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 Collector/Historians need to “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. The only true points of common ground every WWII enthusiast can agree upon is that nobody knows what the hell that thing was on John Wayne’s helmet strap in 1962s “The Longest Day” and that Telly Savalas’s tank helmet from “The Battle of the Bulge”, 1965, was a travesty.

The helmet does not have to be perfect on the head of every actor, but every principal actor should have a period correct looking helmet especially during close-ups. War movies of the late 1990s and early 2000s, like 1998s “Saving Private Ryan” (SPR) and the HBO mini-series” Band of Brothers” (BOB), 2001, had their fair share or issues but used prop helmets that were far more accurate than their 1960s predecessors. 

Despite this positive leap forward in helmet accuracy, later films such as 2016s “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. One would naturally assume the helmets used in these earlier movies would be pulled from actual WWII surplus thereby being the most historically accurate however, this could not be farther from the truth.

War movies filmed during this time period utilized locations that had been the beneficiaries of 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 1965s “The Battle of the Bulge” and 1970s “Patton” portray battles that took place in forested winter landscapes in terrain more reminiscent of the American Southwest.

 Did you know:

Eisenhower was so off put 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. Film makers 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.

The M-1 helmets used in "Kelly's Heroes" are appropriate and are often cited by collectors when referencing 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 net primarily saw use in the Pacific theatre with only limited use in Europe, where many of these story lines take place, the nets are genuine and time period correct. Amongst Hollywood helmet offenses this is minor at best and easily forgiven.

Most of the M-1 helmets used in movies of this period are correct M-1 helmets just of latter war production meaning that the time period of the story is often earlier than the use of the hinged loops or OD shade 7 chin straps of the helmets. 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”. Although the movie uses real American surplus M-1 helmets, they are equipped with replacement chin straps cut from equipment packs or post war straps with European metal connectors and buckles.

1977s “A Bridge Too Far” and 1967s “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 story lines like 2014s “The Monuments Men” or fun adventures like 2011s “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 1998s “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, 2016s “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 inter webs, 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.