helmet marine japanese

[lassalle]

hello does this helmet seem original to you?

[ghp95134]

救
Sugu[i]/Kiyō
(n)(1) help; rescue; aid; relief; (n) (2) salvation; solace

-- Guy

[lassalle]

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blue color the helmet

[lassalle]

it is also heavier than a type 90 ija

[lassalle]

hello nobody to inform me? there are also small rings on the helmet that the other type90 does not have

[RussM]

Hi lassalle, yes, this is an original navy helmet, heavier than the standard type 90 helmet.

[adachi]

Is the shell 1.2mm or 1.0mm thick?

[lassalle]

I am telling you that for the thickness for the small rings on the helmet what was it used for? and an approximate value of the helmet at the start or end of the war with fabric liner?

[Nick Komiya]

As measuring the thickness can be a bit tricky, weighing the helmet might be easier perhaps. If the helmet weighs about 1400 grams instead of slightly less than 1200 grams for a Type 90 as shown in photos below, then what you have is what the navy called the Model 3 helmet (what collectors used to call the shipboard helmet, because of the battleship grey these helmets are normally found in)


The navy also used the Type 90, which they called the Model 2, but in addition, they developed a helmet of their own out of thicker steel (1.2mm instead of the Model 2's 1mm). This Model 3 seems to have been intended for use by the NLF, according to documentation, but as these helmets are mostly seen in grey, they would predate June 1939, when the navy repainted all helmets brown.


Canvass lining seemed to have been common in Model 3s and the use of long cotter pins used to hold the liners also seems a typical trait. Why the pin sticks out so much is unknown, but the only possible use I can think of is for fixing an extra armor plate in front, like the bullet proof helmet the army was working on at that time. The canvass liners in this case are actually pre-WW2 instead of last ditch.

Not much is known about Navy Model 3 helmets, but after being introduced in 1933 it is possible they pretty much got discontinued before 1939, as production resources became tight after 1938.

[adachi]

Not to hijack the thread, but ever since Nick pointed out the Model 3 helmets were potentially a "NLF helmet" I have been taking notes on them when they pop up while researching other things. Postwar demobilization reports for the Sasebo 8th (raised Feb 1939) and Maizuru 1st (raised June 1940) SNLFs on Hainan Island both indicate over 2100 Model 3 helmets per unit, essentially enough for every man. The IJN 324th Construction Unit operating around Shanghai and the Chusan Islands, raised sometime between 1944-45 and doubling as an infantry unit also had 451 Model 3 helmets. So we can see even in the closing days of the war these helmets were in circulation, sometimes in quite good numbers. A problem in establishing a better idea on the utilization of these helmets across all fronts is a lack of surviving documentation and many cases of failure to differentiate between helmet models on what documents we do have access to.