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The Danish M46 helmet

Article about: The first Danish post-war helmet, the M46. The shell was manufactured by Glud & Marstrand with a British MKII/MKIII liner glued into the crown of the helmet and with khaki US chinstraps

  1. #1

    Default The Danish M46 helmet

    The first Danish post-war helmet, the M46. The shell was manufactured by Glud & Marstrand with a British MKII/MKIII liner glued into the crown of the helmet and with khaki US chinstraps sewn on.
    It was only used for a very brief period of time until it was replaced by the M48 in 1949.

    Allegedly all M46 helmets should then have been handed over to the Danish Navy but I haven't been able to find any proof of that. Under any circumstance, almost all M46 helmets ended up with the civil defense in 1960-1961 where they were given a glossy grey finish and a plastic civil defense liner fitted with rivets through the shell. I often see these helmets being confused as being the Navy version.

    Very few M46 helmets seem to have survived in their original configuration, while the civil defense version is still very easy to obtain.

    The Danish M46 helmet The Danish M46 helmet
    The Danish M46 helmet The Danish M46 helmet
    The Danish M46 helmet The Danish M46 helmet

    The M46 - Note the Danish size indication in the liner. There is no manufacturer mark to be found on the liner bands in either of my two M46 helmets, but in one of them the British size marking is still visible - making it clear that these are British produced liners and not local made copies.


    The Danish M46 helmet The Danish M46 helmet

    The M46 is often said to be inspired by the Swedish M37 (left) but it has a much larger shell and is perhaps even more similar to the US M1 (right)


    The Danish M46 helmet

    Comparison between civil defense and original M46


    The Danish M46 helmet The Danish M46 helmet

    The liner in the civil defense version. Note the red CF stamp in the crown of the helmet (Civilforsvaret = civil defense). Oddly enough these helmets were date stamped - Not a procedure I have seen on any other Danish helmet before or after this one.

  2. #2

    Default

    Oh, this is good! Danish helmets are particularly underappreciated so its very exciting to see a bit of action on them here. Very nice comparative pictures of the little-known M46, and some excellent background information.

    I have just one of these - the Mk2 as we have started to think of it (well. me anyway...)- and I am including here pics of the liner and strap to supplement yours. I bought this one from someone in Denmark maybe 15 years ago, and at the time, because of no better information, I believed it to be a Navy issue helmet. That wild idea was supported by the fact there are *no* marking of any kind in the shell - no CF marks. Also, my liner band has no stamps of any kind.

    I have also found in my files some notes on the M46 sent to me quite a long time ago by US collector Dave Powers. At the time he had three variants of it, two being essentially the M46 shell we're discussing here (but his 'Mk1' has green fabric straps and a US hook chinstrap catch) and the third being a Swedish M37 with the M46 Mk2 liner - see pic attached.

    Powers' M37/46 conversion

    The Danish M46 helmet

    M46 interior/liner band

    The Danish M46 helmet The Danish M46 helmet


    Here are the notes Dave Powers sent to me regarding the M46 types -

    ""I have - 1) Danish M46/type 1 with slate grey sandy finish, British MkII style liner suspended by a liner bolt; welded on loops with stitched on US M1 type light green cloth chinstrap (no external rivet heads of course). No shell codes seen altho' the heavy finish may hide them.

    2) Danish M46: transition from Swede M37 with codes on rear interior edge: 72, feathered arrow through SJ, 44L. Black fiber board liner band mounting the 3 white plastic "V" shaped crown supports. White plastic band has English size figures/holes for press nipple adjustment. Darker green US M1 chinstraps with rusted T1 ball/hook catch. Strap loops riveted to sides of black fiber band.

    3) Danish M46/type 2: Smooth grey finish inside & out. Welded on strap loops holding a rough light tan green M1 type chinstrap, buckle with no T1 fittings. My tag note on this: "Danish Navy M46. Shows transition from Navy to later civil defense use - red painted stamp: C.F. under crown within a circle in crown center. Black fiber band with adjustable white plastic band. Leather headband has ink stamps along rear: large 57 - 6 JUNI 1981" "

  3. #3

    Default

    Well, I could be wrong about the Navy version - But I find it unlikely they would have used glaringly bright grey helmets. Also considering that the Navy M59 helmet and the M48 used in the Navy both had a much darker colour and a matte textured surface (The M59 almost identical to the M46 in colour and texture). Either way, I can feel I need to dig into this some more.

    Can Dave Powers have read the ink stamp wrong? By 1981 all civil defense helmets would have been one of the M48 variants. Sounds more viable that it's 1961 (mine are stamped in either 61 or 62).

  4. #4

    Default

    I don't know anywhere near enough as I want to about Danish helmets, so I'm not going to argue about the colour of Navy versus CF. But I will say that the grey M46 is a very similar shade to, for example, US Navy general-service helmets. Which proves nothing!

    Dave Powers isn't easy to contact these days - he is getting on a bit apart from anything else - but I do have a not very good interior shot of his helmet, which isn't that much help because *I* can't read the relevant bit of the stamp. (We need some of the magic image enhancement software as used on CSI and the like here...) Frankly it would have been entirely in character to Dave to have mistyped an 8 for a 6, so I'm going with you, Jesper, on this one.

    The Danish M46 helmet

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