helmets - Accueil ) which is the current best resource, and absolutely world-beating on some helmet types like anything Swiss or French, way better than anything ever in print.

NB for those who have problems with non-English language sites I suggest opening in Chrome with auto-translate on. Can be a bit flaky on some technical terms but definately gives most of what most people might want.

And one more thing for everyone reading this (yes, all three of you...) - citing references is *always* a good thing because it may lead us all to interesting information, as is taking off any fabric helmet cover for photography, unless posting in a dedicated helmet-cover thread.

One more last thing - regarding the similarity of the M40 to other helmets - when I got my first, back in 1999 or whenever from a little junk shop (yes really) in Abergavenny, South Wales, I was quite convinced it was Bulgarian. Only patient paging through CASQUES DE COMBAT showed me what it really was, and it was quite exciting and the beginning of a little love affair.