Swiss Road Police plastic helmet

[Greg Pickersgill]

So, what is this. It is essentially an M1-type helmet liner, made of white plastic (not painted), has a typical Riddell-type cradle and headband, and a typically Swiss carbine-hook chinstrap. There are no markings of any kind other than the 'P' on the front. We can happily accept it is Swiss-used, and possibly even Swiss-made. But what is it for?

The ebay seller I got it from included the following in the sale details

"An Auxiliary Military Police helmet from the Swiss Army, date 1970/80's. They are white plastic very similar to the US helmet liner. Information from the Swiss Army Military Unit in Thun is that they were only for ceremonial use only and therefore are a rare item. The diffence between this helmet and the one issued to the Heers Military Police is the black band." (He also showed one with the black band, which runs horizontally around the lower shell, and otherwise identical to this one.)

JP Soulier does feature the helmet in COLLECTOR'S GUIDE, captioning it as "white plastic helmet for the Road Police circa 1960" - this is shown to have three different chinstraps, one similar to the US leather liner strap, another which is the typical Swiss carbine hook, and a third which has the two-piece straps usually seen on the M48/62. No mention of the version with a black band.

The only other reference I have found so far is in Marzetti, and its somewhat tangential - he has a picture captioned "M1 NATO helmet liner made in Austria or West Germany. It was used experimentally in the 1960s but was quickly rejected because of its association with NATO forces." This is baffling as it implies the liner only and not the complete two-piece helmet set, and the helmet shown is definately not white although it does have a thin leather chinstrap. As the white helmets in question here are moulded in a white plastic and not painted I doubt there is any immediate relationship.

I guess my real point is - is this purely a parade helmet as asserted by the ebay seller (quoting a Swiss source), or is it (more likely maybe) an actual service helmet, presumably on days when the usual 'P'-badged M48/62 seemed a bit hot and heavy. And does it have any relationship to Marzetti's imported liners (my feeling is, none at all).