How to authenticate a WWII Marine Corps helmet?

[Bertfish]

Looks like these "high pressure" liners are somewhat desirable if you believe what has sold on Ebay. I'd never have known.

 

[Threeband]

It has the earlier style webbing, too.

 

[Bertfish]

I'd keep this if I weren't trying to make buying this storage unit not a money pit

 

[Threeband]

I saw a documentary about the Airborne raid to liberate a POW camp in the Philippines in 1944. The camp held American civilians captured in 1942.

One of the civilians said he thought his liberators were Russians, because he'd never seen an M1 helmet before. The last Doughboys he'd seen had been wearing M1917 Brodie helmets.

 

[willtill]

Look for faded crayon markings

 

[Bertfish]

Look for faded crayon markings

They eat them though so I wouldn't expect to see it written with

 

[willtill]

They eat them though so I wouldn't expect to see it written with

You are absolutely right. I stand corrected.

 

[Ngrovcam]

Don’t know as much as I would like about USMC stuff, but the color of the liner, while a re-paint, is more the Marine green than the Army shade…can’t remember the stock numbers of the colors.

 

[Bertfish]

Previous owner was 100% a Marine. I assume it was his.

 

[BurkeM]

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.

Not wood, not Bakelite.

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The liner is a hard hat-like support for the suspension, and is designed to fit snugly inside the steel shell.

The first liners were produced in June 1941 and designed by Hawley Products Company.[25] The suspension was initially made from strips of silver rayon webbing stretched around and across the inside of the liner. A sweatband is clipped onto these, and is adjusted to fit around the head of the wearer. Three triangular bands of rayon meet at the top of the helmet, where they were adjusted by a shoestring to fit the height and shape of the wearer's head. A snap-on nape strap cushioned the liner against the back of the wearer's neck and stops it from falling off. As the rayon had a tendency to stretch and not recover its shape, the suspension material was later changed to olive drab number 3, and then olive drab number 7, herringbone twill cotton webbing.

World War II and Korean War-era liners have their own chinstrap made from brown leather. The liner chinstrap does not have loops like the shell; it was either riveted directly to the inside of the liner (early examples) or snapped onto studs. It can still swivel inside the liner. The chinstrap is usually seen looped over the brim of the shell, and helps to keep it in place when its own chinstraps are not in use.

Early liners were made from a mix of compressed paper fibers impregnated with phenolic resin, with olive drab cotton twill fabric stretched over the outside. They were discontinued in November 1942 because they degraded quickly in high heat and high humidity environments. They were replaced by evolving plastic liners,[25] using a process developed by the Inland Division of General Motors. These liners were made of strips of cotton cloth bathed in phenolic resin and draped in a star shape over a liner-shaped mold, where they were subjected to pressure to form a liner. The initial "low pressure" process was deemed unacceptable by the Army, but accepted out of need. These liners were made by St. Clair Manufacturing and Hood Rubber Company. Hawley, Hood, and St. Clair's contracts were cancelled by early 1944, when a "high pressure" process which produced better-quality liners became commercially viable. Companies which produced "high pressure" liners during World War II included Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, CAPAC Manufacturing, Inland (whose molds were acquired by Firestone after their contract was cancelled), Mine Safety Appliances Company, Seaman Paper Company, and International Molded Plastics, Inc.[25]

Liners essentially identical in construction to "high pressure" World War II examples were produced between 1951 and 1954 during the Korean War by the Micarta Division of Westinghouse and CAPAC Manufacturing. In the 1960s, the M1 helmet liner was redesigned, eliminating the leather chinstrap, nape strap, and changing the suspension webbing to a pattern resembling an asterisk in a coarse cotton web material in lieu of the earlier cotton herringbone twill. In the early 1970s, suspension materials changed to a thicker, more flexible nylon with a rougher unbeveled rim. Later changes included a move to a yellow and green material for liner construction.

 

[MJD438]

Could try reaching out to the National Museum of the Marine Corps; their staff might be able to assist. https://www.usmcmuseum.com/staff-directory.html

 

[Ngrovcam]

My dad wore a Hawley liner into combat with the 65th Infantry Division…that was January of ‘45. He (and a total of 50% of his platoon) had been transferred in as an infantry replacements from the 751st MP Battalion in Edinburgh, in October of ‘44, when the Army needed infantrymen more than MP’s…I don’t know if he had that liner while an MP.
Once the fighting was over he was switched back to the MP’s, but was given an “MP”-painted new style liner. He was not a fan of the Hawley liner…

 

[Fate]

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

I’d buy it!

 

[Bertfish]

I’d buy it!

We sold it on Ebay for an enormous sum of money. Shocked the hell out of me.

 

[Fate]

Congrats! It was a very nice set.

 

[SmokeEaterPilot]

If you run into the dilemma in the future. My business partner and friend literally wrote the Bible on USMC collecting. He did two volumes. Equipping the Corps and Grunt Gear by Alec Tulkoff. He’s also a MD native.

Strongly recommend both books. They’ve become handy to me over the past several years. I think Equipping the Corps can be found at the usmc museum and is still in print.

USMC collectors are cultist so they are always willing to spend big month on stuff. So not surprised but still a genuine congrats on your sale.

Alec is also active on a lot of usmc collecting groups on Facebook. He’s always been approachable with questions.

 

[Blazer]

I have my father's Ike uniform from the 1950's He was in the Army from 1948 until 1979. His ribbons on the Ike jacket are sewn on and not pin on ones. His SFC stripes are a OD color.

 

[Fate]

If you run into the dilemma in the future. My business partner and friend literally wrote the Bible on USMC collecting. He did two volumes. Equipping the Corps and Grunt Gear by Alec Tulkoff. He’s also a MD native.

Strongly recommend both books. They’ve become handy to me over the past several years. I think Equipping the Corps can be found at the usmc museum and is still in print.

USMC collectors are cultist so they are always willing to spend big month on stuff. So not surprised but still a genuine congrats on your sale.

Alec is also active on a lot of usmc collecting groups on Facebook. He’s always been approachable with questions.

Or they could just sell it to me