Canadian Helmets

[sirknight]

This is my small collection of Canadian helmets. The 'Nam era M1 was my first some 30 years ago, only need to find a Mitchel cover for it as used by the Canadian army from the 1960s to 1970s. The mid 1980s lid is my personal helmet from the days that I served my country, and lastly my Gallet CG634.

[Gunny Hartmann]

Nice helmets, love that Cadpat camo.

[GIZMO8Z]

Thanks for sharing! I never really realized that Canadians wore M1s after WWII.

Do you have a Canadian WWII lid?

[sirknight]

I'm still searching for a Canadian version of the Brit MkII and a Brit MkIII used by the Canadians from the Normandy invasion onwards

[sirknight]

Found a Mitchell cover for my 60s-70s Canadian M1, the Peace pin was added so the helmet could also represent a Vietnam War helmet.

[Walkwolf]

Nice lids. Your personal helmet is very cool and is not seen
- or even available on the market that often.........!

[Oldguy]

Thanks for sharing! I never really realized that Canadians wore M1s after WWII.

Do you have a Canadian WWII lid?

they were used by the first special service force during world war two. they were also used by the Canadian troops in the retaking of the Aleutian Islands.
in 1960 the Canadian government issued all three serve the m1 helmet and removed the mk2 Brodie from service.

[Oldguy]

just keep your eyes open on Kijiji and you will find them

[Mark K]

A brief back ground on the 200,000 M-1's that were procured by Canada and arrived at NDHQ In April of 1943 which subsequently 50,000 of these M-1's were sent to Edmonton and Vancouver in June 1943 to equip Pacific Command as well as of course, 13 Brigade which landed on Kiska in the Aleutian Islands ,
And and additional un-disclosed number used by the 18th Brigade here in Canada and abroad and reportedly a further 30,000 going to Wingate's Chindits in Burma in 1945 ( some further information has come to light that an additional 70,000 had indeed been issued out to Canadian troops during the latter part of the war but as this information is not mine and as far as I know has not been made public as of yet so for the time being I am reluctant to go into anymore details ) .
It is thought at the end of the war 20,000 US M-1 helmets that were procured by Canada still sat un-issued in Canadian Army Depots .
Now this brings us to the meat of the discussion I had posted my own M-1 front seam fixed bail McCord ( which by the way was a Canadian purchase that was found in an Armoury in Eastern Canada ) to another venue for discussion the heat stamp number is 364A which would put the production date to approximately November ,December 1942 .
It was brought to my attention that the heat stamp number on my example falls into the range of known Canadian examples with provenance.
I would like to thank Roger Lucy for allowing me to share the information as seen below and in doing so I shared this information on an unrelated thread on the Canadian Military Collectors Forum and was pleased to be able to add two more examples with provenance to the list of known originals I thought some of you gents might find the particulars on the heat stamps interesting and useful.


The first named example resides in the collection of Roger Lucy and was issued to a Capt Elder's who was stationed in Nanaimo BC, in 1943 with service number and heat stamp of 278A this helmet has a Hawley liner .
Other Canadian provenance M1s have the following heat stamps
268A has a St Clair Liner and is named to a soldier of the Brockville Rifles
270D Hood Rubber liner has a post-war Western Command Service Number
278A MSA liner has a post-war Central Ontario Command Service Number
278 has a bi-coloured net and a post-war Western Ontario Command Service Number
282A. The liner is a Westinghouse. The leather chinstrap on the liner has the service number K601525 written on it - this corresponds to a member of No. 110 BTC in the Reserve Force MD 11.
283A complete with a Hawley liner and adorned with a Canadian flag and the word CANADA painted on the front.
327D also a St Clair Liner
363B Inland liner, post-war Canadian paint job and an early Mk II chin-strap
363C has a Hawley liner
367 Regimental Police paint job post-war Central Command Service Number

Regards Mark