Pub Talk - Get The Dang Helmet Right!

As a collector of M-1 helmets, you will often hear other collectors sagely instruct, “Buy the helmet, not the story.” However, when it comes to WWII war films, collectors and historians should buy the story, not the helmet.

Grandpa is a retired full bird colonel; his major WWII film issue is how Hollywood often places branch insignia incorrectly on uniforms. For a tank enthusiast, the worst part of a film happens when a prop guy paints a German cross on an American tank and calls it a Panzer or a Tiger; for me, it’s the helmet. In truth, every serious collector/historian will have their point of issue with the inconsistent discrepancies of a historically placed film. There are only two absurdities that all WWII enthusiasts can agree on: One, nobody knows what the hell that thing was on John Wayne’s helmet strap in 1962's "The Longest Day" and the travesty of a tank helmet Telly Savalas wore in 1965's "The Battle of the Bulge."

Helmets do not have to be perfect on the head of every actor in the film, but every principal actor should have a period-correct-looking helmet, especially during close-ups. Despite some issues, war movies from the late 1990s and early 2000s, such as 1998's "Saving Private Ryan" (SPR) and the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" (BOB), 2001, utilized prop helmets that were significantly more accurate than those from the 1960s. 

Despite this positive leap forward in helmet accuracy, later films such as 2016's “Hacksaw Ridge” chose to completely ignore lessons learned, opting to use Euroclone M-1 helmets with green plastic liners.

Putting aside relatively new movies for a moment, you might be wondering what I meant when I said SPR or BOB had better helmet props than older WWII movies filmed in the late 1950s into the early 1970s. Naturally, one would assume that the helmets used in these earlier movies would come from actual WWII surplus, making them the most historically accurate; however, this couldn't be further from the truth.

War movies filmed during this time period utilized locations that had been beneficiaries of the WWII surplus provided by the Allies to countries rebuilding their military strength. Locations like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were popular, but Spain was a favorite, which explains why movies like 1965's “The Battle of the Bulge” and 1970's “Patton” portray battles that took place in forested winter landscapes in terrain more reminiscent of the American Southwest.

 Did you know:

Eisenhower was so put off by the historical inaccuracies portrayed in the movie "The Battle of the Bulge" that he came out of retirement and held a press conference to make his opinion known.

Spain received a significant amount of surplus uniforms and equipment used by both the American and German armies. The Franco regime was open to the money that flooded into their economy from the movie productions and resulting tourism. The Spanish army actually maintained a division outfitted in opposing uniforms and marked equipment for use by Hollywood. Filmmakers only had to outsource a few hundred Europeans or American “extras” from the local tourist spots for close-ups.

When the producers of Kelley’s Heroes chose Yugoslavia for their film location, they benefitted from the access to the towns as well as the fact that the army there still had operational Sherman tanks and other German vehicles, not including the Russian tanks disguised as Tigers, that give the film a more realistic feel than the standard American M-47 Patton with a German cross painted on it.

Collectors often cite the M-1 helmets used in "Kelly's Heroes" as appropriate examples of the British Commando helmet net. British "Commando" nets were used in WWII films of this period because they were readily available in allied countries where these movies were filmed. Although this type of net primarily saw use in the Pacific theater with only limited use in Europe, where many of these storylines take place, the nets are genuine and time period correct. Amongst Hollywood helmet offenses, this is minor at best and easily forgiven.

The majority of M-1 helmets utilized in films from this era are authentic M-1 helmets, albeit from a later war production period. The inconsistency here is simply that the time period of the story depicted in the film would have taken place prior to the implementation of the characteristics of the helmets used, i.e., hinged loops or OD Shade 7 chin straps. Like the Commando Net, these slight inaccuracies are easily overlooked when compared to some of the helmet atrocities of other films.

Whether replaced by the foreign army the equipment was borrowed from or by the movie’s prop department, some of the worst WWII movie helmets belong to 1980s “The Big Red One.” The movie, despite using real American surplus M-1 helmets, equips them with replacement chin straps cut from equipment packs or postwar straps featuring European metal connectors and buckles.

1977's “A Bridge Too Far” and 1967's “The Dirty Dozen” used Navy Mk 2 talker helmet chin cups to replicate Parachutist-modified liners, without the A yokes, of course, while countless other movies with serious storylines like 2014's “The Monuments Men” or fun adventures like 2011's “Captain America: The First Avenger” have an eclectic mixture of non-American-manufactured M-1 helmet assemblies and props with a hodgepodge of chin strap solutions.

Movies like 1998's “The Thin Red Line” make a fantastic showing with what looks to be a mixture of original and replica Hawley liners and helmets with only the odd replacement part,

whereas the more recent, and aforementioned, 2016's “Hacksaw Ridge” opted to go with undisguised European M-1 clones, which, despite cosmetic additions, gave an awful almost comical effect as these helmets were, for many of the actors, too small to fit properly on their heads.

Another common offense is the use of helmets with post-WWII metal chin strap hangers, which always seem to get past whatever expert the producers hired to ensure historic authenticity. Oddly, this offense is not limited to movies, as the same error often appears in comic books and graphic novels. The upsetting thing is that, despite all the incorrect information floating around on the interwebs, it only takes a few seconds of search time to visually see what a WWII helmet “should” look like.

As movies continue forward into the digital age where entire battle fleets and armies of tanks can be recreated with historic accuracy, I wonder if they will ever get the dang helmet right.