Saturday 28 July 2012

British Helmet - The Best Item For War Equipment Collectors

By Jan Peter










One of the most special kinds of helmet being used in combat is the British helmet and the most popular type is the Brodie helmet, also called M1917 helmet in the U.S.; it was created and patented in 1915 by John Leopold Brodie. Typically, there are lots of names for this combat British helmet sometimes it is called Tommy helmet, Tin Hat, shrapnel helmet and it was also known in the United states as doughboy helmet.

At the outbreak of World War I, most combatants do not have any steel helmet. A lot of soldiers from different nations went into battle using just basic cloth cap that don't give any considerable defense against modern day weapons. Generally, German soldiers wore their leather Pickelhaube which also has little protective worth.

Due to the increasing number of fatal wounds that modern day weapons caused on the French Army, it became apparent that they needed to create a modern steel helmet that is able to protecting the soldiers from harm. In 1915, the first French helmet was launched and it is a bowl-shaped steel skullcap integrated under the cloth caps.

In the course of this time, the British War Office also sought the most suitable steel helmets. They commissioned The War Office Invention Department to gauge and redesign the French helmet. Due to some flaws in the French design, a new style was trademarked by John L. Brodie in 1915. It was a British helmet constructed from a single piece and it was pressed from one thick sheet of metal providing the helmet with added durability and strength.

The combat British helmet or Brodie helmet resembled the helmets being utilized by infantry men in medieval times, also referred to as kettle hat or chapel-de-fer. It had a circular crown and created using steel materials, a leather-based strap. The style of the helmet is meant to defend the wearer's head and shoulders from the blast and fragmentation falling from above.

The bowl structure offers the much required protection and resistance to projectiles. Nevertheless, the style offered a much lesser defense on the lower parts of the head and neck in comparison to other helmet designs.




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