Country of Origin: United States of America/Brazil
The M1 helmet was developed by the US military through the 1930s to replace the M1917 pattern helmets that had served as the Doughboy's brain bucket through the Great War. Utilizing some inspiration from the globular German Stalhelm designs, the protruded brim of the British brodie styled M1917s, and an American football helmet, the M1 would be quickly approved in the summer of 1941. The final design proved to be extremely effective during testing when helmet examples withstood point blank .45ACP rounds, and mass production commenced almost immediately. The timing proved fortunate as America was thrust into the Second World War, and the antiquated M1917 remained in circulation during the first American combat engagements of the Pacific War. The helmet, designated as the "M1 Helmet, Steel" with it's removable detachable suspension liner and iconic profile, would remain the standard helmet for US soldiers until 1985.
We came into a small lot of these individually unique M1 Helmets, with components jointly manufactured in the United States and Brazil in the Second World War, and immediate post-war period. Brazil was the only independent South American country to have contributed a significant fighting force to the Allied cause during the Second World War. The 25,000 strong Brazilian Expeditionary Force arrived in Italy in September 1944, where it was quickly trained and equipped by American forces already in theatre. Among the equipment these troops received, would be these US produced M1 Helmet.
It is likely that these helmets were the same ones donned by Brazilian troops along through the Gothic Line and Operation Grapeshot through 1944-45. Surplused by Brazilian government after being declared obsolete, these helmets have not seen the light of day for many decades. We managed to rescue a small lot of these helmets from further decay, each bearing individually unique features.
This specific helmet bears the following features:
- General Overview:
- Fair condition helmet, bear some distinctive hallmarks of heavy use at times, and poor storage after being surplused. The helmet itself is not exactly serviceable and we don't recommend it's wear in it's current condition. The prominent pitting is mostly visible at the front, and the damage to the suspension appears to be something one could salvage with the right amount of time and patience. Good candidate for restoration or as a general collector's piece.
- Steel Helmet:
- Prominent paint chips and rust pitting at the front of the helmet
- OD paint portions of the helmet very crisp where visible - no additional external paint visible
- Front seam rim, with approximately 80% of OD paint still visible (mostly along the rear and side - likely early pattern stainless steel rim
- Fixed chinstrap bales, welded onto the metal furniture of the helmet - likely an earlier pattern "fixed loop"
- Missing chinstrap
- Liner:
- Crisp brown-black texture still visible in wartime liner body
- Original adhesive paper tag indicating an indigenous Brazilian manufacturer or re-furbisher "Mac Plastic Verguero"
- Two small gouges on the right hand side of the liner, with a likely hairline crack extending down approximately 3"
- Light coloured leather sweat band - likely a replacement as it is in fairly good condition
- Sweatband seam ripped from suspension on one side
Please contact us at
[email protected] if you would like more information about these helmets! Additional information or photos may be available upon request for this product, due to the incredible rarity and uniqueness of each individual helmet.
All prices are in Canadian Dollars (CAD). We ship internationally!
Note: This product is in "Military Surplus Condition". Please refer to our Shipping and Returns Policy for details. The helmets are sold as is, bearing in mind they are likely 70+ years old at minimum. A light amount of cleaning and coating is applied with mineral oil prior to dispatch. These are historic helmets sold as a novelty, we do not recommend using something this old as a modern day brain bucket.
