UBB.threads Forums Uniform & Accessories Imperial German Uniforms, Orders, and Decorations 1st Issue M16 German Helmet

Can someone please tell me what the very first issued German M16 stalhelm would look lik ein detail. Pillows, liner, chinstrap etc.? Cheers

Here is a complete M.16 I own. Made by ET and size 64.

Robert

Liner and chinstrap.

3 pads

What about the white liners? I see some with white tongues instead of brown.

Those came later on the M.17's and 18's. You'll see those affixed to a metal band.

Robert

As Robert correctly states, the white leather pads came later in the M17 and M18 helmets. The very first pattern M16 was one that actually went out of production early on because of a determined design flaw.

The first issue M16 had the "square-dip" design where the visor drooped down to meet the skirt. According to Baer, many helmets developed stress cracks in this area and so the M16 was redesigned and manufactured with a more gradual transition slope. These helmets had a thick brown leather liner band and brown leather pads with cloth horsehair-stuffed pillows. The helmets were also exclusively maunfactured by the ET company in sizes 62 and 64.

Here is a pic of one I used to own years ago.

Cheers,

This is my first day posting on this forum, and this is the reason I'm replying to some older threads.

As Darryl mentioned, the first German Stahlhelm of WW1 was the so called square dip M16. The reason for the square dip lay in the fact that it was based on the tombak prototype model designed by Armourer Marx of the Junker firm, who worked with the helmet's creator, Professor Captain Schwerd. Marx modelled the helmet after the Gothic "Schallern" helmet, just as John Brodie styled the British helmet along the lines of the Medieval English Archer's helmet. Because of the fact that the angle of the area where the visor/neck guard joined was steep, many helmets developed stress cracks in that area creating large amounts of scrap. The Thale Ironworks or Eisenhuettewerke Thale (E.T.) were chosen to make the first helmets because they had their own rolling mill and the fact that they had expertise in drawing high grade steel (they had previously made torpedo hulls). 30 000 were ordered for the end of January 1916 for field trials, which turned out to be the initial assaults carried out by Pioneers and Assault troops at Verdun.

I have never found information stating exactly when the design was altered during manufacturing (Schwerd said it was changed as soon as the square dip problem was realised), but the first blueprint for what would be the regular production M16 was dated early April 1916, a month or so before manufacturing started on the production model. I assume that all of the initial 30 000 helmets made between December 1915 and the end of January 1916 were the prototype square dip.

Below is my prototype helmet.

A comparison of the prototype on the left next to a regular M16. Both are E.T. 62.

Another view of the helmets, with the prototype on the left.

Interior. As Darryl mentioned, the liner band is wider than those seen in production M16s.

Early leather liner pad showing manufacturing details not seen in production models. This helmet has interesting variations and other clues suggesting to me that it was a work in progress, and made when the helmet and especially the liner's design was still in its developemental stage.