Posted 9 years ago
kozowy1967
(25 items)
Here is a lovely example of a near mint Early war time produced M-1 the shell which was produced by McCord Radiator and Manufacturing Company of Detroit Michigan.
It has its original cork textured finish and paint and as mentioned is a fixed bail front seam with stainless steal rim and has its original sewn short web chinstraps and raised brass buckle and catch this in conjunction with the stress cracks at the back of the shell makes this an early war time produced helmet as fixed bail front seam were only manufactured from June of 1941 till October of 1943 .
The early heat stamp(364 A) would put the production date approximately November, December 1942 .
When I purchased the helmet it came with a P-64 Vietnam era liner and so was incorrect to the shell I spent a few days searching for the proper period replacement and managed to source a very nice near mint Capac liner to go with it and I must say it is near a perfect fit to this helmet .
It is sporting nice mid war headband,nape and late war chinstrap with blackened steel buckle (CARR)and A-frame type washers
Regards Mark
thats probably why it's in mint condition, it was probably in storage for a very long time, the P64 liner could be a clue when it was issued, possibly during the Vietnam War but didnt get much use, could have come out of storage from an old National Guard Armory or warehouse.
Hi BG this particular Mk II was a Canadian purchase coming from an estate sale as to the liner I have no ideal when it would have been added but further research has brought a little more information to light .
I have known for a number of years that 200,000 US M-1's were procured by Canada in April of 1943 by the NDHQ so I have always suspected there is a strong possibility as this particular helmet was one of the Canadian purchase order M-1's but since posting this example here on CW some new information has come to light in regards to Canadian War time issued M-1 helmets with provenance and there heat stamps and it would appear that the heatstamp of 364 A falls with in this purchase order the lowest known so far as 268 A and the highest being 367 there is much more information available in regards to Canadian War time issued M-1 helmets so if this is the case on this example this makes this helmet quite rare for any Canadian helmet collector as there were only 20,000 left in DND stores at the end of the war and these would not have been issued out until some time in the early 1960,s and any that were put back in to active service would have been repainted an OD green and or semi gloss green before being reintroduced back in to circulation with accordance to a directive given out by the DND in either late 1952 or early 1953 so examples with original war time paint are quite rare indeed here in Canada.
Regards Mark
lovely example mark with just that hint of wear and tear ,very nice
Thanx James it does display rather well on the shelf .
Regards Mark