Pre-WWII USMC M1917A1 "Kelly" Helmet, Leather Liner, Web Chinstrap

Pre-WWII USMC Army M1917A1 "Kelly" Helmet,
complete with Liner, Chinstrap.
Made by the McCord Radiator & Manufacturing Co.
of Chicago, Illinois befpre the war between 1936 and May of 1941. Bataan; Corregidor; Wake Island; Pearl Harbor; Guam; Iceland mission!
This was the helmet that we went to war wearing. Near Mint Condition!! This is a beautiful example!!
Pre-WWI McCord Radiator & Manufacturing Co.
shell, heat stamped "12E,"
supplied to both the U.S. Marine Corps, Army, and the Navy.  (Aboard ships of war, helmets were part of "ship's stores" for use by landing parties.) This modification of the M1917 helmet remained in the USMC's and the Army's stateside supply system for the first year of war. NOTE:
This steel shell is NEITHER
one of the WWI-era American manufactured examples, NOR
one of British "Brodie" MKI
or M1917
manganese shells that we acquired from Britain in 1917. This shell was made immediately before WWII and modified with a newly designed steel-spring-frame-and-leather LINER
.
The older shells were returned to Depots sometime between 1932 and 1936. But the "Heat/Lot"
number ( consisting of either a one or two digit number followed by a letter
) establishes THIS
particular helmet was one that was manufactured as part of a new order placed with McCord Radiator & Manufacturing Company
in 1936 for an additional 900,000 shells.
That order was interrupted in May 1941 and never completely filled when manufacturing shifted over to the newly-introduced M1 Helmet
. McCord Radiator
continued stamping the multi-digit "Heat/Lot/Batch/Cast Code"
numbers on the underside of the brim of M1 Helmets, just as they had on the M1917A1 Helmets with numbers ranging from "low 2-digits"
to numbers in the "high 700s"
by late 1943.
The American-made shells rolled and stamped during late-1917 and 1918 did NOT
have the one or two-digits numbers
, but had the following "Heat/Lot/Batch/Cast Code" letters : UC, YJ, XH, ZA (Crosby Co.) , ZB (Worcester Pressed Steel Co.) , ZC (Edward G. Budd Mfg. Co.), ZD, ZE, ZF, ZG, ZG , ZH, ZJ (Columbian Enameling & Stamping Co.), and ZN.
This is the model helmet worn by USMC, Army,
and Navy
personnel at Pearl Harbor
, on Bataan, Corregidor, Wake Island,
the USMC
contingent to Iceland
, and aboard USN
warships (left in in the flat O.D., or painted "battleship gray"). It was worn stateside during the first months of the war as well. *****
++ This recognizable "tin hat-shaped" Helmet Shell was what was worn in the trenches of the Western Front
as well as during the Siberian Intervention of 1918-1919
to rescue the Czechoslovak Legion
in Vladivostok
(at which time the Helmet was painted snow-camouflage white) in the midst of the Russian civil war in support of the 'White Russian'
forces.
++ This was the Helmet shell worn by the "China Marines"
of the 3rd Battalion, 4th Regiment
(who had been biding their time aboard the USS Chaumont
in the Shanghai estuary) when they marched ashore on Shanghai's waterfront Bund in 1927 in response to the plea for protection issued by Stirling Fessenden
, the American chairman of Shanghai's International Settlement's Municipal Council
. Chang Kai Shek's Nationalist Army
forces in their Northern Expedition
were attacking warlords, communists in Northern China, but also European, Japanese, and American citizens.
++ Photographs exist of U.S. Marines
wearing this M1917 shell (with both the Matte Sawdust finish as well as the glossy finish) with the Leather Chinstrap during clashes with Japanese at Soochow Creek
and the Sinza Bridge
as late as 1937.
