BACKGROUND: The first "modern" steel helmets were introduced by the French army in early 1915 and were shortly followed by the British army later that year. With plans on the drawing board, experimental helmets in the field, ("Gaede" helmet), and some captured French and British helmets the German army began tests for their own steel helmet at the Kummersdorf Proving Grounds in November, and in the field in December 1915. An acceptable pattern was developed and approved and production began at Eisen-und Hüttenwerke, AG Thale/Harz, in the spring of 1916. These first modern M16 helmets evolved into the M18 helmets by the end of WWI. The M16 and M18 helmets remained in usage through-out the Weimar Reichswehr era and on into the Third Reich. In 1931 the German’s developed a new helmet liner system that included a two piece leather chinstrap with steel or alloy fittings. Of Note: In June 1935 the Germans introduced the new, smaller, lighter M35 style helmet and in an effort to reduced construction time and labor costs minor modifications were introduced in March 1940 resulting in the M40 helmet. Further construction modifications were undertaken in August 1942 resulting in the M42 helmet. When issued all the helmets came equipped with the two piece leather chinstrap to secure the helmet in place.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: This section of the chinstrap is the smaller of the two and is roughly, 5/8" wide and 3 1/4" long with a small section torn off one end. The chinstrap section has a matte grey painted, pronged, steel, length adjustment buckle and retaining stud. One end of the strap is folded back on itself and machine stitched down to secure the buckle while the other end has dual, cut-out, tear dropped shaped, stud retaining eyelets to secure it to the helmet. The reverse of the strap is in the natural tan of the leather. The strap is in overall good condition with minor chafe wear. The pronged steel buckle retains about 90% of its matte grey paint while the steel stud retains about 60% of its paint with some light surface spotting. The strap has no visible manufacturer’s markings.

GRADE ***1/2                             PRICE $90.00