Submitted by Gavin in the UK on Thu, 06/05/2008 - 2:10pm.
Those helmets are indeed the same as the British ones. When America (finally) entered WWI in 1917, Britain was so keen to get them over to the Western Front that they gave 400,000 of them to the Americans. Incidentally they were based on a medieval "Kettle Helmet" simplified for industrial mass-production. Check out http://www.strongblade.com/prod/sbh-kettlehelm.html
Submitted by Mike Cash on Sat, 05/24/2008 - 5:29am.
You have to remember that for some of the young men, going into the military represented a very large improvement in their living conditions and access to good clothes, medical/dental care, and other things we take for granted in these more blessed times.
I will never forget a senior chief petty officer aboard my ship when I was in the Navy in the early 1980s. He had been in seemingly forever and truly appreciated what the Navy had done to lift him out of abject poverty. His exact words: "The Navy has been good to me; I got my first pair of shoes when I joined the Navy."
The tall fellow in the back with a hand on his shoulder looks exactly like a caricature of a soldier from the time. I think it's the square jaw and rakish tilt to his helmet.
When the USA entered WW1 they adopted British and French equipment - including the British Brodie Helmet, which was intended to protect the head from air-burst shrapnel shells. The USA referred to them as the M1917 helmet. It continued in US service until 1942, when it was replaced by the M1.
I can't help noticing that the helmets and uniforms of the soldiers are almost exactly what the British Army wore during the Africa campaign in WWII, and probably later.
