"Civil" helmet worn by Navy
From the book 上海海軍特別陸戦隊 "Special Naval Landing Forces in Shanghai".
Sorry about the photo size, I don't have the actual book yet.
If I saw this helmet for sale today I'd dismiss it as another "civil defense" helmet. But here it is being worn by SNLF in China. Definitely not a T90 helmet.
If you paid close attention to the photo or read the caption, you would see it is not a civil helmet. It has a leather chinstrap with a buckle unlike the civilian models. The sailor is also not SNLF. The author, Yoshikawa claims they're a prototype made in England, but he also can't discern between naval enlisted and petty officers so take it with a grain of salt. Nick Komiya covered the IJN helmets in his thread on the evolution of the army steel helmet. According to his research, they were designated as a Model 1 helmet along with the "star vent" and "sakura" helmets acquired from the IJA.
Sorry, I couldn't pay that close attention to it, as I said in my post, I don't have this book currently and my Japanese is not at the level to be able to read such small text. I share things here so I and others can learn more about them. I've never seen a "Model 1" in military use before and thought it was worth a post.by adachi
Is the helmet you saw for sale with a white net on it?
Regards
Delibes
Like the one here sold to a friend of me as late war navy.
Just a civil defence upgraded after war.
The Model 1 helmets were extremely common during the January 28 Incident in 1932 where the Shanghai Naval Landing Force (not SNLF) used them. As mentioned above it actually included three different models, a unique IJN type and two variations of an IJA type. At the time of the incident the IJN type of the Model 1 did not have an anchor, just a rivet in the front. Pay close attention to the position of the rivets and the leather chinstrap in the first photo Ryoyo posted, those details set it apart from a civil defense helmet. Also to note after the introduction of the Type 90 (known as Model 2 by the IJN) following the Jan 28 Incident helmet these Model 1 helmets had anchors added but were eventually phased out, mostly used by rearline units or IJN schools/sailor corps for training. Occasionally you can see training photos with these helmets right into the 40's. There's at least a couple surviving examples in the Jan 28 post incident configuration.
Jan 28 incident
Shortly after the Jan 28 incident
Great photo! Those are some belt buckles!
As I gave out information about the navy's Model 3 helmets in another thread, I will add some information on the Model 1 helmets that were unique to the navy, which was mistaken as a civil helmet in this thread.
That model, shaped like a British Brodie helmet in profile was supplied to the Shanghai Naval Land Forces in April 1929, as a delivery of 988 pcs from the Yokosuka Depot to the First Expeditionary Fleet sailing from Sasebo, carrying reinforcements of NLF troopers to Shanghai. This same delivery included 5 infantry mortars along with 2500 mortar rounds, and 5000 packs of Bergman SMG rounds.
The original request had called for 1000 helmets, but it appears Yokosuka exhausted its stock at being a dozen short, which required the army to step in later. (2 pcs got supplied to the artillery troops in Shanghai, so it was 990 pcs altogether that landed in China)
Back then, the Shanghai NFL (not yet SNLF) was still just over 600 men (as of June 1928), so 988 was enough to go around, but after the Manchurian Incident broke out in 1931, the local NFL got bolstered to 900 men and further to 1800 men by end of January 1932. That was when the Navy had to beg the army to lend them 1700 pcs of the obsolete Model 1922 Army helmets (some of which came in the old star-vent configuration and some with the new cherry blossom top).
These 3 types of helmets used in Shanghai in 1932 later got bundled together to be called the Model 1 Navy Helmet.
My example
Jareth's example was used into the 1940s, as it has the 1939 overpaint job done to it.
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