What is this helmet for?

[atikovi]

Found in a car over 20 years ago. Made of thin fiber material so can't be a motorcycle helmet.

 

[Mr Nice]

Skateboarding or Halloween costume ?

 

[Lapham3]

It a WW2 era US helmet liner

 

[Hombre909]

Originally Posted by Lapham3

It a WW2 era US helmet liner

+1

 

[LotI]

To protect the wearers head?

 

[JLTD]

Originally Posted by LotI

To protect the wearers head?

Dang you beat me to it!!

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Reproduction of a military helmet liner. The interior strapping is the giveaway. IMO.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

Originally Posted by Lapham3

It a WW2 era US helmet liner

My dad (a WWII vet) had an old helmet liner laying around when I was a kid...you can bet that thing got a ton of use in play battles back then. I never asked it if it was actually his from the service...I would guess he bought it at a Salvation Army store just for laughs. I guess I never even asked dad if he wore a helmet liner in the service...I'd guess some guys liked to use them and others preferred to just wear their helmet by itself. My memory is that it was just a solid olive drab type of color and not multicolored like the one shown, but that's going a long ways back for me. Anyway, it is some kind of helmet liner in the OPer's pic!

 

[FT92]

Originally Posted by Lapham3

It a WW2 era US helmet liner

helmet liner for sure

 

[MasterSolenoid]

Originally Posted by Virtus_Probi

Originally Posted by Lapham3

It a WW2 era US helmet liner

My dad (a WWII vet) had an old helmet liner laying around when I was a kid...you can bet that thing got a ton of use in play battles back then.

Growing up in the 60's, we had a German WW2 helmet my Father got from somewhere / made of steel. We also played a lot with it. Years later, my Brother traded it to a neighbor for something. The neighbor wore it while riding his motorcycle. You guessed it, the Police stopped him and took the helmet. We also had the nose-piece from a WW1 bomb / my Father acquired that also. It was made of wood and brass and you could turn the graduated dial. Fun things to have laying around the house when your young.

 

[Bazik]

Originally Posted by Hombre909

Originally Posted by Lapham3

It a WW2 era US helmet liner

+1

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

For all you guys who say it's a WW2 liner. Show me an original one with 4 point strapping. This is a reproduction. The helmet might be original US Govt surplus but not the straps.

 

[atikovi]

Why would anyone repop something like this? So is it worth anything? I put it on Ebay for a little more than shipping.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

Originally Posted by MasterSolenoid

Originally Posted by Virtus_Probi

Originally Posted by Lapham3

It a WW2 era US helmet liner

My dad (a WWII vet) had an old helmet liner laying around when I was a kid...you can bet that thing got a ton of use in play battles back then.

Growing up in the 60's, we had a German WW2 helmet my Father got from somewhere / made of steel. We also played a lot with it. Years later, my Brother traded it to a neighbor for something. The neighbor wore it while riding his motorcycle. You guessed it, the Police stopped him and took the helmet. We also had the nose-piece from a WW1 bomb / my Father acquired that also. It was made of wood and brass and you could turn the graduated dial. Fun things to have laying around the house when your young.

Dad also had an empty bazooka round (the original small one, not the 3.5" super bazooka), a 40mm Bofors round, a 37mm shell from an AT gun or light tank, and some 20mm rounds. Of course, the bazooka round made a perfect battlefield missile for my GI Joes. The 20mm rounds kind of creeped me out after my dad told me story about a guy sitting near him in a halftrack getting hit in the back of the head with a German equivalent and the chaos that caused. I couldn't imagine a round with that heft hitting someone in the head at really high speed...a helmet sure wouldn't make a difference there. The horrors of war...Dad got a purple heart due to facial injuries from that explosion.

 

[marine65]

Originally Posted by Virtus_Probi

Originally Posted by Lapham3

It a WW2 era US helmet liner

My dad (a WWII vet) had an old helmet liner laying around when I was a kid...you can bet that thing got a ton of use in play battles back then. I never asked it if it was actually his from the service...I would guess he bought it at a Salvation Army store just for laughs. I guess I never even asked dad if he wore a helmet liner in the service...I'd guess some guys liked to use them and others preferred to just wear their helmet by itself. My memory is that it was just a solid olive drab type of color and not multicolored like the one shown, but that's going a long ways back for me. Anyway, it is some kind of helmet liner in the OPer's pic!

I wore a WWII era helmet in Vietnam. There is no way anyone would wear one without the liner.

 

[BHopkins]

It has to be a reproduction. I never saw a WW II era helmet or helmet liner with plastic straps. They were always woven nylon or polyester webbing.

 

[Kamele0N]

Originally Posted by MasterSolenoid

Growing up in the 60's, we had a German WW2 helmet my Father got from somewhere / made of steel. We also played a lot with it.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

Originally Posted by marine65

Originally Posted by Virtus_Probi

Originally Posted by Lapham3

It a WW2 era US helmet liner

My dad (a WWII vet) had an old helmet liner laying around when I was a kid...you can bet that thing got a ton of use in play battles back then. I never asked it if it was actually his from the service...I would guess he bought it at a Salvation Army store just for laughs. I guess I never even asked dad if he wore a helmet liner in the service...I'd guess some guys liked to use them and others preferred to just wear their helmet by itself. My memory is that it was just a solid olive drab type of color and not multicolored like the one shown, but that's going a long ways back for me. Anyway, it is some kind of helmet liner in the OPer's pic!

I wore a WWII era helmet in Vietnam. There is no way anyone would wear one without the liner.

Hard to argue with experience, but I swear in some of my DVDs of raw combat footage from WWII I can see some of the guys are using liners and some aren't. Could just be me seeing things... I wish I could ask my dad about this, unfortunately it's 20 years too late...