A.E.F. Camouflage “Combat” Helmets

[world war I nerd]

Despite there being numerous other threads on this forum devoted to painted WW I era helmets, I’m pretty sure that not one of those is dedicated solely to camouflage helmets that MIGHT have been worn in combat.

 

I’d like to encourage other forum members and visitors to please post any World War I (WWI) era camouflage combat helmets bearing paint schemes composed of earth tones that represent one of the four seasons, as well as the mud soaked and urban environments in which the Doughboys lived, fought and died. Posting more definitive proof in the form of period photos depicting combat soldiers wearing camouflage helmets at or near the front, or in action are especially welcome.

 

I personally define a WWI era camouflage “combat helmet” as either a French Modele 1915 Casque de Adrian, British 1915 Mk I Steel Helmet or a U.S. 1917 Steel Helmet, all of which were worn at various times by the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). In order to qualify, each helmet must have been deliberately disguised for the purpose of concealment by the addition or application of the following materials:

• Natural foliage
• Mud
• Canvas or burlap covers
• Various shades of earth toned paint

Photo No. 01: There’s no way for any of us to know if this segmented WW I era, camouflage steel helmet was worn in the front line trenches. Logic dictates that this helmet was probably not worn at all on the Western Front. It is however, exactly the sort of painted helmet that I hope viewers will be adding to this post.

[world war I nerd]

For obvious reasons, artful, flashy and brightly colored camouflage helmets that enhanced, rather than reduced a helmet’s visibility would be of no use in the trenches. Those types of WW I era camouflage helmets all fall under the rather large umbrella of “Souvenir” or “Trench Art Helmets”. Although they may be beautifully painted, and an amazing memento of a veterans service in the Great War, they do not qualify as a combat helmet. Therefore, I respectfully ask that the following types of decorated camouflage helmets not be posted in this thread:

 

Photo No. 02: Camouflage helmets bearing brigade, regiment, division, corps or army insignia, like the 32^nd Division helmet (left) and the 90^th Division helmet to its right.

 

Left hand photo courtesy of the Steve R. collection

Right hand photo courtesy of the Dave J. collection

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 03: Camouflage painted “diary” helmets inscribed with important events or locations visited during a soldier’s overseas service. The helmet at left highlights the service of a member of the 42^nd Division. The right hand helmet bears a record of the European travels made by a 4^th Division Doughboy.

 

 

Left hand photo courtesy of the Doyler collection

Right hand photo courtesy of the Rogier Van de Hoeff collection

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 04: Camouflage painted “souvenir map” helmets which chronicled a soldier’s wartime postings and / or the combat engagements in which he was involved.

Right hand photo courtesy of the Don L. collection

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 05: Camouflaged “trench art” or “folk art” helmets that have been adorned with branch of service themes, such as the Air Service’s 9^th Balloon Company helmet (left), and extra-large unit affiliated emblems, like the 84^th Infantry Division Helmet (right).

 

Right hand photo courtesy of the Beast collection

Center photo courtesy of the Bugme collection

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 06: Camouflaged helmets bearing outlandish color schemes or patterns of a simplistic or overly complicated nature, much like these two examples. Brightly hued helmets and helmets with modest or complex paint schemes were likely never intended to be worn at the front.

 

Left hand image courtesy of the Doyler collection

Right hand photo courtesy of the Bones collection

[world war I nerd]

Did Doughboys Wear Camouflage Helmets at the Front?

It’s a well-known fact that thousands of American Doughboys brought back souvenir helmets, many of which were decorated with camouflage paint schemes that were painted after the singing of the Armistice took place on November 11, 1918. But did any of the two million plus Doughboys who served with the AEF in France actually wear camouflage painted helmets at the front or in combat? This question has been debated by collectors and historians for decades. The overwhelming consensus has been that camouflage helmets were never worn at the front.

 

The photographic evidence provided in this post suggests otherwise. The images included in this post, in no way, conclusively prove that camouflage helmets were worn by the men and boys of the AEF on a grand scale. The handful of period photographs depicting AEF soldiers wearing camouflage painted helmets at or near the front, do however, provide partial proof that Doughboys were wearing camouflage painted helmets prior to the Armistice on at least a limited basis.

 

Photo No. 07: The artist, Private Cyrus LeRoy Baldridge who served as a camion driver with the French Army in 1916, and as an infantryman in the AEF throughout 1917 and 1918, created this 1917 dated illustration of a Doughboy and a French Alpine trooper sharing tobacco in the form of a cigarette. Whether or not if it was the artist’s intent to depict a camouflage helmet, is not known. Nevertheless, the colors he chose to render the helmet, very much mirrors the warm “autumn” colors found on a number of AEF camouflage helmets similar to the example shown in the inset.

