Help with british brodie.

[Thoyles]

Hi,
I was wondering if somone could take a look at a helmet I bought last week?
It was sold as a American m17 helmet on a german auctionsite.
The paint on the outside is a much darker green then on the inside but looks like its been that way for a long time, could it be painted post war? I was also wondering what the 1 painted on the front and back stands for?
The liner is the kind that lacks the rubber ring but someone has put hessian under the oilcloth and then sewn the oilcloth to the netting.
The helmet is marked FKS 1
Kind regards Tom

 

[robins2]

i would think the helmet is american with 1st Division markings  Big Red One 

[robins2]

http://www.worldwar1.com/dbc/helmet17.htm

 

the above link will give you a bit more info American helmets

[JMB1943]

Tom,

 

This is a British-made helmet, as evidenced by the following,

a) FKS 1 denotes Thomas Firth & Co (Sheffield, UK) steel maker, 1 is the furnace heat number ,

b) split pin (original) to attach bale to helmet,

c) relatively thin D-rings held by the bales,

d) plain dome rivet on outside of helmet.

I assume that the red 1 fore and aft is the sign of the Big Red One 1st Divn, as per robins2.

The UK sold 400,000 of these to the AEF when the US entered the war.

 

Regards,

JMB

Edited 28 November , 2019 by JMB1943
Add info

[Thoyles]

Thank you both very much for your help :-)

Kind regards

Tom
 

[aef1917]

It's missing the shield, so I think it's unlikely to be US 1st Division.  More likely it's one of the battalions of the Royal Scots, which had helmets marked with the number 1 both front and rear.  My reference says the battalion is unknown, but red is shown to be A Company of whichever one it was.

[Thoyles]

aef1917 many thanks for your reply, it was really helpful. Apologies for not thanking you earlier. 

I’ve since bought the book WW1 British Battle Insignia by kevin beckhurst , which confirms what you said. Is it the same reference book you were using? I was watching ‘They shall not grow old’ a while back and in the middle of the film a soldier with the same helmet markings appears. The original film caption is ‘Sappers of the Royal Engineers fix scaling ladders in front line trenches during 8 April 1917, the day prior to the opening of the Arras offensive’. I was wondering therefore if it was 8th Royal Scots helmet, as they were a pioneer battalion and were at Arras, if I’ve understood correctly? 

kind regards Tom

 

[Neill Gilhooley]

15 hours ago, Thoyles said:

I was wondering therefore if it was 8th Royal Scots helmet, as they were a pioneer battalion and were at Arras

What an interesting idea. I note that 8th RS came up to Ecurie late on 8th April replacing 4th Seaforths who went forward to the left front. Also A and B Coys of 9th Royal Scots left Ecurie to move up to the saps ready for the attack on the right front.

[Neill Gilhooley]

~54min50. One or two have shoulder titles but I make nothing out.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205215540

 

Edited 13 May , 2020 by Neill Gilhooley

[Thoyles]

Thank you very much Neill for the information and the better the photo.
What a pity one cannot make out the insignia. I downloaded the 8th´s war dairies hopping there might be a mention but couldn't find one.

kind regards Tom

[Neill Gilhooley]

Tom, I've not moved us any further forward - good spot on your part though. 

Edited 15 May , 2020 by Neill Gilhooley