How to authenticate a WWII Marine Corps helmet?

[Bertfish]

Bought a storage locker and this was in it. Sure as hell looks like a second world War pattern Marine jungle cover. Bakelite hard shell liner. Is there a way to tell if it's repro or real? I see no manufacturer marking anywhere but I also didn't remove the cover.

 

[Defense Initiative]

It's real. The liner has been repainted, but WW2. The cover is the second pattern used well into the late 50's. The pot appears to be late WW2 but might have been repainted as well.

 

[MaxVO2]

****Wow, they used to sell those at Sunny's Surplus Store. As a kid, I used to wear one while playing GI Joe with my friends in the neighborhood. That thing weighed a ton on a little kids head (mine) and it looked *huge* on me as well.

Cool find. My dad was in the military and he said they used to boil water in the steel pot helmet and do light cooking, etc... with them.

Everybody knew Barbie's boyfriend was Ken, but she only came with GI Joe!

 

[chale127]

My coworker has a legit one of those on display not 6' from me but he's not in today...Plus he was a USMC Historian for a while...I'll show him this tomorrow and we can compare to a legit one, I'd take a pic but no phones in the office....

 

[Doco Overboard]

It could be Army too. Both the Marines and the Army in the pacific used the same patterns initially.
I think but not entirely certain, the Army had a reversible cover liner, and the USMC once established was patterned on both sides.

 

[Bertfish]

It could be Army too. Both the Marines and the Army in the pacific used the same patterns initially.
I think but not entirely certain, the Army had a reversible cover liner, and the USMC once established was patterned on both sides.

Storage unit was clearly owned by an old marine. He had patches from Guadalcanal and Korea. But I found his license and with a birth date of 1935 there's no way he served in WW2. The cover just looked a hell of a lot like it was second world war to me

 

[Doco Overboard]

Storage unit was clearly owned by an old marine. He had patches from Guadalcanal and Korea. But I found his license and with a birth date of 1935 there's no way he served in WW2. The cover just looked a hell of a lot like it was second world war to me

I think I have the reversible parts screwed up, one or the other was reversible to a green side in its final version.
The later USMC helmet cover should have 16 button holes around its brim on the exterior for affixing brush and vegetation.

 

[BurkeM]

Bought a storage locker and this was in it. Sure as hell looks like a second world War pattern Marine jungle cover. Bakelite hard shell liner. Is there a way to tell if it's repro or real? I see no manufacturer marking anywhere but I also didn't remove the cover.

It's an authentic looking M-1 helmet. Problem is that the Army and Marines used them from 1942 to the 1980's. Some soldiers and Marines were still using these into the late 1980's, before every unit received the Kevlar version (PASGT) - beginning in 1983-85.

As above, these were available in surplus stores from 1946- to today.

 

[Threeband]

I think the liner is made of laminated wood.
Bakelite is that heavy, dense plastic that telephones were made of 50 years before you were born.

 

[Bertfish]

I think the liner is made of laminated wood.
Bakelite is that heavy, dense plastic that telephones were made of 50 years before you were born.

Sure looks like bakelite but I may be wrong

 

[Threeband]

In your photo I can see the thin strips of wood used to build up the liner. Bakelite is a very heavy, dense form of primitive plastic, usually if not always black. ( Edit to correct: Internet image search shows lots of colorful bakelite items ) Bakelite objects are usually pretty thick. It was used on telephones maybe through the fifties?

 

[Bertfish]

In your photo I can see the thin straps of wood used to build up the liner. Bakelite is a very heavy, dense form of primitive plastic, usually if not always black. Bakelite objects are usually pretty thick. It was used on telephones maybe through the fifties?

This is reddish. Like a bakelite AK magazine. You may be right

 

[Threeband]

In the second of your three images, you can clearly see the different strips of wood are different colors, some darker, some lighter.

Bakelite would be much thicker, heavier, pretty easy to break, and all uniform in color. Those helmet liners are laminated strips of wood.

Also, I believe so called "bakelite" magazines were actually made of something else.

 

[Threeband]

Here you go:

By late mid-war the High Pressure liners had generally replaced the older patterns and were manufactured by a host of companies. Such liner bodies were hard and made up of a composite fibre material, which could take some flexing but would split under increased pressure.

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/featured/m1-helmet-liners-all-you-need-to-know.html

 

[Muleskinner]

I have 2 WW2 steel pots and their liners. My father was in the marines in the late 50s and they were still using surplus from WW2. I have his helmets.

Those look identical to his.

 

[Bertfish]

Based on the millions made and surplused I'm sure there's no monetary value here. Probably give it to a neighbor kid to run around with and play Army

 

[Threeband]

No! They don't make them anymore!
Their value will go up.

 

[Threeband]

I had a 1951 Ike Jacket I got for $2.99 at Sunny's around 1978. I wore that thing on job sites until it was a stinking rag. It was just a $3 jacket!

I could kick myself.

 

[chale127]

I had a 1951 Ike Jacket I got for $2.99 at Sunny's around 1978. I wore that thing on job sites until it was a stinking rag. It was just a $3 jacket!

I could kick myself.

My uncle has my Grandfathers Ike jacket in near perfect condition....probably worth a small fortune in that condition

 

[Threeband]

Tell him not to wear it on construction sites.