Adrian helmet

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Adrian helmet
Second World War
Greco–Italian War
Franco-Thai War
Italian Civil War
Greek Civil War
First Indochina War
Korean War
Production history
DesignerLouis Auguste Adrian
Designed1915
Produced1915-?
No. producedMillions
VariantsM15
M26
Wz.15

The Adrian helmet (French: Casque Adrian) was an influential design of combat helmet originally produced for the French Army during World War I. Its original version, the M15, was the first standard helmet of the French Army and was designed when millions of French troops were engaged in trench warfare, and head wounds from the falling shrapnel generated by indirect fire became a frequent cause of battlefield casualties. Introduced in 1915, it was the first modern steel helmet[1][2] and it served as the basic helmet of many armies well into the 1930s. Initially issued to infantry soldiers, in modified form they were also issued to cavalry and tank crews. A subsequent version, the M26, was used during World War II.

History

World War I

At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, soldiers in the French Army wore the standard kepi cap, which provided no protection against injury. The early stages of trench warfare proved that even basic protection of the head would result in a significantly lower mortality rate among front-line soldiers. By the beginning of 1915, a rudimentary steel skull-cap (calotte métallique, cervelière) was being issued to be worn under the kepi.[3]

Collection of Adrian helmets from various regiments of various states

Consequently, the French staff ordered development of a metal helmet that could protect soldiers from the

chasseurs, crossed cannon for artillery, an anchor for colonial troops and a crescent for North African units was attached to the front.[4] Contrary to common misconception, the M15 helmet, and other Great War helmets, were not designed to protect the wearer from direct impact by rifle or machine gun bullets. The resulting headgear was credited to Intendant-General Louis Auguste Adrian.[5]

Greek soldiers wearing Adrian helmets at Afyonkarahisar, 1922, Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922)

The helmet adopted by the army was made of

mild steel[6] and weighed only 0.765 kg (1 lb 11.0 oz)), which made it lighter and less protective than the contemporary British Brodie helmet and the German Stahlhelm. Orders were placed for the helmets in the spring of 1915, which started being issued by July. By September, all frontline troops in France were issued with the helmet.[7]
The helmet was surprisingly complex to produce with seventy stages involved in its production, not including those required to prepare the metal. The slot for the badges and the distinctive crest took additional time to manufacture, while also adding a hundred grams of weight.

However, the helmet was deliberately designed this way to evoke the artistic style of the highly popular military artist Édouard Detaille, which helped raise the morale of the troops. Indeed French troops identified closely with their helmets. The helmet's light weight was also better suited to France's emphasis on mobility and was easier for soldiers to wear for extended periods.[8] In addition to the helmet, a set of armored "epaulets" were also developed by Adrian and issued to defend against shrapnel and air-dropped darts, although they were not in common use.

From late 1915, a cloth cover for the helmet was issued, in

Gendarmerie mobile adopted a dark blue version in 1926,[12]
and continued to wear it into the 1960s, well after the regular army had discarded it.

Fayolle
.

In December 1915,

Émile Fayolle. He is seen wearing it in photographs and in a portrait painted by Sir John Lavery.[13]

The helmet proved to be fairly effective against shrapnel and it was cheap and easy to manufacture. As a consequence, more than twenty million Adrian helmets were produced.[7] They were widely adopted by other countries including Albania, Belgium, Brazil, China, Czechoslovakia,[14] El Salvador, Greece, Haiti, Italy (including license-built versions), Japan, Latvia,[15][16] Luxembourg, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Siam, Turkey,[17] the United States, USSR, and Yugoslavia, many of these states adding its own insignia to the front of the helmet.[10]

Romanian Cavalry wearing Adrian helmets in Budapest in 1919

However, because the new steel helmets offered little protection against bullets, they were reportedly often among the first pieces of equipment to be abandoned by soldiers on the battlefield.[11] It was also discovered that the badge placed on the front of helmets impaired the strength of the helmet because of the two slots required. This perceived weakness made several armies remove their national insignia altogether. Early helmets were painted "horizon-blue" (light blue-grey) for French troops and khaki for colonial forces. Those made after 1935 are usually painted khaki, reflecting the French army movement to a more camouflaged uniform in the 1930s.

Later service

The Paris Fire Brigade (pompiers) still wears a silver type of Adrian helmet on parades.

