Salty Middle East Relic

[Bendy]

Fantastic helmet- certainly very unique- I love it!

[James C]

Steve thanks for your thoughts on this one i will group it close to the Iraqi helmets in my collection ,if it is Iranian i guess there could be a slight chance it ended up in Iraqi Hands ,I have another Warsaw pact liner Hybrid ,this other example is an Iraqi M80 -R these were embargo modified to to have the fitment of the Polish wz 50 liner assembly ,a bit crude but it did the trick and i can only presume that the Iraqi's had large stocks of Polish Wz 50's left over .

[James C]

Thanks Bendy glad you could look over this one

[Composite]

James, when you’re next out in the garden I’d like to see a close-up or two of this second one sometime please.....this mashing of liners to lids is interesting isn’t it......

[James C]

Hi Ade and yes of course no problem .i will put my hand to it and post up in better detail

[James C]

Here you go Ade, the Iraqi Sanctions produced M80 -R (Refurbished) so Most likely an OIF captured example ,hard to know for sure if Iraq imported liner assemblies direct from Poland or did they just cannibalize there existing Wz 50 stocks in there inventory ,mine retained the original m80 bails but whether the webbing chinstrap sections were cut flush after the refurb or worn in conjunction alongside the Leather polish straps i am uncertain

[Composite]

‘learn something new every day.......

Thanks James.

[James C]

Your Welcome Ade

[James C]

Picked up another Salty Middle East M1 clone relic of Hong Kong manufacture so might as well add it to the thread ,this bring back was found in a ditch in Iraq ,the M75 ground troops type chin strap is also a very good copy of the US made strap

[emileverbunt]

Aeromaritime is also a French Airliner. I find it strange that the Hong Kong firm uses this brandname. The sticker could also be from a toy aircraft with the colours of the Aeromaritime company.

Is the this M1 clone not marked anywhere?

Cheers,
Emile