Original U.S. WWII Korean War USMC McCord Fixed Bale M1 Helmet with IMP Liner & Torn USMC Cover With Stenciled Eagle, Globe and Anchor

Original Item: Only One Available. This is a nice service-used example of a WWII & Korean War Era U.S. Marine Corps Issue M1 Helmet as used during the Korean War Era and into the early Vietnam Conflict. The helmet shell is an early front-seam, fixed bale example with a heat stamp 257A. The U.S. WWII M-1 helmet was only produced from 1941 to 1945. The first production batch resulted with over 323,510 M-1 helmets before the start of the American involvement in the war.

The helmet comes with an excellent condition U.S. Marine Corps Reversible Camouflage Cover by Blue Anchor Coveralls and dated 1953. As shown, the cover has heavy tearing to the front and rust staining. It also has a WWII production "High Pressure" liner by International Molded Plastics which has decals applied for the 84th “Railsplitters” Infantry Division on one side and the 274th Infantry Regiment insignia to the other side, so it was likely added to this helmet. 

This helmet is a fine example and still retains all of its original WWII parts and the shell has most of the original "corked" grain paint with front seam and fixed bails. The chin strap is the correct early war khaki with stamped brass hardware. The shell and chinstrap are in good condition, showing wear related to service. There is some white paint to the front of the shell which might be corporal stripes.

The liner is correct high pressure WWII issue and stamped with the International Molded Plastics logo with frontal eyelet. Manufactured in Watertown, Massachusetts this “high pressure” manufactured M-1 helmet liner is identified by an embossed “little man” in a circle in the crown. International Molded Plastics, Inc (IMP) started M-1 helmet liner delivery to the US Army in September 1942. They produced approximately between 2,000,000 – 4,000,000 M-1 helmet liners and discontinued production around August 17, 1945 when the war ended.

This true US WWII M-1 helmet liner can be identified through the frontal eyelet hole. Other correct WWII features include OD Green #3 cotton herringbone twill (HBT) cloth suspension liner, with the webbing in good condition. This HBT suspension is held tightly within the M-1 helmet liner by rivets and a series of triangular "A" washers. The three upper suspension bands are joined together with the correct OD green string. This way the wearer could adjust the fit. The sweatband is in heavily service worn condition, with the leather stained and stiff with cracking due to use, and its coming off of the suspension. The leather liner chin strap is gone.

A very nice example of a Korean War issue helmet USMC helmet, perfect for any collection! Ready to 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.