Need help to identify helmet, probably derivative from British paratrooper helmet
Article about: I just got this helmet on a flea market today. I'm assuming this is a a clone (either European or Indonesian made), no marking or whatsoever, no liner. So could anybody help me identify this
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It was once an HSDR (helmets, steel Despatch rider) but looks to have been converted to an HSRAC.
Most likely done by the Danish post war.
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How does one exactly differentiate the usage between the Dispatch Rider and Armored Corps?
I think I need a crash course about these steel helmets haha
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This is an unusual helmet, certainly, but it is NOT a Dispatch Rider helmet as it has the dimple at the top of the crown which always indicated a lift-the-dot fastener fitting for the liner, and which was not present on any DR helmet. Or paratroop helmet. That means it must have started off as a British Armoured troops (RAC Mk2) helmet. (You can see inside the crown where the l-t-d fastener spike as been removed.)
It's not impossible that it might be a Danish postwar conversion, but I have not yet seen one that used shells with the l-t-d fastener (removed or intact) and all had a hole in the top for a nut&bolt to hold the British Mk2 liner (as commonly seen in British WW2 helmets). What all that stuff around the inside is, I do not know. It looks like the fittings for a para helmet, certainly. Is it impossible that what we have here is a a shell made for an Armoured troops helmet that was converted for use as a parartroop helmet? It seems unlikely, but not impossible.
For the differences in all these helmets I recommend taking a look at these websites -
GRAN BRETAÑA2
.: World War Helmets - Angleterre :.
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Hi Greg, the metal band on the inside if definitely from an despatch riders helmet. As the Danish punched an hole in the top of a helmet, even a wartime Mk2 HSAT, I pressume they have done the same to this HSDR. Making it look like an Mk2 HSRAC?
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by
tinlid
Hi Greg, the metal band on the inside if definitely from an despatch riders helmet. As the Danish punched an hole in the top of a helmet, even a wartime Mk2 HSAT, I pressume they have done the same to this HSDR. Making it look like an Mk2 HSRAC?
OK, fair enough, I've never even handled a DR helmet never mind looked at its inner workings - BUT - I am sure that the dimple in the top and the obvious sign of removal of the l-t-d spike on the inside of the crown makes this a Armour helmet! Unless there's a DR helmet with l-t-d that I've not seen. Mind you I still have no idea what this is, and how and why it showed up in Indonesia is a mystery in itself. Ex-Dutch would make sense, ex-Danish - fantastically unlikely.
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OK, I accept without question that the interior ring is a DR fitting. However, is it really only me that is seeing the l-t-d dimple and remnants of a cut off or ground off l-t-d spike on the inside crown. Oh, probably. Let's just assume it is actually a blind rivet in a pre-drilled hole. That's entirely plausible.
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Hello Damar,
The KST (Korps Speciale Troepen) of the former KNIL, used HSAT (Helmet Steel Airborne Troops) and a lot of DR helmets (HSDR). I gather a lot of millitary material was handed over to the TNI in 1950. The PGT trooper is wearing a DR helmet. The female jumper is wearing a modified RAC helmet (Royal Armoured Corps = a tankers helmet, also used by the Navy). Quite a lot of variation on basicly the same helmet shell!
It seems unlikely that a Danish helmet wound up in Indonesia.
I think the TNI bought additoional helmets from Britain and adapted them to their own use. As did many nations, such as Canada.
Cheers,
Emile
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