Combat Helmet of South Africa

[Greg Pickersgill]

In post 76 above Jack observed that the rim of the M63 sits flatter on a surface than that of its parent, the French mle51. This may seem a trivial point but it has stuck in my mind. It has taken me a while to get around to it (if you knew how my collection is stored you'd understand) but today I got out two certain SA and a probable (unmarked but came with SA liner and straps but may be French import), and a random sampling of French mle51 (the top half dozen, a 'sample' the Market Research Association would not countenance for a second). And for good measure two of Portuguese m64, copies of the mle51, just to see what shows up.

None of my three SA shells - one ummarked, two Fuchs - sit absolutely flat. A Fuchs 1966 has a prounouned gap -almost finger width at the front, sitting very back. The Fuchs 1975 tends to sit balanced at a point where the chinstrap is -but when pushed down at the rear shows a distinct gap at the front. the third - unmarked undated - has the same characteristics but more so, easily wobbling on its central horizontal axis.

Looking at some French mle51 originals things become (as I expected) more varied again -

Carpentier Cusset 1958 sits *almost* flat, just a very minor gap at front and rear

Franck 1954 is flat at front, but with a forwards tilt lifting read end off surface - again lowest point seems to be horiontal axis across chinstrap points.

Lu Messei 1960 - sits hard back with a good finger width of space at front

Franck 1951 - again hard back, even more pronounced lift at front than the Lu Messei 1960

At this point I stopped, because I realied that the other two or three I had in hand had the fixed baled which prevnted the helmet laying flat irrespective of the profile of the rim.

The two Portuguese M964 had similar characteristics to the SA Fuchs 1975, balanced on the horizontal central axis.

The varied result with the French helmets was sort of expected; many manufacturers working off essentially identical design but with individual quirks in production. The Portuguese helmets were I believe (well, I believe WWH in this case, anyway) made locally at one plant so not surprising no variations. If anything it was more surprising that the two (or three) Fuchs helmets were not essentially identical in 'sit'. They weren't.

Ideally this post should be accompanied by photographic evidence but I doubt it would be terribily important to anyone not as fascinated by the mle51. And anyway all three of my cameras have flat batteries and I can't find the mains leads. Maybe an update later. If there's a sudden upsurge of enthusiasm ...

[Jack59]

Thanks for diging out SA, French & Portuguese helmets for comparison Greg. I believe that the flattened base of the Dunois French export model was mainly for economic purpose. Less steps in the manufacturing process ment more profit. I took a look at WWH Portuguese M64 helmet page, the base of the M64 helmet is similar to the M63 SA one. I was not able to find a photo of an original Dunois shell export model but according to WWH the Dubois export, SA M63 & Portuguese M64 shells seems very similar. Interesting to know that a little difference exist in the SA shells. Don't put back these helmets in storage to soon, if you wish, have a look at the SA M63 liner because of it's thickness it should be easily identified.

[Greg Pickersgill]

Minor addendum to all this flat-edging; I looked four or five times at the shell I believed was SA but did not have a Fuchs stamp and scraped away a little paint to find the red primer which I believe was only used by SA makers. Which seems to indicate that not all M63 are maker-marked.

I had wondred if it wre one of the Dunois exports but apparently not. I've not knowingly seen or handled a Dunois export helmet. I HAVE on the other hand seen and handled a LOT of mle51, and although I ws well aware that there were a lot of differences with the various fitments and finishes I hadn't realised that the actual shape - specifically the 'sit' on a flat surface - was so varied. And it's also apparent, once you note that, there is small but real variation in the peak and nape length, maker to maker. I've said it before, but you could make a whole collection out of mle51 alone, and need a lot of shelving for it. As opposed to my dust and catfur caked heaps of helmets jammed into any available space.