In 1926, the Adrian helmet was modified by being constructed of stronger steel and simplified by having the main part of the helmet stamped from one piece of metal, and therefore without the joining rim around the helmet that characterizes the M15. The large ventilation hole under the comb, which had been a weak point of the old design, was also replaced with a series of small holes. The M26 helmet continued in use with the French Army until after World War II, and was also used by the French police up to the 1970s. During the

Japan's SNLF). Adrian helmets are still prized by collectors today. In 1940, Mexico began to produce M26 helmets locally after shipments from France stopped due to the German occupation. A crestless version was produced in small numbers as well.[18]

Modern assessment

A 2020 study published by PLOS One found that the Adrian helmet outperformed the Advanced Combat Helmet, which was deployed almost a century later, in overhead blasts. It also surpassed the Stahlhelm and Brodie helmets. The researchers believed the crest, a feature unique to the Adrian helmet, might be the cause.[19][20][21]

Gallery

  • A smaller version of the Adrian helmet for tank crew members
    A smaller version of the Adrian helmet for tank crew members
  • French sentry's helmet designed to protect the face, invented by Polack, medical officer; the Verdun Memorial, Fleury-devant-Douaumont, France
    French sentry's helmet designed to protect the face, invented by Polack, medical officer; the Verdun Memorial, Fleury-devant-Douaumont, France
  • Wz.15 (Polish version of the Adrian helmet) as part of a soldier's grave at Powązki cemetery in Warsaw
    Wz.15 (Polish version of the Adrian helmet) as part of a soldier's grave at
    Powązki cemetery
    in Warsaw
  • World War II recognition card featuring a Soviet soldier wearing the Adrian helmet with red star insignia
    World War II recognition card featuring a Soviet soldier wearing the Adrian helmet with red star insignia
  • Serbian M15 Adrian helmet from World War I
    Serbian M15 Adrian helmet from World War I
  • Statue of Albert I of Belgium with Adrian helmet distinguished by lion's head insignia
    Statue of Albert I of Belgium with Adrian helmet distinguished by lion's head insignia
  • A 1926 model of the Adrian helmet
    A 1926 model of the Adrian helmet

See also

Notes and references

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Adrian helmets.
  1. ^ "Military Trader". Archived from the original on 2011-07-26. Retrieved 2011-01-17.
  2. ^ Military headgears Archived May 27, 2012, at archive.today
  3. ISBN 2-905393-11-4
    .
  4. ISBN 978-2-35250-105-3
  5. ^ "Militaria: The French Adrian Helmet". Archived from the original on 2017-08-27. Retrieved 2009-11-10.
  6. ^ Later, French and license-built Italian versions were made in even lighter-weight aluminium, probably for parade use.
  7. ^
    ISBN 9780750954938
    .
  8. ^ Tenner, Edward, and Edward Tenner. Our own devices: The past and future of body technology. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003, pp.250-251
  9. ^ Notably the American Expeditionary Force's 1st and 3rd Divisions
  10. ^ a b Adrian au Spectra (2005). "Heaumes Page" (in French). Archived from the original on 30 November 2006. Retrieved 2006-11-01.
  11. ^ a b Bolesław Rosiński (2005). "Hełm wz.15". bolas.prv.pl (in Polish). Archived from the original on 2007-10-16. Retrieved 2006-11-02.
  12. ^ Page 42 Militaria Magazine April 2014,
  13. ^ Rankin, Nicholas Churchill's Wizards: The British Genius for Deception 1914-1945, page 83.
  14. ISBN 978-1-84797-024-4
    .
  15. ^ Dambītis, Kārlis (2016). Latvijas armijas artilērija 1919.-1940.g.: Vieta bruņotajos spēkos, struktūra un uzdevumi [Artillery of the Latvian Army (1918–1940): structure, tasks and place in the Armed forces] (PhD thesis). University of Latvia. p. 230.
  16. ISBN 978-1-300-01591-8
    .
  17. ^ "Turkish Adrian Helmets - Axis History Forum". forum.axishistory.com (Used after and during the 1930s). Retrieved 2022-07-07.
  18. ^ "Mexico". Maharg Press. Retrieved 2019-02-08.
  19. ^ PLOS One: Primary blast wave protection in combat helmet design: A historical comparison between present day and World War I
  20. ^ "WWI helmet is tops for blast protection". theengineer.co.uk. The Engineer. 2020-02-17. Retrieved 2022-04-13.
  21. ^ Welna, David (2020-02-21). "Study Finds Century-Old Combat Helmet Is A Superior Shield Against Brain Trauma". npr.org. NPR. Retrieved 2022-04-13.

Bibliography

  • Jacek Kijak; Bartłomiej Błaszkowski (2004). Hełmy Wojska Polskiego 1917–2000 (in Polish). Warsaw: Bellona. p. 128.
    ISBN 83-11-09636-8
    .
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