The
Brodie helmet, called
Helmet, steel, Mark I helmet in Britain and the
M1917 Helmet in the U.S. was a
steelSteel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
combat helmetA combat helmet is a helmet designed specifically for use during combat. Helmets are among the oldest forms of personal protective equipment, and are known to have been worn by the Assyrians around 900BC, followed by the ancient Greeks and Romans, throughout the Middle Ages, and up to the end of...
designed and patented in 1915 by the Briton John L. Brodie. Colloquially, it was also called the
shrapnel helmet or
Tommy helmet, and in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
known as a
doughboy helmet.
Background
During the first year of
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, none of the combatants offered steel helmets to their troops. The soldiers of most nations went into battle wearing simple cloth caps that offered virtually no protection from modern weapons.
GermanGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
troops wore the traditional
leatherLeather is a material created through the tanning of hides and skins of animals, primarily cattlehide. The tanning process converts the putrescible skin into a durable and versatile material....
PickelhaubeThe Pickelhaube was a spiked helmet worn in the 19th and 20th centuries by German military, firefighters, and police...
, also of little protective value.
The huge number of lethal head wounds that modern weapons were inflicting upon the
French ArmyThe French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based component of the French Armed Forces and its largest. As of 2008, the army employs 133,947 regular soldiers and 24 000+ civilians...
led them to introduce the first of the modern steel helmets in the summer of 1915. The first French helmets were bowl-shaped steel "skullcaps" worn under the cloth caps. However, these rudimentary helmets were soon replaced by the Model 1915
Adrian helmetThe M15 Adrian helmet was a combat helmet issued to the French Army during World War I. The first standard helmet of the French Army, it was designed when millions of French troops were engaged in trench warfare and head wounds became a significant proportion of battlefield casualties. Introduced...
, (designed by August-Louise Adrian). The idea was later adopted by numerous other combatant nations.
Origins
At about the same time, the British
War OfficeThe War Office was a department of the British Government, responsible for the administration of the British Army between the 17th century and 1963, when its functions were transferred to the Ministry of Defence...
had also seen a similar need for steel helmets. The War Office Invention Department was asked to evaluate the French design but they decided that it was not strong enough and was too complex to be swiftly manufactured—the British industry was not geared up to an all-out effort of war production in the initial stages of World War I, which also led to the shell shortage of 1915.
A design patented in 1915 by John L. Brodie of London offered advantages over the French design as it was constructed from a single piece that could be pressed from a single thick sheet of steel, giving it added strength.
Brodie's design resembled the medieval infantry
kettle hat or chapel-de-ferA kettle hat is a type of helmet made of steel in the shape of a hat. There are many design variations. The only common element is a wide brim that afforded extra protection to the wearer....
, unlike the German
StahlhelmStahlhelm is German for "steel helmet". The Imperial German Army began to replace the traditional boiled-leather Pickelhaube with the Stahlhelm during the First World War in 1916...
, which resembled the medieval
salletThe sallet was a war helmet that replaced the bascinet in northern Europe during the mid-15th century. Some sallets were close fitting except at the back of the head where they extended and formed a pointed tail. Some Italian ones followed the shape of the neck, and had an additional plate...
. It had a shallow circular crown with a wide brim around the edge, a leather liner, and a leather chinstrap. The helmet's "soup bowl" shape was originally designed to protect the wearer's head and shoulders from
fragmentationFragmentation is the process by which the casing of an artillery shell, bomb, grenade, etc. is shattered by the detonating high explosive filling. The correct technical terminology for these casing pieces is fragments , although shards or splinters can be used for non-preformed fragments...
falling from above. The shallow bowl design allowed the use of relatively thick steel that could be formed in a single pressing while maintaining the helmet's thickness. Although this made it more resistant to projectiles, the design offered less protection to the lower part of the head and neck than other designs.
The original design (Type A) was made of mild steel with a brim 1.5–2 inches wide. The Type A was in production for just a few weeks before the specification was changed and the Type B was introduced in October 1915. The specification was altered at the suggestion of
Sir Robert HadfieldSir Robert Abbott Hadfield was an English metallurgist, noted for his 1882 discovery of manganese steel, one of the first steel alloys...
to a harder steel with 12%
manganeseManganese is a chemical element, designated by the symbol Mn. It has the atomic number 25. It is found as a free element in nature , and in many minerals...
content which became known as "Hadfield's steel", which was virtually impervious to shrapnel balls provided they impacted from above. It also had a narrower brim and a more domed crown.
The original paint scheme, suggested by Brodie, was a mottled light green, blue, and orange camouflage, but they were also painted in green or blue-grey.
That same month the first delivery of the helmets was made to
British ArmyThe British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England and Scotland and...
troops. Initially there were far from enough helmets to equip every man, so they were designated as "trench stores", to be kept in the front line and used by each unit that occupied the sector. It was not until the summer of 1916, when the first one million helmets had been produced, that they could be generally issued.
