Original Item: Only One Available. This is a genuine theater painted camouflage helmet. The paint is genuine to the period and in fabulous condition. The shell is heat stamped 135 and dates from April 1942. WWII era helmets with camouflage paint like this are extremely desirable and therefore almost impossible to find anymore. It features a set of Captains bars on both the shell and the liner. The original cork textured is still present, meaning the exterior of this helmet has not been altered since the war! This helmet is an incredible example and still retains all of its original WW2 parts including the shell, liner, webbing and both chin straps.

Most of the camouflage paint that has been retained is orange but remnants of green are still visible. We believe that the pattern originally painted was similar to that of the M1942 Frogskin pattern. The interior of the shell also has remnants visible of the light green paint that was used. The CAPAC liner only features the orange paint and a set of silver painted Captains bars. The shell does have some stress cracks visible on the rear as well as the front right side. This is very common to see in these early war produced helmets, American manufacturers were still figuring out the best steel and materials to use. The fixed bales were bent outwards by the user, which is a common “modification” to see on these fixed bale helmets. They were bent outwards as a comfort preference and bent inwards to better hold the liner in place. The liner does not have the leather chinstrap and the leather sweatband has degraded quite a bit from years of use, wear and time. This is still an extremely attractive helmet!

The U.S. WWII M-1 fixed bale helmet was only produced from 1941 to1943. The first production batch resulted with over 323,510 M-1 helmets before the start of the American involvement in the war. This helmet is stamped 58A which indicates the approximate manufacture date of January 1942, making this a very early McCord shell as fewer than 10% of the total were manufactured before this date (see chart in photos),

The Ordnance Department selected McCord Radiator and Manufacturing Company of Detroit Michigan to produce the steel M1 helmet bodies. These bodies were made from a single piece of Hadfield Manganese steel that was produced by the Carnegie-Illinois & Sharon Steel Corporations. Each completed raw M-1 helmet shell weighed 2.25 lbs each.

The early M-1 helmet shells had a set of fixed (non-moveable) chinstrap loops called bales and a stainless steel rim. These rims were both rust resistant and had "non-magnetic qualities" that reduced the chance of error readings when placed around certain sensitive equipment (such as a compass).

The liner is the correct high pressure WWII issue and stamped with the Capac Manufacturing Company logo with frontal eyelet. Manufactured in Capac, Michigan this high pressure manufactured M-1 helmet liner is identified by an embossed cross with the words Capac in the crown. Capac Manufacturing Company started M-1 helmet liner delivery to the US Army in September 1942. They produced approximately between 2,000,000 – 4,000,000 M-1 helmet liners and discontinued production around August 17 1945 when the war ended.

A true US WWII M-1 helmet liner can usually be identified through the frontal eyelet hole. Other correct WW2 features include cotton herringbone twill (HBT) cloth suspension. This HBT suspension is held tightly within the M-1 helmet liner by rivets and a series of triangular "A" washers. The three upper suspension bands are joined together with a shoestring. This way the wearer could adjust the fit. The liner chinstrap, back & nape strap and sweatband are post war replacements.

These helmets have become increasingly difficult to find in recent years, especially genuine WW2 issue liners with the correct HBT straps and theater painted camouflage! Almost certainly to appreciate in value year after year.

M1 Camouflage
Instead of utilizing a net or cover, some servicemen in the PTO turned to using paint to camouflage their helmets. The use of a painted pattern onto the helmet’s surface would help break up the outline of the dome. It is hard to pin point exactly when this practice started, but a few P1917-A1 helmets have surfaced with unsophisticated camouflage patterns rendered onto their surfaces. This would indicate that at least some men were doing this before the war even started.

The use of paint to add a camouflage pattern onto the helmet’s surface would continue to increase as the war continued. It first appears on a small number of helmets in New Guinea particularly with the 32nd ID and among some of the Marine Raiders in 1943. These camouflage patterns were typically applied by brush using vesicant gas detection paint.

The vesicant paint usually came in different shades of mustard or green and was formulated to turn pink or brown when exposed to poison gas. With the devastating gas attack of the Great War still fresh in the minds of military planners, a gas detecting paint which could be applied to military equipment and vehicles seemed prudent. With no gas attack occurring in either theater, the vesicant paint was made available to be used for camouflaging helmets.

The use of painted camouflage patterns varied greatly by units. In some cases entire divisions would apply a similar scheme while other units would have only a handful of men utilizing this method of camouflage.

Two particular patterns appears to be most prevalent in the Pacific. The most common being a curving pattern often called “Mickey Mouse” because the curves looked like Walt Disney’s cartoon character Mickey Mouse’s ear. The other was a more geometric zig-zag pattern. Both of these patterns were worn throughout the Pacific and mostly by members of the army.

Some units went as far as to adopt their own official pattern. This is particularly true with both the 7th and 27th Infantry division. The 27th Infantry division appears to have universally adopted the “Mickey Mouse” patterns as their own. Original examples are mostly painted with mustard or in some cases light green colored vesicant. This was the camouflage pattern worn by the 27th ID during operations in the Marshall islands and Saipan.

The 7th ID utilized both a unique netting for camouflage, but they also paired the net with a painted camouflage scheme on their helmet. Unlike the 27th ID which mostly stuck with one pattern, various patterns can be observed on helmets worn by members of the 7th including two tones of green and mustard.