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Camo M1917A1


Nickman983
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Marchville1918

We will never know for sure. It looks real to me. I don't think it is a recent fake. I also don't think it was painted that way for use during active service. I've never seen another Kelly painted like that in any photos of actual service use. My theory is that after they were withdrawn from use by troops that someone painted it in the stile of the WW1 helmets from 20 years before. I doubt the army of that time would have allowed a soldier to paint up his duty helmet like that.

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I'm curious why you think the army wouldn't have allowed this. We know that soldiers applied camo schemes to M1s so I'm not sure why they wouldn't have been allowed to apply it to their M1917A1. I would have to imagine it was very uncommon though.

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Looks like British tropical (Italy) camo. Who knows, perhaps a Tommy got a Yank helmet from a early arrival unit once they were fitted with the M1 helmet.

 

The only matches to this style I have found are ID'ed British helmets such as this:

 

helm2.png

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juodonnell2012

Morrocan goumiers were issued old m1917a1 helmets and American webbing during ww2. They were also known to camo paint their helmets in tan or a 2 color scheme. this helmet possibly saw use with Moroccan troops and the Brown name inside of the helmet is from a previous issue.

 

Here is a link to a photo of a morrocan clearly wearing an m1917a1

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/182255116144355113/

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Hmm, very interesting, that could be one possibility. I don't think we''ll ever know for sure though exactly when and by who this camo scheme was done by.

Morrocan goumiers were issued old m1917a1 helmets and American webbing during ww2. They were also known to camo paint their helmets in tan or a 2 color scheme. this helmet possibly saw use with Moroccan troops and the Brown name inside of the helmet is from a previous issue.

Here is a link to a photo of a morrocan clearly wearing an m1917a1
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/182255116144355113/

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This is not exactly the same scheme but it is evidence that "Kelly" helmets sometimes received camo paint... US troops training on a Bofors in Northern Ireland in 1942.

 

post-2064-0-31702700-1570993604_thumb.jpg

 

Tom

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Thanks for finding and sharing that Tom. I had no reason to doubt that they were painted on occasion but it's nice to see a picture of one in use

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  • 4 weeks later...

I was poking around the internet and stumbled on another thread about a different camo M1917A1 posted here a few years back. Reading through the comments I found a bit of a surprise http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/255090-1917a1-navy-camo-helmet/?p=2043179

 

I would really like to know what happened to that other strap but nevertheless it's interesting seeing another forum member owned this helmet in the past.

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