introducing my collection : the belgian adrian M15
Article about: hello, I am new in this forum and someone proposed to show my collection. I would say : with pleasure... I am collecting ww1 en ww2 steel helmets from the countries involved, so needless to
introducing my collection : the belgian adrian M15
hello,
I am new in this forum and someone proposed to show my collection. I would say : with pleasure...
I am collecting ww1 en ww2 steel helmets from the countries involved, so needless to say that there were many...
Let us begin with the Belgian ones, being from Flandres, the dutch speaking part of Belgium.
The first one is the M15 used in ww1, the adrian helmet, whitch Belgium bought from France and painted what they call mostard colour. All divisions had the same embleme on the helmet : a lion head. Perhaps because a lion is a brave and strong animal. I guess like the belgian people Julius Caesar once wrote in his 'de bello gallico'('about the war in Gaul') about the people living in our region : 'hi eorum omnium fortissimi sunt belgae' : From all the people living in Gaul, the belgians were the bravest...
The band you see around the helmet is typical for the first version of the belgian steel helmet. Also you have the typical inner liner with an undulated metal band, surrounded by tissue and then the leather part. Very basic...The first pattern of the leather part was in one piece, the tongues were in one piece until september 1916. From then on the tongues were sutured to the leather surrounding the undulated metal. This way one could make more helmets out of 1m2 leather.
All belgians who fought in ww1 received a medaillon after ww1. On the medaillon is written : 'ijzer niet over'. The Ijzer is a river in het northern part of Belgium. Behind this river, the allied digged the trenches and for almost 4 long years the war was 'frozen'. 'Ijzer niet over' means : 'you will not pass across this river'. The lion of the helmet in ww2 looks more angry...I will show this helmet next time.
I’ve also moved your post to the World Steel Helmets forum as you originally posted it to the Third Reich section. And don’t worry, I’ve done that myself
now that I started with my Belgian helmets....
here a M31 helmet used in ww2 (together with the M15)
The lion looks now very angry saying : not again !
Different liner, tongues sewed to the leather
A Belgian helmet gendarmerie (black) M20, between M15 and M31. The front and back of the M20 helmet are in one piece. Still has the first pattern liner. Sewed tongues in the liner.
Civil defense, also M20, front and back in one piece, second pattern liner, tongues sewed to leather
Emblem saying in Latin : ' impavidum ferient ruinae' , free translation : 'even when the world collapses, we will not be afraid'
I continue with a general impression of my German helmets (and an Italian one). I will show each helmet in detail in one of my next posts. Please feel free to give any feedback, positive or negative. The cap (that's not the right English word...) on the Japanese helmet is a (bad ?) reproduction. And one the luftwaffe helmets is a M42 not a M40, wrong sticker.
introducing my collection : the belgian adrian M15
Julius Caesar once wrote in his 'de bello gallico'('about the war in Gaul') about the people living in our region : 'hi eorum omnium fortissimi sunt belgae' : From all the people living in Gaul, the belgians were the bravest...
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