Item Description
Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice example of a Korean War Era U.S. Marine Corps Issue M1 Helmet as used during the Korean War Era and into the early Vietnam Conflict. The shell is a late WWII Produced M1 Helmet, with a front seam swivel bale made by McCord, heat stamp 1284 C indicating late 1945 production. The Helmet comes with an excellent condition U.S. Marine Corps Reversible Camouflage Cover by Blue Anchor Coveralls and dated 1953. The helmet is complete with a late issue, WWII / Korean War Era, "High Pressure" CAPAC liner. The complete set is in lovely, service used condition, it does show signs of honest wear, storage age, and handling over the decades.
This helmet is a fine example and still retains all of its original WWII parts and the shell has all original "corked" grain paint with front seam and swivel bails. The chin strap is the correct late war OD Green with blacked brass stamped hardware. The shell and chinstrap are in excellent condition, showing very little wear related to service.
The liner exhibits an excellent amount of original paint, with clean OD7 Olive Drab Webbing secured by “A”-Washers. The sweatband date cannot be found. The nape strap is missing. The leather sweatband shows signs of heavy use and wear with deterioration present.
The rear webbing has a lovely M1940 USMC Dog Tag stitched into it. The dog tag has the following information stamped into it:
MARSHALL
DALE H
1090293 B
B T 12-48
USMC
From what we could find about this Marine is that he first enlisted in the Corps in 1943 and served honorably until 1946. We have not been able to locate any service information for his WWII service but he was stationed in Guam post war. He is seen serving again during the Korean War where he served with Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion 7th Marine Regiment as a Sergeant. He is seen on documents as engaging in combat while in Korea but we have not been able to locate any more information, making for a wonderful research project.
A very nice example of a Korean War issue helmet USMC helmet, perfect for any collection! Ready to display!
2nd Battalion, 7th Marines In Korea
The Battalion participated in the Inchon Landing and the recapture of Seoul. The 1st Marine Division, was then put back on ship and sailed around to the east coast of Korea. They eventually landed at Wonsan in late October and from there participated in the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.
During the battle Captain William Barber earned the Medal of Honor for his actions as commander of Fox 2/7. F/2/7 held a position known as "Fox Hill" against vastly superior numbers of Chinese infantry, holding the Toktong Pass open and keeping the 5th Marine Regiment and the 7th Marine Regiment from getting cut off at Yudam-ni. His company's actions to keep the pass open, allowed these two regiments to perform their withdrawal from Yudam-ni and consolidate with the rest of the 1st Marine Division at Hagaru-ri.
The mission to relieve F/2/7 on top of Fox Hill also led to LtCol Raymond Davis, then commanding officer of 1st Battalion 7th Marines, receiving the Medal of Honor.[5] After the withdrawal from Chosin the 1st Marine Division was evacuated from Hungnam. The battalion took part in fighting on the East Central Front and Western Front of the Jamestown Line for the remainder of the war.
Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class William R. Charette, USN was assigned as a medical corpsman with Company F, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines on 27 March 1953, when his heroic actions earned him the Medal of Honor.
The M1 Helmet
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 total production of M-1 helmet shells during the war reached 22,000,000. Of these about 20,000,000 were produced by the main contractor McCord Radiator and Manufacturing Company of Detroit. Although McCord was supposed to be the single source of M-1 helmet shells, by the summer of 1942 a second company was enlisted to help the production effort. This was Schlueter Manufacturing of St. Louis, Missouri. Schlueter began production of its M-1 helmet shells in January 1943. Schlueter produced only 2,000,000 M-1 helmet shells during the war (both fixed and swivel).
The early M-1 helmet shells had a set of fixed (static) 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). In October 1943, issues with the fixed bales breaking off resulted in a change to the "swivel bales" that this helmet has. In 1944, to deal with paint wearing off the very shiny stainless steel rim, the material was changed to manganese steel in October, and then the seam moved to the rear in November.
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