 

Inset courtesy of the AEF1917 collection

[world war I nerd]

Camouflage in WW I

Today, any form of military concealment is generally referred to as “camouflage” … A word that stems from the French noun/verb “Camoufler”, which at the beginning of WW I literally meant to apply stage make up. Camouflage is also a word that did not exist in the English language prior to 1917.

 

The art of concealment and deception have always played a significant role in warfare down through the ages. However, it wasn’t until the European continent was engulfed by the First World War that 20th century armies began to place an ever-increasing emphasis on methods in which to shield their men, vehicles and equipment from the vigilant eyes of their enemy.

 

Photo No. 08: Early in the war, men and equipment, for the most part, only needed to be hidden from human observers positioned on high ground, atop church steeples or high up in a tall tree. In 1914 this was initially accomplished by the adoption of drab colored uniforms by the armies that hadn’t already done so, and by simply remaining out of sight within a deep trench or screened from view by building rubble or foliage. Here a French observer, hiding in a trench of his own, keeps a sharp look out for any movement in the opposing trench line.

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 09: As stationary observation balloons, which offered a much better vantage point from which to observe, multiplied, the Allied and Axis Armies found it necessary to alter the physical appearance of objects such as vehicles and artillery pieces to further conceal them from the far-seeing eyes of the observers perched in the balloons. Thus, WW I “Camouflers” developed a painting technique known as “disruptive pattern” sometime between 1915 and 1916. Here a large French rail gun and a small AEF truck, including its tarp, have both been encased in a coat of disruptive camouflage paint.

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 10: A disruptive pattern was comprised of irregular shapes that were applied with various colors of paint, based on either the season or the local terrain, over the entire surface of the object. In theory, as shown by the truck illustrated below, when the disruptive pattern was properly applied, the object would disappear into its surroundings. At some point between 1915 and 1918, disruptive pattern camouflage paint migrated onto the steel helmet.

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 11: To a large degree, by late 1916, both ground level and balloon observers had been superseded by the aerial camera. With human observers to the front and cameras overhead, the armies of both sides were forced to devise new methods in which to disguise their front line positions, troop concentrations, and supply dumps from the far-ranging lenses of the airborne cameras. To defeat the abilities of aerial photography, camouflage netting garnished with strips of painted or dyed cloth were employed with increasing frequency. The mass deployment of camouflage netting along the entire front largely made the painting of guns and equipment unnecessary. For the most part, this practice was abandoned by the Allied Armies late in the war. The German Army however, continued to apply camouflage paint to its equipment all the way through to the cease fire.

[world war I nerd]

Camouflage Clothing

Despite the proliferation of camouflage painted objects in the form of ships, airplanes, tanks, vehicles, artillery, and in many instances helmets, personal camouflage worn by soldiers was exceedingly rare. If camouflage clothing was available, it likely would have been classified as “trench stores”. Trench stores were articles that remained the property of a given post; as such those articles were left in a trench, dugout, etc. to be used by the next company, battalion or regiment that rotated into that position. Trench stores were issued “as needed”. When they were no longer useful they had to be returned to the source from which they were drawn. Presumably, special camouflage clothing created to specifically blend in with the terrain surrounding the post would have been left behind and utilized by the new occupants.

 

Thus far, I’ve not found any information explaining if, or why, camouflage clothing was used by the AEF. If available, camouflage clothing, including camouflage helmets, would typically be reserved for soldiers detailed for special duties, such as snipers and forward observers, whose very lives depended on concealment.

 

Photo No. 12: Prior to the arrival of the “Yanks” in 1917 the Camouflage Section of the British Army’s Royal Engineers hand painted sniper suits to blend in with the surrounding terrain. Hand painting was required because the technology to mass produce camouflage pattern material did not become available until the early 1920’s.

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 13: The British camouflage suit (left) combined natural foliage with a hand painted camouflage pattern. The center and right hand images are of a surviving British hand painted sniper’s robe.

 

Center & right hand photos courtesy of the Imperial War Museum

[world war I nerd]

AEF Snipers

AEF snipers were in 1918, generally referred to as “sharpshooters”. They were also the most likely recipients of any outer garments that had been painstakingly camouflaged by the window dressers of the 40^th Engineer Regiment. In 1918, when Sharpshooting became a branch of service in the AEF, the average life expectancy of a sniper on the Western Front was just ten days. In order to prolong a sharpshooters’ life, the French and British Army’s had worked out an artful system of rules that allowed their snipers to prevail over their German counterparts. In respect to the lessons learned in 1914, 1915 and 1916, the most important one was that every sniper had to have the ability to blend in perfectly with his surroundings. Therefore logic dictates that camouflage clothing would have played a major role in ensuring that American sharpshooters seamlessly blended in with building rubble, muddy trenches, grassy fields, forest undergrowth and snow.

