Original Item: Only One Available. This is a nice service used example of a genuine World War I M-1915 French Army "Adrian" steel helmet, which looks to have seen long service. The front of the helmet still has its original French "Flaming Bomb" Crossed Cannons badge. The badge has the standard R F on the "bomb", for République Française. This is the badge used on standard Artillery issue helmets. It still retains the correct dark "Horizon Blue" paint on the shell, and this appears to be its 2nd or 3rd layer of paint. There definitely is some wear to the paint, with chipping, heavy oxidation, and storage wear present. The helmet has a first pattern liner with a dark blue wool padding used from uniform scraps. 1st Pattern liners are very difficult to find. The front of the helmet has a Great War Veteran’s brass helmet plaque that reads: Soldat De La Grande Guerre 1914-1918 (Soldier Of The Great War 1914-1918).

The 1st Pattern leather liner is present, showing moderate wear, with a lot of the finish present, slight tearing and minor cracking present around the lip of the liner. The liner itself is still secured properly inside, and all four corrugated aluminum spacers are still present. The chinstrap is present and fully intact, though the leather is definitely a bit dried out and stretched from being sat on the brim. The rear visor of the helmet has a hole in it, likely from being hung on the wall. 

This is not a helmet that spent the war in a depot. If you were looking for an honest combat-torn Adrian Helmet to fill out your WWI collection, this is a great chance!

The M15 Adrian helmet (French: Casque Adrian) was a combat helmet issued to the French Army during World War I. It was the first standard helmet of the French Army and was designed when millions of French troops were engaged in trench warfare, and head wounds from the falling shrapnel generated by the new technique of indirect fire became a frequent cause of battlefield casualties. Introduced in 1915, it was the first modern steel helmet and it served as the basic helmet of many armies well into the 1930s. Initially issued to infantry soldiers, in modified form they were also issued to cavalry and tank crews. A subsequent version, the M26, was used during World War II.