M-16 Helmet Project

[Tim B.]

Hans,

Well, perhaps you're correct. I have never taken any PICS of the helmet and the dome could read I916 vice 1916.

Picked this up from a small-time collector back in the early '70's and it was complete with original liner, though the leather was pretty bad and the metal band was cracked. It was covered in multi-layers of paint, so I stripped it down . Oh well, just a kid. Anyway, eventually joined the Navy and my mom..bless her heart..thought she would help get rid of some "junk". The liner that I had removed and stored in a bag with the hardware and a bunch of Viet Cong and NVA stuff my brother brought back from Viet Nam went with it.

Anyway...here's the numbers. I do not recall if it had a manufacturers stamp or if it was weak and covered by my repaint job.
Tim

[Hans K.]

That really does look like 1916, but I'm fairly sure its actually R916 (same steelmill as the one I showed). The right half of the R is faintly impressed or filled in with paint. If you only have one of these helmets, and one with this stamp no less, I can see why you'd think its a date.

The E.T. on your helmet stands for Eisenhuettenwerke (ironworks) Thale, the helmet maker.

Here's another clearer one with an R steelmill.

[Tim B.]

Hans,

Thanks for that bit of info, I could never see the "R" even when stripped down to bare metal, but if it was a weak stamp, I can see where you are probably right.

Tim