mkII (&mkI or earlier) Helmets Steel, British & Commonwealth, show yours

**JohnF** · 08-02-2018, 11:57 PM

Here is a recent find, with a French Connection. Fire Dept Captain, too rusty to make out the maker of the shell, but probably CL/C,
has a serial no. stamped later into the shell (also painted on the side) and I just noticed on the other side its stamped M F D, Montreal Fire Dept, I would assume with the bi-lingual FIRE/FEU, just need a liner !

mkII (&mkI or earlier) Helmets Steel, British & Commonwealth, show yours

**Composite** · 08-03-2018, 08:22 AM

Wow...thank you for sharing these. My knowledge of Home Fronters over there is virtually zero - I'm assuming these are wartime used?

I very nearly missed this addition amongst all the other highly important new posts elsewhere...apparently someones found a photograph of a nazi paper hole puncher and someone else's mate has a helmet decal hand-painted by Hitler himself....so perhaps its obvious why something so boring as Commonwealth helmets nearly slip between the cracks! :-)

**canti44** · 08-10-2018, 08:55 PM

Hello all,

picked up this interesting early Mk11 and did a 150 mile round trip to get it. I presume it’s a medic helmet but I’ve looked at quite a few and never seen the Red Cross painted in the same way. It looks to have been painted on a fabric which has been wrapped around the shell. Then at some point it’s been overpainted brown
which has rubbed off over time revealing the cross. There is also traces of black paint which looks like camo but this has largely faded.

The shell is a 1939 Ro&Co (with VN stamped next to it?) and the Mk1 liner is a 1938 Vero which is full of cobwebs and smells of a machine workshop. Great stuff.

Cheers, Ian

**Jerry B** · 08-10-2018, 09:23 PM

perhaps a F.A.N.Y helmet or MTC.

**canti44** · 08-10-2018, 09:51 PM

Hello Jerry, good points thank you.

**Composite** · 08-21-2018, 06:17 PM

Not overly common 2 incher.....Ambulance....obvs (as I understand it's now said) ....we all know about the 2" stripe.....the bell tolled in July '42 but it didn't disappear..blah...blah....blah

Shell by Briggs, MkI liner by Briggs too...and strap by Mary, Shift 3, c/o 36 Acacia Avenue, Hornchurch

...and the inside is smooth khaki....well, I like it......

**Composite** · 09-21-2018, 05:48 PM

OK, let's get this show back on the road...here's an unusually marked War Reserve (Police) lid.

..it's made by someone...and got a liner and a strap.......there's also evidence of a Prosecco SS decal....'bit like "Champagne" but cheaper! boom boom!!

When oh when is there gonna be a book on these beautiful helmets?

**Composite** · 10-03-2018, 02:44 PM

Well, as you can imagine, I've been worn out responding to all the posts about those last 2 Home Fronters (thanks MEE)

So I thought I'd waste even more time.....errrr....sorry...I mean would post yet another dull and uninteresting helmet for your views (that means YOU respond!)......

A GPO helmet - as we know that stands for "Graded PIAT Operator" ( :-) that'll soon be all over Ebay!).....so, why is there a flower, in the same style and colour as the lettering on a General Post Office helmet?

sorry for not starting yet another thread about something that already has a perfectly good thread already....I know that annoys some folk :-)....after all there's nothing like 300 individual differently named threads ABOUT THE SAME BLOODY THING is there :-)