Swiss Road Police plastic helmet

[Greg Pickersgill]

So, what is this. It is essentially an M1-type helmet liner, made of white plastic (not painted), has a typical Riddell-type cradle and headband, and a typically Swiss carbine-hook chinstrap. There are no markings of any kind other than the 'P' on the front. We can happily accept it is Swiss-used, and possibly even Swiss-made. But what is it for?

The ebay seller I got it from included the following in the sale details

"An Auxiliary Military Police helmet from the Swiss Army, date 1970/80's. They are white plastic very similar to the US helmet liner. Information from the Swiss Army Military Unit in Thun is that they were only for ceremonial use only and therefore are a rare item. The diffence between this helmet and the one issued to the Heers Military Police is the black band." (He also showed one with the black band, which runs horizontally around the lower shell, and otherwise identical to this one.)

JP Soulier does feature the helmet in COLLECTOR'S GUIDE, captioning it as "white plastic helmet for the Road Police circa 1960" - this is shown to have three different chinstraps, one similar to the US leather liner strap, another which is the typical Swiss carbine hook, and a third which has the two-piece straps usually seen on the M48/62. No mention of the version with a black band.

The only other reference I have found so far is in Marzetti, and its somewhat tangential - he has a picture captioned "M1 NATO helmet liner made in Austria or West Germany. It was used experimentally in the 1960s but was quickly rejected because of its association with NATO forces." This is baffling as it implies the liner only and not the complete two-piece helmet set, and the helmet shown is definately not white although it does have a thin leather chinstrap. As the white helmets in question here are moulded in a white plastic and not painted I doubt there is any immediate relationship.

I guess my real point is - is this purely a parade helmet as asserted by the ebay seller (quoting a Swiss source), or is it (more likely maybe) an actual service helmet, presumably on days when the usual 'P'-badged M48/62 seemed a bit hot and heavy. And does it have any relationship to Marzetti's imported liners (my feeling is, none at all).

[Greg Pickersgill]

From out of the past; today I have been contemplating this old favourite. It is an unusual thing and possibly quite rare. There were two of them for sale when I bought this one - the other had a black line around the lower part of the shell, a rank denominator perhaps - and I rather regret not getting both.

Anyway, the rather squat shape reminds me today of the Austrian liners. I have just compared it to an Austrian M58 liner (which I think is a pattern 2 made by Romann, according to a hasty riffle through Oli Dorrell's book) which was frankly just the first one to hand (this isn't a rigorous heavily researched posting a la Jack...) and it looks and feels the same and the holes for the rivets match up to a surprising extent, except the ones for the chinstrap which are slightly higher than corresponding rivets on the known Austrian.

So here's my question - did the Swiss just import a few of these - very slightly modified - or did what is apparently a quite small run come from a local plant. NB I do not believe the liner straps etc are Austrian.

Soulier is no help - the helmet is featured but with no indication of its origin. (The world may never know) NB again despite what I claimed in the original post Soulier does show the black-band version but with no real indication of why or why.

[Sleepwalker]

Hello,

I haven't been able to find anything about this helmet yet.

However, the lining clearly suggests that it was manufactured in West Germany. In terms of color, after 1958. Only Schuberth Werke Braunschweig can be considered as the manufacturer.

In the 1970s, the Bundeswehr carried out a test run with white helmets for air force guard duty. This concept was not adopted. All of these helmets then disappeared.

Regards

[Greg Pickersgill]

Thanks for the info, Sleepwalker. I have now tried to work out the period these were used (impossible, finding very little information) but it is obviously pre-2000 as that is when Soulier's book was published. Soulier irarely gives even approximate date-ranges to anything.

I also checked back at Marzetti, which does describe a similar helmet (see my posting above). There is a picture but really it is a better picture of a Swiss battle rifle than it is of the helmet. But with a bright light and magnifying glass it seems to me that it is very similar to the Road Police helmet; no liner shown and not white. Marzetti's description includes"...M1 NATO helmet liner made in Austria or West Germany. It was used experimentally in the 1960s..."

So, are the P helmet the unwanted ones from the trial, or were they bought from the BW after the trial there? The P helmets are definately white moulded plastic, not painted, so we might assume not the same as those trialled by the Swiss army (unlikely to have been white!), so might be ex-BW/LW police. Unfortunate that we seem to have no active Swiss members with genuine specialised knowledge.