Tap 56

[Tinhat]

Nice helmet James, only this weekend I was searching for some photos confirming which helmets the French paras used at Suez. I'm with you on the rough and original over repro and refurb.

Steve.

[AZPhil]

Glad to hear that you found your elusive TAP 56!!!!! You got yourself a great collection James

Semper Fi
Phil

[James C]

Many thanks Steve and Phil glad im not on my own in liking salty over repo ,this one was worth the wait and sure does display well ,cheers guys

[bourguignotte]

Hello James

Very nice helmet
The shell couldn't be dated 56. Very rare examples may be dated 58 but usualy the production really started in 59. In between they used Standard TTA51 that were modified into TAP version

TAP were less numerous than the rest of the army. This explain why TAP56 are less comon. Also many of these helmets were refurbish to the police later on and painted dark Blue geting them even more difficult to find.

All the best

Bruno

[James C]

Many thanks Bruno you are the first person to point this out regarding the shell dates i don't suppose there are many experts here on the forum that could of commented so glad you did ,its just a shame the date is illegible
cheers James

[bourguignotte]

Hello James,

Thanks for your message. It is a pleasure to help as far as I can

Please see 3 model showing the evilution of Paratroopers helmets

M51



M56 (Mle Gille) that is a modification into TAP of a TTA shell



M56




All the best

Bruno

[bourguignotte]

Concerning the shell stamp, could it fit with one of those?

It was difficult to see on the picture. I would therefor go for a Carpentier that was the biggest manufacturer of these

Bruno

[James C]

Great collection Bruno and thanks again for your help yes the shell from what is left of the stamp is a Carpentier maker ,judging by the m51 liner with us style yokes you show i imagine these can be open to abuse from fraudulent seller's as it seems an easy modification to make up any m51 into a TAP ,I imagine even more so especially with them being the earliest variety ,are you aware of any bogus /mocked up example's out there ?
thanks James

[bourguignotte]

Hello James

I wouldn't question myself too much on TTA 51 and TAP56
curenetly we see more and more "painted" helmets. As if this was bringing additional value to them.
Unfortunatly:fortunatly very few were painted so it is always better to find a standard one

The "Gille" modification would be trickier and I saw many (too) of them recently so I would of course be cautious

Hope this will help

Bruno

PS: concerning chinstraps, many of the one we see on the market may be genuin but late 70 production. Earliest ones are more dificult to find

[James C]

Bruno many thanks again for your comments