Good afternoon! Can somebody help with a problem? Have presented me a helmet. "Adrian", M26, Crest - duralumin. Vile is bright-green color.Has decided to remove a new paint and to paint correctly. Under a layer of a green paint has found out fragments of a gray-blue paint.But in that information, that I have found on M26, to be spoken, that M26 was painted only in color "khaki". Who can explain this riddle? At this forum of experts on the French uniform will be more, than in my country . Can, there were both of a variant of painting? Very much it would be desirable to paint in gray-blue, but.... The true is more dear. Thanks.
I think that number of these helmets were sold post war as surplus to all sorts of organisations, military and quasi military including some fire services. I can remember once in the late 1960s going caving in the system under the Brecon Beacons. The university caving club had bought a number of these helmets 3rd hand from a dealer who had got them from some continental fire service and bolted holders for acetalyne lamps onto them. So I went under ground wearing one of these. The crest on these helmets did not make them suitable for such work. Indeed there was a place in the cave system that for some time after wards was known as 'fireman's passage' due to the number of times I clanged my helmet on the rocks above and some of the language I'm afraid I used. _ I digress the point I'm making is that the paint could have been added by a host of organisations.
Hi Vad26 do you mean that the shell of the helmet is aluminium or only the crest.. if the shell then its probarbly a helmet intended for parade use which might account for the original colour....
check the link below for a veritable treasure trove of adrian helmet pictures the ones for 1929 are painted in blue or khaki.....and are described as Colonial...
Thanks for answers, friends. I suspect, that transition to color "khaki" in the French army was too slow. And gray-blue color could as early as more many years after official transition on "khaki".
to Ironsides: aluminium - only the crest.. (Simply terms in different languages are translated on a miscellaneous, excuse) I on this site was. That is why also has created a theme at this forum. My helmet - M26 (after 1WW)
there is some mention of these helmets bieng manufactured in horizon blue although this may only apply to the M23 prototype-M26 is an M23 with revised crest fixing, my guess is the original colour would depend on the date of manufacture...
there is some mention of these helmets bieng manufactured in horizon blue although this may only apply to the M23 prototype-M26 is an M23 with revised crest fixing, my guess is the original colour would depend on the date of manufacture...
Cheers
Hi again, sorry got that wrong error in translation, the difference bettween the two helmets is the fixings for the helmet liner not the crest, M23 uses the earlier liner fixing which appears to have been modified later with the M26 liner fixing... so it would be quite difficult to tell the two apart, you may have an M23 that has been altered to M26 as these were the last helmets to be officially manufactured in horizon blue
Yes. Possibly is the most logical explanation. If it is valid so (I shall try to check up, but the helmet was exposed to active processing by an abrasive) - I am even happier: the history of my helmet became more interesting. Thanks.Thanks.Thanks.
Hi Vad26, if you check the inside of the helmet for the type of liner fixing- this is probarbly the T shaped M26 type, looking closely under the mounting if you can see any remains of another type of liner fixing (and this would most likely be visible) then the helmet should be an M23 modified to M26 type, any othere type of liner mounting would probably make it an M23....