The Brodie helmet reduced casualties but was criticized by
General Herbert PlumerField Marshal Herbert Charles Onslow Plumer, 1st Viscount Plumer, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, GBE was a British colonial official and soldier born in Torquay who commanded the British Second Army in World War I and later served as High Commissioner of the British Mandate of Palestine.-Military career:After...
on the grounds that it was too shallow, too reflective, its rim was too sharp, and its lining was too slippery. These criticisms were addressed in the Mark I model helmet of 1916 which had a separate folded rim, a two-part liner, and matte
khakiThis article is about the fabric. For the colour, see Khaki . Kaki, another name for the persimmon, is often misspelled "Khaki".Khaki is a type of fabric or the colour of such fabric. The name comes from the Persian word khâk which came to English from British India, specifically via the British...
paint finished with sand, sawdust, or crushed cork to give a dull, non-reflective appearance. In 1917 the liner was modified to include a
rubberNatural rubber is an elastomer that was originally derived from a milky colloidal suspension, or latex, found in the sap of some plants. The purified form of natural rubber is the chemical polyisoprene, which can also be produced synthetically...
cushion to make it more comfortable (this was not adopted for the M1917). Helmets were often painted with unit insignia towards the end of the war, and are often called "parade helmets" by collectors.
The weight of a Mark I helmet was approximately .
Service
It was first used in battle in April 1916 at the Battle of St Eloi. Troops from other countries in the
British EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was...
also used the Brodie helmet as did the
United States Armed ForcesThe United States armed forces are the overall unified military forces of the United States.The history of the United States armed forces dates to 1775, even before the Declaration of Independence marked the establishment of the United States...
when they entered the war in 1917. The United States government initially purchased some 400,000 helmets from Britain. From January 1918 the
U.S. ArmyThe United States Army is the branch of the United States Military responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military and is one of seven uniformed services...
began to use helmets manufactured in the U.S. and these helmets were designated M1917. The steel helmet was known to the troops as a "tin hat" or for the officers a "battle bowler" (from
Bowler hatThe bowler hat, also known as a coke hat, derby or billycock, is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown originally created in 1849 for Edward Coke, the younger brother of the 2nd Earl of Leicester.- History :...
).
By the end of the war some 7.5 million Brodie helmets had been produced, including 1.5 million M1917 helmets for use by U.S. forces.
None of the steel helmets introduced during the World War I era were intended to protect against bullets, but were primarily aimed at reducing head-wounds from shrapnel.
Post World War I
From 1936 the Mark I Brodie helmet was fitted with an improved liner and an elasticated
webbingWebbing is a strong fabric woven as a flat strip or tube of varying width and fibers often used in place of rope. The name webbing comes from the meshed material frequently used in its construction, which resembles a web...
chin strap. This final variant served until late 1940 when it was superseded by the slightly modified Mk II which served the British and
CommonwealthThe Commonwealth of Nations, often referred to as the Commonwealth and previously as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-three independent member states. Most of them were formerly part of the British Empire. They co-operate within a framework of common values...
forces throughout World War II. During this period, the helmet was also used by the police, the fire brigade and
ARPAir Raid Precautions was an organisation in the United Kingdom set up as an aid in the prelude to the Second World War dedicated to the protection of civilians from the danger of air-raids. It was created in 1924 as a response to the fears about the growing threat from the development of bomber...
wardens in
BritainThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
. There was also a "civil" pattern available which was a little deeper but made from ordinary mild steel, which was available for private purchase.
In 1944, the British replaced it with a significantly modified design known as the
Mk III Turtle helmetThe Mk III Helmet was a steel military combat helmet developed for the British Army in 1944. First worn in combat by British and Canadian troops on D-Day, the Mk III was used alongside the Brodie helmet for the remainder of the Second World War...
, which served until the late 1980s when the British Army replaced steel helmets with
KevlarKevlar is the registered trademark for a light, strong para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora.Developed at DuPont in 1965 by Stephanie Kwolek it was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...
helmets.
The U.S. Army used the basic Brodie-patterned M1917 helmet until 1942 with some modifications, which included a totally new liner and canvas chin strap. It was finally superseded by the
M1 HelmetThe M1 helmet is a combat helmet that was used by the American military from World War II until it was succeeded by the PASGT helmet beginning in 1985. For over forty years, the M1 was standard issue for the U.S...
in 1942.
Present day
Brodie helmets are still being used today, most notably by tribal levies in Pakistan, and up until just recently, by the
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i civil defence forces. The steel shells of these helmets are most likely Second World War era British surplus, with domestically manufactured replacement liners. The design has enjoyed the longest duration of use for a helmet in military history.