 

In addition to the need for shrewdly designed camouflage, AEF sharpshooters carried the following special equipment: a telescope rather than binoculars and a barometer, as well as a gauge for measuring wind speed. Just as they do today, sniper teams were composed of a shooter and an observer. They also had the pick of a division’s rifles which was then fitted with a telescopic scope. By November 11, 1918, the day on which of the last shot of the war was fired, the lethal precision of American sharpshooters was such that collectively they were called “Body Snatchers”.

 

Photo No.14: When both the robe and helmet are enlarged to approximately the same scale, coincidentally, and even in black and white, the camouflage pattern on the helmet worn by an American sniper (see photo number seventy-two) closely resembles the hand painted pattern found on the British sniper robe.

 

Background photo courtesy of the Imperial War Museum

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 15: At left, USMC sharpshooters wear various forms of camouflage designed to conceal either their head or their head and shoulders. The opposing image depicts more British camouflage clothing made up of camouflage netting and hand painted fabric.

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 16: This USMC sharpshooter’s outfit is comprised of a jumper and trousers made from burlap. Note that both the camouflaged Marine and the Doughboy to his left are in possession of rifles hand painted with a disruptive camouflage pattern.

 

Left hand photo courtesy of the John Adams-Graf collection

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 17: Although the date, location and AEF organization are all unknown, the enlisted member of the Air Service (left) assisting an aerial observer with his safety harness, is wearing a set of hand painted camouflage coveralls. Despite not knowing the context surrounding this much published photo on the right, the hand painted camouflage pattern appears to be a trial to determine if “dazzle pattern” camouflage was suitable for land warfare.

[world war I nerd]

Genesis of the Camouflage Helmet

When the Section de Camouflage was launched in 1915, the French Army became the first of the Allied Armies to establish a military camouflage organization. The British Army followed with its own “Camouflage Section” under the guidance of the Royal Engineers in late 1916. One year later, in July of 1917, General Pershing, the Commander in Chief of the AEF requested that a dedicated American camouflage organization be formed. Initially the American camouflage men were classified as the 25^th Engineer Regiment (Construction). Before long, they had been redesignated as the 24^th Engineer Regiment (Supply and Shop). It wasn’t until December of 1917 that the “Window Dressers”, as the American camouflers would be nicknamed, became Company ‘A’ of the 40th Engineer Regiment.

 

Of all the armies operating on the Western Front, the Imperial German Army is credited with being the first, and presumably the only one to officially direct that camouflage painted helmets be distributed to its combat troops. In July of 1918, the Chief of the General Staff of the German Field Army came to the following conclusion. In respect to steel helmets, General Ludendorf’s order partially read:

 

Steel Helmets – A painted surface with one color (e.g. green or light brown) or with small splotches of a variety of colors is superior to a standard single color helmet … in this regard, a three-color surface which has had the borders blended, simulating a shadow effect is not recognizable beyond 60 meters … The choice of colors is to be purposely changed according to the time of year. One of the three colors must match the basic color found in the region of fighting. Suitable at this time: green, yellow ocher, rust brown. Separation of the surface of the helmet into equal-sized portions, consisting of larger, sharp cornered patches. On the front side of the helmet, no more than four colored fields must be visible. Light and dark colors are to be placed next to each other. The colored segments are to be separated from each other by a finger-wide black stripe.

 

Imperial German Army Field Order No. 91 366, July 7, 1917

 

Photo No. 18: At left, the helmet worn by this German soldier captured by the AEF in 1918, clearly displays the black outlines separating its colored segments. Opposite is a classic WW I German camouflaged helmet. Similarly painted German helmets became one of the most sought after Doughboy battlefield souvenirs.

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 19: As far as it is known the British War Department never authorized a camouflage helmet for its troops. Despite British high commands refusal to authorize a camouflage helmet, the following images show that individual British soldiers and units took matters into their own hands and improvised. From left to right, a foliage decorated helmet, a camouflage painted helmet cover and a camouflage painted helmet.

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 20: This British Type ‘A’ Steel Helmet has traces of field applied dark green camouflage paint over what remains of its original apple green finish.

