M 1916 steel helmet : Hauptmann Grossmann, Foot Artillery Regiment 16, German Army Accession Number: RELAWM04523.001

Description

German M 1916 steel helmet with leather liner and chinstrap. The helmet shell is painted inside and out in a greenish-grey colour. The interior of the neck section at the rear is marked in white paint with the owner's details 'Hpt. Grossmann. Fussa. Rgt. 16.' The brown leather liner is attached to the helmet by three rivets. Three pads backed with grey cotton pouches are spaced equally around the liner, two of which retain their original white cotton cushion pads stuffed with horsehair. There are six laceholes in the top of the liner, with a length of leather thronging threaded through them. The leather chinstrap is adjustable by a pair of brass sliding buckles, and has a brass fitting at each end. These fittings match to posts on the inside of the helmet, and enable the chinstrap to be quickly removed. In front of the chinstrap post on the left hand side are the stamped markings 'G.B.N.64', which indicate the manufacturer and helmet size (64). A pair of ventilating lugs on the brow of the helmet also provide the mounting points for the seldom-used detachable frontal armour plate.

Contextual Description

The Stahlschutzhelm, or 'Steel Protective Helmet', was widely introduced into German Army service in early 1916, following a series of trials the previous year. It replaced the various types of headdress (caps, pickelhaubes, shakos, etc) previously worn, which offered little or no protection to the wearer from shell splinters or shrapnel balls. The new helmet (known as the M 1916) was carefully designed to protect the neck and ears of the wearer, while still allowing excellent frontal vision and adequate ventilation. Provision was made for the addition of a detachable frontal armour plate, making the helmet fully resistant to small-arms fire at ranges of 50 m or more. The design was certainly the most effective piece of protective headgear produced by any of the combatants during the war, and the basic shape, with various modifications, remained in production until the end of the Second World War. In 1917, owing to shortages, the leather helmet lining band was altered to one made of sheet metal. Externally, this 'M 1917' was identical to its predecessor, and it was not until 1918 that modifications were made to the shell itself, a number of helmets (approximately 100,000) being produced with cut-out sections over the ear to improve hearing. Most of the M 1918s produced were externally similar to the earlier design, but the two rivets for the chinstrap lugs, which had been a feature of the outer shell of the M 1916, were removed. As the detachable chinstrap of the M 1916 was frequently misplaced, it was replaced by a new two-piece strap with a central steel carbine clip, the attachment points for this new strap being riveted directly to the liner. A multicoloured camouflage finish was introduced in July 1918, in an attempt to disguise the helmet's characteristic silhouette. A system of four colours, separated by finger-width black bands, giving a shadow effect, rendered the helmet much less visible at distances over 50 metres. Most of these helmets were hand painted.