AN-H-15 Question

[gap]

Most of these helmets are marked US Army Air Force on the label inside the helmet. A minority are marked with the contract number and manufacturer only, e.g. "Cont. No. W33-038ac2999 / Society Brand Hat Co." Were these Navy issued?

 

Never mind, just realized the stamp on the outside of the helmet indicates "Army Air Force".

 

Does the contract number provide any indication as to the year of manufacture?

[littlebuddy]

The AN-H-15 was introduced in April 1943, as for the contract number giving a clue to date , i dont think it does , unless you can find out when the contract was issued , but again that would only be the date the contract was issued to the manufacturers i guess

 

LB

[dustin]

The contract leads me to be believe the 1944 time frame, that is when the bulk of deliveries were being made. The helmet is specification AN-H-15 Drawing number AN-6542. What is interesting is that on AAF contracts they reflect the specification AN-H-15 but on Navy contracts they reflect the drawing number AN-6542. Just with AN-H-15 on the tag I knew it was USAAF but the obvious feature you found was the external property stamp for the USAAF.