I found these old helmets whilst going through my loft. 4 helmets in total and 1 is stamped with B B in black letters on front and another 1 has MARK 26 stamped inside rim. They are quite rusted so cant make out any other stamps. Any help would be appreciated . Thank you
Hello and welcome to the forum. I am sure one of our experts will ID them for you. The 2nd helmet also has the letters ST stenciled above the BB. I am not sure, but I seem to recall the Auxilliary Fire Service had black helmets. Regards Tom
I could tell you a bit more if you could confirm the nationality as Birtish,but the top right one looks very much like a Soviet Leningrad Civil Defense Steel Helmet. Here is a link to a website with lots of Soviet Helmets Military Collection of Peter Suciu
007.jpeg, the black one with 3 holes stamped behind the strap mount is a MkII no2c. Mild steel plate intended for civil defence use where ballistic protection wasnt a major concern.
My Police helmet is very definitely blue and seems to be a proper manganese steel ballistic shell. Black was the standard colour for these non ballistic helmets with the holes punched in them. The number of holes was dictated by the type of steel used to make them. Several 100,000 were issued to the Home Guard and were painted khaki.
They're all British. Police helmets were dark blue with "POLICE" in white. I suppose some black may have been used by Specials/Reserves etc. ARP/Civil Defence used black helmets for all lower ranks, often with 1,2,3, or 4 holes in the rim as they were not fit for Service use. AFS, RAF, & Royal Navy all used grey, NFS used olive green. There will no doubt be exceptions to the above. As said, 07 is CD, 01 & 05 prob Army or Home Guard. The ST BB one I can't guess at.
All are likely to be civilian duty helmets from the second world war. Generally helmets with the military style MKII shell were issued to individuals with a Civil Defence role. Pool helmets tended to be the deep-drawn ARP type. In the heat of the moment all types and colours were used by the range of civilian services. Black tended to be used by civil defence, fire watchers/guards, most police forces and some fire services. Liners were either standard screw-on or sometimes riveted (as on the first helmet?). As has been stated, helmets rejected from the military production process or made from sub-standard material had holes drilled by the chin strap rivet - the first helmet appears to have one hole, the green paint probably indicates a military reject. The black one with three holes is probably purpose made in mild steel. The third helmet appears to be a standard military MkII variant without any sand or sawdust in the paint and no re-painting which would indicate Home Guard or civilian use. A nice find. If you are thinking of disposing of them I could use them in schools.... Keith
