Out of interest, is there a way to date tommy helmets?
The liners have the date on them on the cross straps on the inside.
But the shells are more difficult to date.
Bum. I threw it away 'cos it was manky. Mine came with 1/4" leather chinstraps that were also rotten.
Threw it away!
Never do that! Always keep the manky bits.
Leather straps would tend to imply it was very old. Having the liner available could have confirmed that....
I do remember that the rotten liner was similar to the replacement one I bought - certainly very different from a WWI liner. Also the anchor points for the strap are pop riveted instead of the split pin type affair I've seen on older ones.
Could have been some sort of transitional or maybe a leather strap added afterwards...
"pop" riveted? So rivets with a hole in them? Usually they're proper hammered rivets on a tommy shell.
I still would not want to dent my nice Gerry helmet though,
Dent it? What's it made from paper mache?
I'll be wearing my original (most are) tommy helmet down there...
Trust me if you run head first at a steel bar any helmet will dent 
Free speech is expensive these days!
I still would not want to dent my nice Gerry helmet though,
Dent it? What's it made from paper mache?
I'll be wearing my original (most are) tommy helmet down there...
Trust me if you run head first at a steel bar any helmet will dent
Which then makes it look 'worn in'! 
I must admit, there's nothing i play in that i don't mind getting scratched/dented/ripped, as long as it's still usable/repairable.
Out of interest, is there a way to date tommy helmets?
The metal lugs that the chin strap attaches to often have a date.
Mine say 'MKII 1938'
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
Reference helmets, on D-Day No4 Commando didn't wear helmets for the inital landing prefering their hard earn't green berets, it was only when they entered the built up area of Ouistreham and under direct small arms fire that some did actually don their battle bowlers which until that point were stored under the flap of their bergens.
Another rule for the landings and security was that regimental cap badges were to be removed and put in their personal envelope as well as any other identifying items such as letters from home e.t.c, (No 4 Commando wore their parent units cap badge on their green beret up to that point).
Danny
You probably ought to let the Imperial War Museum know they are wrong then Danny unless no4 commando were a total exception to the other commandos going ashore....
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo ... e-on-d-day
Allegedly commandoes on gold beach
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-me ... 1B87B5.jpg
Sword beach... here every man but one wears a helmet.
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/files/image ... llsize.jpg
Edit: Not trying to be confrontational, as said i personally think that commandos rarely wore helmets but there is clearly strong evidence that they were worn by many on the D-Day landing. Incidentally the lads on the sword beach LC seem to be wearing denims.
"I think we are in rats' alley - Where the dead men lost their bones."
Unfortunetly any Tommy hitting the beach in a d-day photo seems to be summed up as a Commando 
. I understand your point Gadge but i'm also going off first hand accounts found in "Swiftly they Struck" the official history of 4 Commando by Murdoch C. McDougall printed in 1954 (ISBN: 0-85368-739-0), an excellent book if your able to get hold of it!
Its fair to say i've reviewed my evidence I have and say on landing the mix seems 50/50.
http://media-2.web.britannica.com/eb-me ... 1B87B5.jpg
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo ... e-on-d-day
http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/files/image ... llsize.jpg
Unfortunetly all three are not pictures are not of 4 Commando as their using LCA's and 4 Commando landed in 2 LCI's - Princess Astrid and Maid of Orleans, both had side lowering gangways as were both pre war civilian ferries which had escaped to Britian from the occupied territories and thus converted as troop carriers. The first picture could be Commandos but the only pointer is the 1928 Thompson which could have also been in a lucky infantrymans hands aswell as a Commandos! Its impossible to tell from the last one if its Commando all together, other give aways that the others are Commandos are the Push bikes and welbike.
Danny
Regarding this photo: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo ... e-on-d-day
These are Commandos of 48 Royal Marine Cdo., 4th Special Service Brigade, landing under fire at St.Aubin-sur-Mer at the junction of Sword and Juno Beaches. The photo is from the imperial war museum (B5218) photograghed by Lt Handford.
Certainly a mix of helmets and berets but most interestingly they are all wearing the British 1942 Battle Jerkin which were issued in small numbers of assault troops of most 4th SS Bde on D-day. units. 47 RM Cdo. was compeletly equiped with them.
The guy at the foreground has his unbuckled just incase it tries to drown him!
“I wanted to come to the Volga at a specific location at a specific city. By chance it carries the name of Stalin himself. So don’t think I marched there for this reason – it could carry another name – but because there is a very important goal... this goal I wanted to take – and you know – we are very modest, we have it already."
Adolf Hitler, November 1942
"Comrades, Red Army men, commanders and political workers, men and women guerrillas! It is on your perseverance, staunchness, fighting skill and readiness to discharge your duty to the country that the defeat of the German-fascist army and the liberation of the Soviet land from the Hitlerite invaders depend! We can and must clear the Soviet land of Hitlerite vermin."
Joseph Stalin, November 1942
