While steel helmets never completely disappeared from the battlefield – and helmets were worn by cavalry units throughout the 18th and 19th centuries – at the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 most British infantrymen wore only the Home Service Helmet as part of a dress uniform and for parade type duties. Forage caps were the standard headdress for soldiers in the field, but by 1916 it was apparent that soft caps as well as sun helmets that were worn in tropical regions weren’t enough to protect against head wounds from artillery barrages or other low velocity impacts. Continue reading
Tag Archives: private purchase
Japanese Helmet Box
When thinking of a Japanese helmet box one probably has an image of a lacquered box. The concept of “Japanning” dates to the 17th century when Europeans would imitate Asian lacquerwork. Ironically much of the lacquering was actually not Japanese in origin, but rather Chinese. However the Japanese version – called urushi – did remain popular through the 19th- and 20th- centuries. So when one things of a Japanese box for a helmet it again like conjures the image of such a box. During the 1930s and into the early 1940s it wasn’t such a lacquered box that one might use for transporting a sun helmet. It was more likely a cardboard box. Continue reading