Helmets

[Page 628]A helmet is a type of military headgear designed to protect the wearer’s head in combat. Helmets are among the oldest forms of personal protective armor. Most contemporary militaries utilize Kevlar and other composites to create light but strong head protection for combatants. This entry discusses the development of helmets and looks at helmets in use today.

Archaeological evidence has revealed that, as early as the third millennium BCE, Sumerian, Babylonian, and Assyrian warriors wore primitive helmets made of rawhide, bone, and/or copper into battle. By the mid-23rd century BCE, helmets constructed out of such primitive material began to fall out of use, in favor of ones made of bronze. The refinement of iron smelting in the 9th century BCE brought about the end of dominance of bronze helmets on the battlefield and ushered in the era of iron helmets. The era of iron lasted but a fleeting moment, for by 950 CE, steel helmets were king. In the mid-17th century, the use of helmets in battle declined rapidly because of the proliferation of accurate black powdered firearms. By the 18th century, the appearance of helmets on the battlefield all but vanished, except for the occasional uses as elaborate, purely decorative, headwear. After being relegated as decorative headgear for more than 200 years, the hazards of World War I necessitated the reappearance of functional helmets on the battlefield.

The battlefields of World War I were unlike anything seen before. The sheer amount of carnage and death caused the various nations at war to look for ways to protect their troops. One of the main problems that needed addressing was how to protect a soldier’s head from projectiles, such as shrapnel and small arms fire. The most obvious answer to this problem was to develop some sort of helmet. French General Louis Adrian was the first to come up with the idea for a mass-produced steel combat helmet. It is said that General Adrian came up with the idea after a chance encounter with a wounded soldier. The story goes that on seeing a soldier with a head wound, General Adrian inquired how he survived. The soldier replied that he owned his life to a metal bowl he was wearing under his cap to help protect his head. From this inquiry and increasing field reports of head wounds, Adrian set to work on creating what would turn out to be the first modern combat helmet. Soon after France began fielding the Adrian helmet in 1915, the other belligerent nations followed suit.

World War I helmets such as France’s Adrian helmet, Britain’s Jeane Kirkpatrick, and Germany’s M-16 helmet were not designed to stop bullets but rather to protect the wearer from shrapnel and deflect small arms fire. The idea behind them was to keep the wearer alive, though not necessarily unwounded, while at the same time allowing the helmet to be as light and comfortable as possible. Reports after the war confirmed that such helmets significantly reduced the number of head wounds and the mortalities from them.

...