Possible Cavalry Tanker helmet find!!

[sgtdorango]

Today I stumbled on what might be a very rare early cavalry style tanker helmet, found in a local antique mall, tagged as an old football helmet, wich it very well might be...but it has too many tanker characteristics....I scoured the internet for old leather football helmets, they all just seem to slightly resemble tanker helmets but none looked like this or the commonly seen M38 tanker helmet....by the way the one I found has been painted orange! and has some silver paint too, looks like whatever this is it saw football helmet service maybe in backyard football, maybe it was bought surplus and converted to football use?....it has the hard dome like tanker helmets, unlike the leather football versions that later went to hard plastic, maybe there was a transition period that I havent seen pics of?.....but most of all there is a small leather visor that looks just like the cavalry tanker helmets had....there are great pics in Chris Armolds Painted Steel book, also my new orange helmet looks to have OD paint underneath, the suspension looks like early donut helmet and cavalry style used this too, but so did football helmets.....also there is one pic in Painted Steel on page 241 that shows Patton and in the background there is a tanker wearing a unidentified helmet that looks like a hybrid of the early infantry tanker and cavalry tanker helmets, it looks just like this one to me!!..thats what I think this is!...it has the earflaps with just a hole and visor....also this orange helmet has small vent holes on top ...it lacks goggle snaps and other accesories like the hold down bars for comm. just like the cavalry helmets, so here are many pics of the orange helmet and comparisons to an M38 and interior suspension comparisons to my donut helmets interior....Im almost convinsed that this is a experimental/hybrid or very early version tanker helmet.....or of course it could be an ugly old football helmet!!!....please let me know what you guys think!....thanks.....mike

[sgtdorango]

[sgtdorango]

[sgtdorango]

[sgtdorango]

[sgtdorango]

[sgtdorango]

[sgtdorango]

orange helmet

early donut tanker helmet interior

[sgtdorango]

Heres a scan of the Patton photo in Chris Armolds book Painted Steel, it is credited to the Patton Museum, I hope they dont mind, this is for reference only!....notice the tanker in the background, he seems to have the helmet in question on, not the M38 or Cavalry or Infantry style, looks like a for runner to the M38....mike

[jim2]

Heres a scan of the Patton photo in Chris Armolds book Painted Steel, it is credited to the Patton Museum, I hope they dont mind, this is for reference only!....notice the tanker in the background, he seems to have the helmet in question on, not the M38 or Cavalry or Infantry style, looks like a for runner to the M38....mike

 

The hole in the ear flap, and the cut of the ear flap are the same as the one you have.

[OD MAN]

The hole in the ear flap, and the cut of the ear flap are the same as the one you have.

 

You lucky SOB. Even if this turns out to be a football helmet it still doesn't mean it wasn't used by early tank drivers. Crazy things were done early war such as parachutist wearing football helmets. Fornow I am leaning towards it being a football helmet because of the low top that covers the forehead seen on all antique/vintage football helmets. This would leave very little room for goggles. The tanker in the picture you see has what seems to be the same helmet but I can't tell if it has a high or low cut top.

 

I tried to make a picture of what Iam talking about-no room for goggles. If this was made specifically for tankers there would be room for the goggles. Or it could be like you said and was converted to a football helmet...a lot of help I am LOL.

 

[craig_pickrall]

This is an article from LIFE Magazine dated 7/22/1940 that covers the Cavalry tank force. I have included 6 photos from the article. The first looks like possibly one change after yours. The second photo looks very close to yours. The other four photos are the Armor Cavalry helmet as used thru the 1930's. I have additional info on that helmet but it is from a copyrighted source and I can't post it on the forum.

 

[craig_pickrall]

Just for kicks this is the Patton version of the football helmet. I have never seen photos of anyone else wearing this version. They are from LIFE issues dated 11/30/1942 and 7/7/1941.

 

[T-Bone]

 

What uniform is this? Was this one of the experimental ones that Patton designed

 

T

[keith d]

Yes, and boy was he proud of that thing!!!

[OD MAN]

 

 

It looks like something out of The Day The Earth Stood Still. :think:

 

[T-Bone]

It looks like something out of The Day The Earth Stood Still. :think:

 

 

 

The funny thing is that it looks like it inspired Battlestar Galactica's Fleet Officers uniforms.

 

 

T

[sgtdorango]

Yeah, they called it the Green hornet uniform, it was dark green with brass buttons and topped off with a gold painted helmet!!...Craig,thanks for those great cavalry helmet pics!.....can you pm me with your info or source please, Im very interested to learn more about these helmets!.......thanks.....mike

[Ken_Carroll]

Mike,

 

I think you've got the real thing.

[craig_pickrall]

Yeah, they called it the Green hornet uniform, it was dark green with brass buttons and topped off with a gold painted helmet!!...Craig,thanks for those great cavalry helmet pics!.....can you pm me with your info or source please, Im very interested to learn more about these helmets!.......thanks.....mike

 

Mike, PM me with your email address and I'll send you the info. It is to large to send by PM.

[Bugme]

Mike, PM me with your email address and I'll send you the info. It is to large to send by PM.

If this is the same information you sent me, then it will be very helpful to Mike. BTW, thanks Craig for sending it my way!

[craig_pickrall]

Mike, I received your PM. I'm on my notebook now and the data is on my desk top. I will send it as soon as I'm back on the desk top puter.