++ This is also the Helmet shell worn by the American Regular Army garrison  ( Infantry, 26th Cavalry, Coast/Harbor Defense of Subic and Manila Bay
, etc.) and the Philippine Scouts
of the Philippine Department
in the 1920s and 1930s before the introduction of this modified M1917A1 "Kelly" Helmet
with the improved Liner and Web Chinstrap.
*****
+ This well-preserved McCord Radiator
Depot-modified example appears -- possibly -- to have perhaps be en issued but remains free of conspicuous
signs of wear or prior MARINE
or soldier ownership!  AS mentioned above, this  is NOT
the "Brodie" Mark 1 shell which  was made of the lighter British 21 Gauge Steel, but the heavier
American M1917
model made of heavier 19 GAUGE non-magnetic Manganese Steel
) .
+ The Chinstrap Bails (or Loops)
are NOT
t he lighter wire British "Brodie" bails, but the
heavier 12 Gauge Iron Wire
used by American contractors. Also the bails are attached with steel Harness Rivets
and NOT British "Split" Rivets ***** PARTICULARS OF CONDITION:
+ ZERO
dents or rust!!
+ Clean!
+ The original, depot-applied, rough-textured "SAWDUST" EXTERIOR PAINT
is
excellent condition, showing only the gently 'patina' of careful wear and storage!
+ The INTERIOR PAINT
is PERFECT!
+  The McCord Radiator  "Heat/Batch/Lot/Cast Code"
number, "12E" ,
stamped on the underside of the rim is clearly visible upon careful inspection beneath the O.D. paint.
+ The steel TRIM
on the Brim is secured at the seam with "oval"
shaped punch marks, characteristic of McCord Radiator
helmets.
+ The circular leather, horsehair-filled CROWN/ DOME PAD
is INTACT
and undamaged, unstained from perspiration and correctly and perfectly laced to the steel-spring Frame.
+ The original gray WOOL-FELT BAND
is still present beneath the Leather Liner!
+ The four-tongued leather LINER
is intact and has never been oiled. It is remarkably clean, entirely free of perspiration stains, stenciled, stamped, or handwritten name/rank/unit/serial number. Only the typical 'patina' of DARKENING
from being stacked on a Depot shelf on top of other helmets as was the practice. The narrow leather LACE
has been correctly threaded through the four bare steel EYELETS
and adjusted for wear!
+ Beneath one of the tongues is the black-ink-stamped "flaming bomb"
logos of the ORDNANCE CORPS.
+ The original hemispherical NUT
and its LOCK WASHER
(that secure the steel liner frame to the shell) is present
+ ZERO
fraying or cuts to distinctive mustard-khaki WEB CHINSTRAP
with the 'box stitching' for the J-Hooks.
One minor and negligble rust stains from the blackened steel KEEPER.
+  The unique brass CAST CHINSTRAP BUCKLE
retains its finish and is in perfect condition.
*****
Background:
The artillery and small arms fire of World War I caused disproportionate head wounds that awakened the need for a steel helmet for Allied troops. The first to issue helmets were the French forces followed by the British and Americans. The first US Army protective helmet was the British Mk I, the shallow-dome British helmet designed by John L Brodie and issued in 1915 to British forces. The Mk I was adopted by the U.S. since the British could furnish helmets while the U. S. was still setting up production.
The Mk I,
with an American modification to the suspension system and a different metal alloy, was designated as the US Model M1917
steel helmet, issued to U.S. Soldiers and Marines serving in France as the AEF.
The M1917
helmet was made of manganese steel with a fixed liner and leather chinstrap with sliding buckle. The leather/felt/netting liner had an integral suspension that separated the wearer's head from the steel dome but did not provide much comfort. The M1917
was painted lusterless olive drab, with a sawdust anti-reflective texture. Individual units permitted other color schemes, paint and markings, although drilling the helmet to attach insignia was prohibited after drilling was found to weaken it.
By February 1918. 700.000 American made M1917s
had been delivered. By the end of WW I, on 11 November 1918, more than 2,700,000 American M1917
helmets had been produced.
