Mle 51 helmet

Hi i just gotp off ebay uk this Mle 51 helmet both the liner and shell are in new unissued condition and dated 1962

Nice helmet, congratulations.

I saw one simmilar in Paris, this past summer, for 40 €, but in the end i didn't bought.

Here's mine with a camo cover.. This one was in a trailor full of mixed helmets a friend bought a few years back. He found this one in his shed and gave it to me. Mine is a 62 dated liner and a 53 dated helmet. Both of those are in near mint condition, but the cover is shot!

Fins...

Very nice lid Graham, all you need to do now is pop on a two colour net,and innertube...and it will look the business

1stDivVet wrote:Here's mine with a camo cover.. This one was in a trailor full of mixed helmets a friend bought a few years back. He found this one in his shed and gave it to me. Mine is a 62 dated liner and a 53 dated helmet. Both of those are in near mint condition, but the cover is shot!

Fins...

Very nice hybrid lid, I like the idea of using a ERDL cover and M-72 chinstrap look's very cool

your m51 looks great Graham i didnt realise they wore the cammo covers like the m1 i need to find one for mine

jaycee wrote:your m51 looks great Graham i didnt realise they wore the cammo covers like the m1 i need to find one for mine

They didn't, so no need to hunt for one The helmet cover and chinstrap are US, not French. Since this came with a bulk buy of mixed helmets it's probable someone mixed the bits together to make a functional helmet, either not realizing or not caring that this was a French helmet to start with.

Normally French helmets are bare or with the typical style helmet netting. I've got a couple of these and one of them came with a burlap sack cut to fit with the helmet netting over that. Pretty slick.

Graham, any identifying stamps/markings on the helmet cover?

Steve

Hi Steve
Mine is the new and naked Mle 51 at the start of the tread I think the one with the cover belongs to Fins the usual French methods of covering these helmets were

A the hood off a jacket (camo or green) held in place with a peice of tyre inner tube.
B Hessian with a net over it held in place with (yes you got it) a peice of tyre inner tube.
C and finaly a peice of 2 colour face veil with either a draw cord around yhe edge or yes the old stand by tyre innertube.
or you could just leave it naked.
The first pic is My Mle 51/56 para helmet before I restored it the second is the helmet with the hessian and net with no tyre inner tube.




Regards Graham

Yup, my bad Graham! I probably need to get some glasses

Your last pic is exactly what one of mine looks like.

Steve

im sorry graham i got a bit confused back there ,your m51 looks great i like the look with the hessian cover and net kinda reminds me of the jap type 90 and thanks steve for the advice i guess i wont be rushing out to buy a non existant m51 cammo cover

sorry to hijack your thread but heres my example im really fond of these helmets cheers james [img][/img]