Item Description
Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice service-used example of a Korean War Era U.S. Marine Corps Issue M1 Helmet as used during the Korean War Era and into the early Vietnam Conflict. The helmet shell is a rear-seam, swivel bale example with a heat stamp I-2505. The U.S. WWII M-1 helmet was only produced from 1941 to 1945. The first production batch resulted with over 323,510 M-1 helmets before the start of the American involvement in the war.
The helmet comes with a great service worn U.S. Marine Corps Reversible Camouflage Cover, which still has a stamped EGA on the front which was done during the Korean War and not WWII. We checked every flap and we could not find a manufacturer stamp, which is not unheard of, and it’s obvious this example was heavily worn.
The liner appears to be a Model P55 Liner, as it is only stamped on the interior with US 3. The interior has OD7 Olive Drab HBT Webbing secured by blacked “A”-Washers, which show some oxidation. The entire liner suspension system is in very rough condition with much of the webbing torn away, with part of the sweatband missing as well. The chinstrap is completely absent. The name ROBERTS appears to have been written on the sweatband.
The helmet shell is in rough shape, with the chinstrap entirely torn off of one side, and very nearly fallen off completely on the other side.
A nice service-worn example of a Korean War issue USMC helmet, perfect for any collection! Ready to display!
The M1 Helmet
The Ordnance Department selected McCord Radiator and Manufacturing Company of Detroit Michigan to produce the steel M1 helmet bodies. These bodies were made from a single piece of Hadfield Manganese steel that was produced by the Carnegie-Illinois & Sharon Steel Corporations. Each completed raw M-1 helmet shell weighed 2.25 lbs each. The total production of M-1 helmet shells during the war reached 22,000,000. Of these about 20,000,000 were produced by the main contractor McCord Radiator and Manufacturing Company of Detroit. Although McCord was supposed to be the single source of M-1 helmet shells, by the summer of 1942 a second company was enlisted to help the production effort. This was Schlueter Manufacturing of St. Louis, Missouri. Schlueter began production of its M-1 helmet shells in January 1943. Schlueter produced only 2,000,000 M-1 helmet shells during the war (both fixed and swivel).
The early M-1 helmet shells had a set of fixed (static) chinstrap loops called "bales" and a stainless steel rim. These rims were both rust resistant and had "non-magnetic qualities" that reduced the chance of error readings when placed around certain sensitive equipment (such as a compass). In October 1943, issues with the fixed bales breaking off resulted in a change to the "swivel bales" that this helmet has. In 1944, to deal with paint wearing off the very shiny stainless steel rim, the material was changed to manganese steel in October, and then the seam moved to the rear in November.
- This product is available for international shipping.
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