Dear friends, welcome to the Eastern Front channel. Looking through photos from the
First World War on German helmets, you can see strange protrusions on the sides, visually
resembling horns. Today we will figure out why they were needed and who wear such helmets.
After the outbreak of the First World War, it turned out that the leather
Pickelhelm helmets available in the German Imperial Army were not able to protect a
soldier's head from fragments and stones, and urgent development of a new helmet was required.
He had to reliably protect his head from fragments of stones, pieces of earth and
wood that were scattered across the battlefield as a result of the explosion of artillery shells.
In 1915, Professor Friedrich Swede and military doctor August Beer,
who was engaged in the study of typical head wounds, developed a new steel helmet
called the Stalhelm. And after the tests, a year later its mass production began.
The helmet received the abbreviation M-1916 or simply M-16. In total,
about 7 million of these helmets were produced. The M-16 was produced in 6 sizes
from 60 to 70, and on the sides, in the area of the temples, it had protrusions.
These protrusions had two functions. Firstly, they had through holes inside, for ventilation
and secondly, these protrusions were designed to attach additional armor to the helmet,
so that it made the helmet impenetrable not only for fragments, but also for bullets.
These plates were not issued to every soldier, and only 50.000 pieces were produced. The plate was 6
millimeters thick and weighed more than a kilogram, which created a load on the
soldier's head and neck. Being in such a helmet for a long time was very difficult.
It is worth noting that 6mm is not the kind of armour that provides perfect protection
against all types of small arms. A direct hit from a rifle bullet could well have
pierced the forehead, but when pierced, the main energy of the bullet was given to the plate,
and the energy left did not allow it to penetrate the helmet behind it.
A pistol or rifle shot fired from not a right angle or on places of sharp curves of the plate
could provide a rebound and, as a result, not break through the plate.
There is widespread information that when a bullet hit the plate, it remained intact,
but the soldier's neck broke from the impact. Even without an armour plate,
breaking the neck when a rifle bullet hits the helmet is quite possible. Why is this happening?
If the soldier tightens the chinstrap too hard, fixing it in the chin area,
then when a bullet hits the helmet, the impact force may result in a pierced helmet,
along with a pierced head, which will inevitably damage the cervical vertebrae.
Just because of that soldiers often did not use chin straps. When a bullet hits
a helmet without a tightened chinstrap, the energy of the bullet just blows the
helmet off the soldier's head, leaving the head and neck relatively intact.
Sometimes some damage did occur, but it was many times weaker.
The plate was carried in a satchel and at the command "shields up" was quickly put
on the helmet. These armour plates were issued to artillery scouts and spotters,
trench observers and machine gun crews on duty. That is, those soldiers who constantly looked
out of the trenches and risked getting a fragment or a bullet in the head.
During the war, the M-16 helmet was slightly upgraded by the M-17 and M-18, and with the
coming to power of the Nazis, the M-33, M-35 and M-42 helmets appeared, which no longer had these
protrusions, only ventilation holes remained. And in the helmet of the M-45, they were also removed.
In 1935, when universal conscription was introduced in Germany,
it was still possible to see soldiers wearing M-16 and M-18 horned helmets,
since there were not enough new helmets for everyone at that time.
It was Tim and the Eastern Front channel. Write your comments about this story.
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