Lets see your favorite worn Canadian/Commonwealth helmets with nice aged patina

Thank you for the reply Ed and I do concure that the Canadian wartime issued M-1 went on to have a long service life well into the late 90's .
This makes finding an un-molested wartime example with original paint, straps and liner extremley difficult to source.

Regards Mark

With the trend these days being painted and unit-marked helmets, the ones in original condition don't seem to attract much attention.



Examples with WWII service numbers seem to create the most buzz in Canada.

Ed another fine example and we'll we are on the subject of soldier ID helmets I seem to remember you ended up purchasing your father's old wartime Mk II off of E-Bay a few years back and it was miss listed as a US M-17 if memory serves me correct.

Regards Mark

Yes, that was over a decade ago. It was my Father's RCE marked Mk II from the period 1955-1960. At the time I paid way too much for it, but the price has since been eclipsed by the current prices being paid for Mk IIs.

Ed IMHO to be able to reclaim that part of your families history to me would have been well worth every dime paid and then some.

Regards Mark

My helmet is stamped 283A .... I believe this puts it just before your example Sept-Oct '42. Frustratingly there are some initials on the strap but they are illegible. When I bought it $20 seemed like a bunch of money ..... but I was making $2.45/hr ... times have changed for sure!

Ypres

Good day ypres the list I have provided are only known examples with provanance so your M-1 falls in this range and is a  early McCord with a Hawley liner which if memory serves me correct a good many of the 200,000 that came into Canada had Hawley's a very sweet helmet I would be quite excited to have in my own collection.

Regards Mark

Kozowy1967, further to your list of WWII Canadian used M1 helmets I have one with a heat stamp number 282A. The liner is a Westinghouse. The leather chinstrap on the liner has the service number K601525 written on it - this corresponds to a member of No. 110 BTC in the Reserve Force MD 11.

Thank you for adding your example 37patt I am of the opinion that perhaps this information in regards to heat stamps and soldier ID numbers should be posted in a separate thread  as there seems to be a bit of interest in the subject and I deem the information gathered may be useful to the collecting community at large .
I thought perhaps I should include an image of my own example Heat Stamp 364 A which came to me through an estate sale and had a Vietnam era P-64 liner which is collectible in its own right but as I wanted a wartime example with the proper liner and furniture I opted to source a fairly minty CAPAC liner until I can locate either a Hawley and or appropriate earlier liner to replace it with .  




Regards Mark

Plain janes are good too ED, a favourite helmet of mine is an Unissued Australian MKIII, anyway, here is a good Canadian used para helmet, last year of manufacture by BMB (1953) I see the owner has added inside his jumps and also service no and name.  Too bad I do not own this one a "hoarder" friend brought it to show, (posted before but interesting for this thread)

Hi John a very nice BMB HSAT I will have to post up one of my two examples can you make out the steel lot batch code as I have a short list of Canadian 1953 dated HSAT'S with provanance and as to date they are all coming out of two steel lots.
Canada ordered and took delivery on 4,000 HSAT'S from Great Britain in 1953 to help equip are MSF and growing Airborne forces as we were in dire need of para helmets and had even converted Canadian Wartime HSDR's to fill some of the supply gaps (On my wants list by the way )some units were forced to even share them amongst the troopers .
And  this was actually BMB's  first year of post war production not there last.

Regards Mark

If we are talking about post-war Canadian helmets, here are a few.

kozowy1967 wrote:Hi John a very nice BMB HSAT I will have to post up one of my two examples can you make out the steel lot batch code as I have a short list of Canadian 1953 dated HSAT'S with provanance and as to date they are all coming out of two steel lots.
Canada ordered and took delivery on 4,000 HSAT'S from Great Britain in 1953 to help equip are MSF and growing Airborne forces as we were in dire need of para helmets and had even converted Canadian Wartime HSDR's to fill some of the supply gaps (On my wants list by the way )some units were forced to even share them amongst the troopers .
And  this was actually BMB's  first year of post war production not there last.

Regards Mark

Ah, mis understood about BMB production, interesting helmets too you have posted, I don't know if I will see that helmet again to see the lot no.

I see the service no, corresponded to someone in Sask.

Ed. would you give us a run down on the examples you have posted,

am off out right now you guys, so forgive me for not replying, will be looking this afternoon
Cheers

John

Thanks for the reply John have a good day as to the M-1 posted by Ed it looks to be a fine Para helmet does it include the extra added cushioning pad as found only on Canadian examples?
And Ed I can not help but notice under the camo cover above the swivel bale seems devoid of paint or is this an optical illusion and or has the shell been painted a different color other than Khaki and or OD green.

Regards Mark

Both the helmet shell and the liner had been painted UN blue on this example.

Many thanks Ed as to the details I could not quite make it out not enough of the steel showing.

Regards Mark