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

[tinlid]

Although lacking a net, I quite like it, and can see why you did too.
I only have the one inch band, and yes, size does matter.

[Composite]

“Stop the Press!”.....it looks like it started life khaki, before the black, white and grey over-paints.

‘s’funny what a grinding wheel and wire brush can reveal right? ;-)

[Composite]

Is there any reason why the most badged Military MkII is the RA?.....or is it because theirs was just an easy badge to replicate?

[Hallibag]

I picked this South African Mk.II up today. It has the usual three holes in the rear skirt, a 1942-dated Jager Rand liner, and looks to have originally been green before receiving a brushed-on coat of sand-coloured paint inside and out. Does it look okay?

[tinlid]

Paint looks very fresh, and as it had lost it's nut and bolt, hard to say if the liner is original to the helmet.
Net has been added as well.

[psycopis]

MKII helmet from Salerno, italy.

[Scott G]

Okay, I need some help here. I recently acquired a 1943 BMB MKII, mainly because it had an unusual bracket attachment for a lamp fastened by way of the helmet screw. At first, I thought that the helmet liner was a post war Belgian liner, because the cross bracing is brown in colour and it has an ink stamping of '54'...which, (to me at least) indicated a metric size for the liner. Now that I have the helmet in hand, I'm wondering if this is indeed a wartime British liner. It is at least a 58mm liner and every component screams to me that this is NOT Belgian. It has black gun cloth, not brown leather and all of the bumpers are Wartime correct...it is just the brown crosspiece and the 54 stamp that are off. There are no maker or date stamps on it, but I can make out an 'M' or is it a 'W'? in black ink. There is more to the stamp, but I can't make it out. My best guess is '7 M W.H. ?. I have lots of experience with Canadian made MKII liners, but not BMB or other British liners. Does this sound like it is a British made liner to you? I'm not sure if I can post a photo or not, but any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[Tinhat]

Photos would help but it sounds like a Dutch refurb, is it the same as this one Odd Mk.II helmet. Royal Navy?

Steve.

[Scott G]

Yes, that's it! Thank you. It appears to be the exact same helmet. BTW, it is not grey in colour. It is Canadian OD Green. I have a number of Canadian made helmets in the exact same shade of green.

[LoyalHistorian]

I bought this MkII back in 2003 when I was in high school. At that point, I had a hard time finding any information on it via the internet, so I just chalked it up to being British and went about my way. I keep seeing others on the forum posting their MkIIs, so I thought, "Hey! This is a perfect time to dig that out of storage and see what I can find out about it." Well, a big thank you to member Mark K from Vancouver Island! I learned a LOT about my helmet from your posts on the "Commonwealth MkII Helmet & Liner Manufacturers" thread. I'm quite excited to finally learn about it! I'm posting pictures, but tell me if I got all this right:

WWII Canadian MkII Helmet, made by Canadian Motor Lamp Co. of Windsor in 1942, Steel Lot Batch Number 56. It has a Second Variation Wartime Chin Strap (started in 1942). The Shell is Post-War repainted the OD green semi-gloss that was adopted mid-1952 by the government. Under the scratches of the repaint, you can see more of a khaki-green color. The inside of the helmet, to me, looks like it wasn't repainted. The Liner I really thought was some sort of modern version, but evidently, the WWII liners looked like that. I couldn't find any markings on the four bands/arms on the inside of the liner. I'll have to unscrew the liner from the helmet to see the markings on the back of it, right? I've never taken it apart, so I was hesitant to do it in case it was a pain to put back together.

















Thank you in advance for any help, verification, or correction on information!

-Robyn