Japanese "Stahlhelm"

[Eric Doody]

I was looking through this month's Military Trader and figured I should dig this Japanese "stahlhelm" out.

According to the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy Uniforms and Equipment by Nakata Tadao, this helmet, which is listed in the Air Raid Helmet section (see plates 1015 and 1016), is described as a "Army manufactured [or made] Nazi Germany military [air raid helmet]."

The shell appears to made out of aluminum, has an unrolled rim, and is painted light brown color inside and out. The helmet is not equipped with an insignia although it appears that the helmet may have had an insignia at one point in time. (See close-up photo of the front of the helmet.) The liner is of the typical air raid/civil defense type and is "pinned" into place at several locations around the circumference of the helmet. The helmet did not come with chin straps although the helmet would have had chin straps at one point in time (note typical air raid/civil defense type chin strap retaining D-rings).

Here are some photos of the helmet...

[Eric Doody]

Here is photo two of seven (note classic stahlhelm shape)...

[Eric Doody]

Photo three of seven (note the two sets of liner retaining pins and the hole where the insignia would have gone)...

[Eric Doody]

Photo four of seven (note the two sets of liner retaining pins)...

[Eric Doody]

Photo five of seven (note markings where an insignia was more than likely mounted)...

[Eric Doody]

Photo six of seven...

[Eric Doody]

And finally, photo seven of seven...

Note: Markings from left to right are: Sakura which means cherry blossom and could be the unit's (code) name; Ushi which could be a name or location; and the Arabic numeral 3 which could be a unit number.

[blinky]

Hi Eric
Did you see this helmet?

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ad.php?t=75785

Another Japanese CD helmet do you think?

Great helmet by the way! Thanks for sharing. There is something neat about those funky cast aluminum ones. I guess it would be almost impossible to catalog all the variations in shape, materials, liners, etc.... the Japanese used.

eric

[Eric Doody]

Eric (a.k.a. Blinky)

No, I had not see this other helmet before I posted my "stahlhelm" thread. Thanks for the link.

This other "stahlhelm" is interesting one. Note the liner and chin straps retaining clips. Also, the rolled rim which atypical of Japanese manufacture. (The Japanese did roll the rims on star-vented and cherry blossom-vented helmets and on at least one other Japanese helmet that I am aware of.)

Nakata's book does show two different Japanese "stahlhelmes" one of which is similar to the one that I have.

I agree, there are probably a bunch of Japanese "stahlhelm" variations.

Eric

[blinky]

It's killing me....I have a cast aluminum cd helmet that I'm almost positive has the same type of chin strap clips as the one in the other thread but I cannot find it now and most likely....my memory is wrong. The other odd thing about my helmet is the shape is more similar to a dutch helmet than anything else but it came out of Japan a few years ago. On the other helmet, I'm wondering about that rolled edge....is it possible to roll the edge on cast aluminum? The front does looked rolled but not the other edges....perhaps it's a mold line? If you look at the squareness (sp?) and sharp edge of the outside front of the brim it doesn't look rolled either.
Anyway, just my thought. I love these odd-ball cd helmets.

eric

[Eric Doody]

Eric (a.k.a. Blinky),

I went back to look at the photos of that helmet from China and the photos wouldn't load. (Don't know if it's me or the photos are actually gone.) From what I can remember, I thought the rim was rolled.

On a side note, I did see two (2) additional (non-cherry or star-vented) Japanese helmets with rolled rims recently. One was similar to a Model 90 helmet and was marked China Transportation (Jareth, correct me if I'm wrong) while the other one was similar to a civil defense type helmet and was unmarked. Both helmets were made out of light weight steel and had rolled rims. I am of the opinion that both of these helmets were made in China for the Japanese.

Yeah, this odd ball stuff sure is interesting that's for sure.

Eric

It's killing me....I have a cast aluminum cd helmet that I'm almost positive has the same type of chin strap clips as the one in the other thread but I cannot find it now and most likely....my memory is wrong. The other odd thing about my helmet is the shape is more similar to a dutch helmet than anything else but it came out of Japan a few years ago. On the other helmet, I'm wondering about that rolled edge....is it possible to roll the edge on cast aluminum? The front does looked rolled but not the other edges....perhaps it's a mold line? If you look at the squareness (sp?) and sharp edge of the outside front of the brim it doesn't look rolled either.
Anyway, just my thought. I love these odd-ball cd helmets.

eric

[blinky]

That's interesting....I wonder if those funky Chinese made helmets (the ones that look like a cross between the British and Japanese "cherry" helmets) have rolled rims? I know they are made out of very thin steel also and it wouldn't be surprising that the Japanese would put them back into producing helmets of one sort or another after they were captured.
I found the cd helmet I mentioned in my earlier post, it does have very non-typical chin strap and liner mounts (attached with nuts and bolts rather than rivets), but different from the one pictured in the other post. I'll post pictures in the morning. It would be a nightmare writing a book on Japanese civil pattern helmets....

eric

[Eric Doody]

Eric (a.k.a. Blinky)

I've seen photos of a Chinese plum blossom helmet before and it had a rolled rim from what I can remember. (The person that had the helmet thought it was Japanese until I pointed out the that the vent on top of the helmet was in the shape of a plum blossom as opposed to a cherry blossom.)

Note: The Chinese plum blossom helmet that I saw was a cross between a British helmet and a Japanese cherry blossom helmet.

Yes, you could collect nothing but civil defense type helmets and never run out of variations.

Looking forward to seeing the photos of your helmet.

Eric

[blinky]

Here is one of the cast aluminum CD helmets I was talking about with the odd liner and chin strap fittings. Slightly different shape than what you usually see in cast helmets along with the fitting being attached with nuts and bolts rather than rivets. From the condition, you can see that this is the way it was used during the war. With all of the variations of the cast helmets I'm starting to wonder if the shells may have been produced in China.....

[blinky]

The shell again has a slightly different shape from most cd helmets and not the typical "pot" of the cast aluminum ones.