In 1936, the M1917A Transition Helmet
was produced by refurbishment and retrofit of M1917
models. The M1917A
used the M1917
steel shell and incorporated suspension and chin strap changes that were later standardized as the M1917A1
.
*****
Donovan Webster, from the SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE
, May 16, 2017
How the Military Helmet Evolved From a Hazard to a Bullet Shield
No area of military technology might be more indicative of how change has come to war than the American military helmet.
“In 1917,” Blazich says, “when America entered World War I, we used a variation of the British helmet of the time, called the Brodie Helmet
, or Mark 1 helmet
.” The American helmet was called the M1917
.
Effectively an overturned metal dish weighing about 1.3 pounds, with a basic liner to keep a soldier’s scalp from chafing against the helmet’s manganese-steel alloy shell, plus a solid chinstrap that cinched tight, it was a primitive tool at best. As a protective device, Blazich says, it didn’t do much more than keep explosion-driven rocks off the tops of soldier’s heads while they were in the trenches of France. “Though it could also be protective against shrapnel, which was also a big concern in that war,” Blazich adds.
Yet with no real face and side-skull coverage, it left troops wide open to facial and cranial injury, and lasting disfigurement from shell fragmentation was an enormous problem in World War I.
The Brodie Helmet
also had other inherent dangers. The chinstrap, which once tightened down, was hard to release: so if a Doughboy’s helmet got trapped or lodged between objects the situation could prove fatal, as the soldier would have a difficult time getting the helmet off and would therefore be trapped and immobile on the field of battle.
Still, despite the M1917’s
liabilities, innovation remained slow. In 1936, a slightly more protective version was rolled out, called the M1917A1
, or “Kelly”
helmet. It had a more comfortable helmet liner and an improved canvas chinstrap. The intent of these changes was to improve the helmet’s overall balance and performance. But it still didn’t provide the kind of protection from side assault that the War Department desired.
***** Helmets and Body Armor in Modern Warfare
by Bashford Dean PH.D. Curator of Armour, Metropolitan Museum of Art
U.S.A. and formerly Chairman of the Committee on Helmets and Armor, Engineering Division of the National Research Council U.S.A., page 130,
"The manufacturer was required to demonstrate that his product was proof to shrapnel ball, forty-one to a pound with a striking velocity of 700 foot seconds. This test was given to ten helmets in the first thousand, three helmets in the second and third thousand, and two helmets in each succeeding thousand. No requirement was given as to the depth of indentation or the deformation allowed, the decision in this regard having apparently been left to the discretion of the inspecting officer. All helmets, however, were to bear the initial of the manufacturer
and the heat number of the steel.
.."
So, just what are these heat numbers and how do they work? The internet has the following entry under 'Heat Numbers'
:
A 'heat number' is an identification number that is stamped on a material plate after it is removed from the ladle and rolled at a steel mill.
Industry quality standards require materials to be tested at the manufacturer and the results of these tests be submitted through a report, also called a Mill Sheet, Mill Certificate
or Mill Test Certificate (MTC)
. The only way to trace a steel plate back to its Mill Sheet
is the Heat Number.
A heat number is similar to a lot number, which is used to identify production runs of any other product for quality control purposes.
The same article also carries a photograph of a modern day heat number in situ on a steel plate - a long and fairly complex string of information which clearly means something to those inside the industry, but as far as I can tell, this number will be imprinted onto the initial rolling of the sheet of steel concerned.
*****
Regarding the origin of the descriptive adjective 'Kelly'
applied to the M1917A1 Helmet
, two possibilities have been suggested:
(1) Director of the Infantry School's Department of Experiment
, where the bulk of interwar helmet evaluation took place, was Lt. Col. R.H. Kelley.
(research courtesy of aef1917,
June 9, 2022)
(2) One thesaurus lists a 'kelly' as a slang for "a man's stiff hat, as a derby or straw skimmer."
(research courtesy of PHANTOMFIXER,
also June 9, 2022) NOTE: Any overage in postage will be refunded.