Original French WWII M1926 Adrian Helmet with Chinstrap - Olive Green

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a very nice condition genuine World War II M1926 French Army Infantry "Adrian" helmet. The helmet retains the original olive green paint and has an original WWI era RF (République Française) "Flaming Bomb" marked Infantry badge attached to the front. The helmet shell is in great shape with much of the paint retained, although the comb has lost some of the paint as it is a different material. 

The helmet retains its original liner which is in good service-worn condition, and is marked with a 61, likely the size. The chin strap is still present, though it is stretched taut over the front brim due to the leather shrinking, so it should be handled with care. This is a great helmet with lots of character, ready for further research and display.

The M15 Adrian helmet (French: Casque Adrian) was a combat helmet issued to the French Army during World War I. It was the first standard helmet of the French Army and was designed when millions of French troops were engaged in trench warfare, and head wounds from the falling shrapnel generated by the new technique of indirect fire became a frequent cause of battlefield casualties. Introduced in 1915, it was the first modern steel helmet and it served as the basic helmet of many armies well into the 1930s. Initially issued to infantry soldiers, in modified form they were also issued to cavalry and tank crews.

In 1926 the Adrian helmet was modified by being constructed of stronger steel and simplified by having the main part of the helmet stamped from one piece of metal, and therefore without the joining rim around the helmet that characterizes the M15. The large ventilation hole under the comb, which had been a weak point of the old design, was also replaced with a series of small holes. The M26 helmet continued in use with the French Army until after World War II, and was also used by the French police up to the 1970s.

During the interwar period Belgium began to produce their own domestically made M26 Adrians and exported them around the globe. These helmets can be distinguished from their French counterparts, because they have a slightly different comb and a wider rim. In other countries the Adrian-type helmets were also in use with the fire-fighting units, railway guards or marine infantry (e.g. Japan's SNLF). Adrian helmets are still prized by collectors today.