Original Helmets: Only One Lot Available. Now this is a lovely M1917 doughboy helmet grouping with great cleaning potential! These helmets came to us after being in an unfortunate house fire, which in turn marred these helmets quite a bit. The liners are mostly non-existent as are the chinstraps but the shells are still very solid. It would appear that the shells would be able to be cleaned up with the proper knowledge and materials.

When America was drawn into the European conflict it possessed no steel helmets of its own. They looked to other nations for ideas and selected the British helmet as the most suitable. Britain supplied about half a million helmets to the Americans before production of an American version was started in the U.S. The easiest way of identifying these helmets as being American made or British made is the heat lot stamp and the chinstrap bale rivets. A quick rule of thumb for identification is that “split rivets” are British made and “solid rivets” are American made.

The helmets in this lot:
- Named American Made M1917 Doughboy Helmet With 17th Field Artillery Regiment HQ Indian Head Insignia Painted on Front: This is a fantastic helmet that was discovered amongst this lot. The helmet is mostly complete but the charred/melted liner is completely detached without a chinstrap. The front underside brim has a taped name label which we meticulously cleaned to reveal the name Pvt John Whalan.

The best feature of this helmet is the hand painted Indian Head in a Star on a black “bomb” background. This insignia identifies this helmet as being worn by John Whalan, a member of the 17th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division. Surprisingly much of the original paint has been retained but there is charred areas on the exterior and interior of the helmet.

- Camouflage Painted 79th Infantry Division British Made Helmet: Another example that has a lot of potential to be cleaned up. The helmet features multi-colored panels of camouflaged paint and has the lovely "Cross of Lorraine" painted on the front. There is quite a bit of oxidation present on the interior of the helmet and the back side of the shell itself. The paint appears to be original to the shell but due to the amount of soot and charring it’s difficult to determine.

- Camouflaged Painted British Made Helmet: This one unfortunately has the most fire damage done to it, obscuring almost all of the camouflage paint present.

- 8th Infantry Division Painted British Made Helmet With Partial Liner: This is one of the better example in this lot. The soot appears to be able to be removed quite easily and there is no ”real damage” present to the shell aside from the expected warping in the brim.

A lovely grouping of helmets with great research and restoration potential. Comes more than ready for display.

DISCLAIMER: The helmets were aired out but will have residual smoke odor present. They will need further attempts to clear the smell of smoke.

History of the M1917 Helmet:
The M1917 was the US Army's first modern combat helmet, used from 1917 and during the 1920s, before being replaced by the M1917A1. The M1917A1 helmet was an updated version of the M1917 and initially used refurbished WW1 shells.

The M1917 is a near identical version of the British MkI steel helmet, and it is important to note that when the US joined the Great War in 1917 they were initially issued with a supply of around 400,000 British made Mk.Is, before production began state side. The M1917 differed slightly in its lining detail, and exhibited US manufacture markings.

M1917 helmet liners typically show a paper label at the crown and the dome rivet head. The liner is set up as on the British versions, with an oilcloth band and net configuration, attached to a leather strap, riveted to the shell. The chinstrap is leather with a steel buckle.