 

Photo courtesy of the AEF 1917 collection

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 21: Notwithstanding the poor resolution of this 1916 image of British infantry during the Somme offensive, the rear, seated soldier appears to be wearing a steel helmet that has been camouflaged with paint.

[world war I nerd]

Helmet Camouflage in the AEF

Despite the popularity and evident success of the multi-colored helmets that were first used in mass by the Imperial Germany Army in 1918, as far as it is known, the French, British and American Armies, all opted to neither adopt nor officially issue camouflage helmets.

 

Photographic evidence however, suggests that prior to 1918, camouflage painted helmets were being used by both the British and German Armies. If not fully sanctioned by GHQ, AEF, the wearing of camouflage helmets, which may have been authorized by individual units at company, regiment or brigade level, were at the very least tolerated.

 

Sand & Sawdust Finish

Perhaps the earliest form of camouflage utilized to render a steel helmet less conspicuous at a distance was the rough sawdust/sand finish that was applied to both British and American made steel helmets. The advent of the rough finish on a steel helmet is attributed to the British Army. The early Type ‘A’ and Type ‘B’ variants of the British made steel helmets that were distributed late in 1915 featured a smooth finish. In fact, the original paint scheme suggested by John L. Brodie, the helmet’s designer, was a mottled camouflage finish comprised of light green, blue and orange paint. Research however, implies that the majority of the early British helmets received a coat of smooth apple green or light blue paint. Because the Type ‘A’ helmet, and its successor, the Type ‘B’ Helmet, according to one senior British commander, were found to be “too shallow, too reflective, too sharp at the rim and [the lining was] too slippery”, a new helmet pattern was adopted.

 

In 1916, the new MK I Steel Helmet’s bowl was deeper, it featured a separate rolled rim and it had an improved liner with a superior cushion. To ensure that the helmets surface remained dull, the MK I’s were painted with matt khaki paint that was finished with sand, sawdust or crushed cork. Overall, some 1,537,000 British made steel helmets, including both the Type ‘A’ and ‘B’ were supplied to the AEF. The first lots were delivered in July of 1917.

 

In 1917, the U.S. Army adopted a helmet of its own that was based on the British basin shaped steel helmet. The first American made steel helmets rolled off the assembly line in October of 1917, and were distributed to organizations within the AEF shortly thereafter.

 

Like its British counterpart, the outer surface on all American made 1917 Steel Helmets featured a rough texture and a matt finish. The reason for the textured surface and the method of its application were described thusly:

 

Any possibility of the position of our troops being betrayed by the reflections of light from the surfaces of their “tin hats,” as was occasionally the case with the German steel headgear* was eliminated by dipping the helmet in olive-drab paint, scattering sawdust over the surface with a blast of air, and then repainting after the first coat had hardened, thus producing an extremely coarse sanded surface.

 

The Army Behind the Army, 1919, Edward Alexander Powell, page 251

 

*The German Imperial Army first realized that their 1916 Stahlhelm had a tendency to reflect sunlight in a March 1916 dated equipment report. Between 1916 and 1918, before helmets bearing camouflage paint schemes were officially issued, mud was applied, cloth covers were fashioned and net coverings were experimented with, but never officially adopted, all of which were used to reduce glare.

 

Photo No. 22: The rough sawdust texture in this close up and overall view of two different American made 1917 Steel Helmets is plainly visible.

 

Right hand photo courtesy of Griffin Militaria.com

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 23: A close inspection of these three helmets reveals that the degree and coarseness of the sawdust finish ranged from almost, to patchy, to mostly.

 

Left hand photo courtesy of the Brennan Gauthier-Portraits of War.wordpress.com collection

Center & right photos courtesy of the John Adams-Graf collection

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 24: When new however, the helmet’s rough texture was unmistakable. This fact was duly noted by one soldier when his company drew steel helmets prior to embarking for France:

 

Trench helmets were issued yesterday & are a scream, all rough outside to camouflage the enemy into thinking we are rocks.

PFC George Stanley Lamb, Company B, 318^th Engineer Regiment, 6^th Division, AEF

Photo courtesy of the John Adams-Graf collection

[world war I nerd]

Photo No. 25: Over time the rough, textured finish wore off and the helmet’s color acquired a light and dark mottled appearance. In period black and white photographs it is sometimes difficult to distinguish a weathered light and dark olive drab helmet from one bearing a soft edged light and dark camouflage paint scheme. Therefore it’s a coin toss as to whether or not the two-tone finish on the helmet atop the head of the 77^th Division soldier on the left is the result of an uninspired camouflage paint job, dirt, staining or simply wear and tear.

 

Left hand photo courtesy of the John Adams-Graf collection