Original Band of Brothers Series Costume 101st Airborne Paratrooper Helmet With Westinghouse Liner - Complete

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a lovely, complete example of a famed 101st Airborne Division, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment marked helmet. The helmets we normally encounter are the reconditioned Vietnam era M1 helmets, however, this was made from a late WWII shell with an original liner by Westinghouse. We were told that this helmet was used in Band of Brothers, and matches similar examples that have been sold on the market, but we have no documentation to certify this claim. 

The helmet shell is a front seam with swivel bales and was likely produced by McCord, but there is no heat lot stamp remaining, so we cannot say for certain. The sides are marked for the 506th PIR, 101st Airborne for the television series, with a Lieutenant’s bar painted to the front and a “Follow Me” vertical stripe to the back.

The liner is correct "high pressure" WWII issue and stamped with a W for the Westinghouse Electric Co Manufactured in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this "high pressure" manufactured M-1 helmet liner is identified by an embossed "W" in the crown (which is still Westinghouse's logo to this day). Westinghouse was the largest M-1 helmet liner producer and had two production divisions; Micarta and Bryant Electric. The Micarta Division produced about 13,000,000 M-1 helmet liners and the Bryant Electric Division about 10,000,000. Westinghouse Electric Company started M-1 helmet liner delivery in May 1942. Westinghouse did have a contract to produce airborne liners and converted an unknown amount to airborne configuration. Westinghouse discontinued production around August 17, 1945 when the war ended. The suspension and sweatband was replaced for the show.

This is a wonderful example of a helmet used in the popular Mini-Series “Band of Brothers” on HBO! Comes ready for display.

The M1 Helmet
The Ordnance Department selected McCord Radiator and Manufacturing Company of Detroit Michigan to produce the steel M1 helmet bodies. These bodies were made from a single piece of Hadfield Manganese steel that was produced by the Carnegie-Illinois & Sharon Steel Corporations. Each completed raw M-1 helmet shell weighed 2.25 lbs each. The total production of M-1 helmet shells during the war reached 22,000,000. Of these about 20,000,000 were produced by the main contractor McCord Radiator and Manufacturing Company of Detroit. Although McCord was supposed to be the single source of M-1 helmet shells, by the summer of 1942 a second company was enlisted to help the production effort. This was Schlueter Manufacturing of St. Louis, Missouri. Schlueter began production of its M-1 helmet shells in January 1943. Schlueter produced only 2,000,000 M-1 helmet shells during the war (both fixed and swivel).

The early M-1 helmet shells had a set of fixed (static) chinstrap loops called "bales" and a stainless steel rim. These rims were both rust resistant and had "non-magnetic qualities" that reduced the chance of error readings when placed around certain sensitive equipment (such as a compass). In October 1943, issues with the fixed bales breaking off resulted in a change to the "swivel bales" that this helmet has. In 1944, to deal with paint wearing off the very shiny stainless steel rim, the material was changed to manganese steel in October, and then the seam moved to the rear in November.