Which Branch Of Service In The French Army Wore The Flamboyant Cuirassier Helmet?

Head First
Benjamin L. Apt

British Troops, 1916, Public Domain

When we think of military engineering, nosotros presume that it is constantly evolving and changing to avoid becoming obsolete. Yet, military technologies may expect back, hundreds of years, to build on designs that became obsolete.

The metal helmet developed during World State of war I is a case in point. Although metal infantry helmets were made obsolete by the introduction of gunpowder several hundred years before World War I, helmets returned to boxing in mass numbers during this war.

Ironically, just as improved military machine applied science had rendered the metal helmet obsolete, changes in armed forces applied science at the turn of the 20th century prompted a resurrection of helmets and personal armor.

From arms to rifles and auto guns, weapons had now become capable of inflicting swell destruction over previously unimaginable distances and the demand to protect soldiers was even greater. Understanding the emergence of the modern helmet requires an understanding of community in uniform design in general.

Well into the nineteenth century, combat was conducted at fairly close range. A soldier, whether aiming a cannon or firing a gun, needed to be able to see his enemy.

The elaborate, near fussy uniforms of the Napoleonic Wars, for instance, were not just showy costumes. Uniforms were brightly colored
and hats such as the "shako" and the "czapka" were flamboyantly large, in function and so that commanding officers could see their troops through the thick smoke and chaos of the battlefield.

Re-Introducing Helmets

Germain pickelhaube, World War I, Public Domain

While some countries did issue helmets to their troops during the nineteenth century, these tended to be supplied to cavalrymen such equally dragoons and cuirassiers. During the Crimean War, some Russian infantry were outfitted with helmets as were Prussian human foot soldiers in the latter half of the century. But the wearing of helmets remained uncommon during this period.

These nineteenth-century helmets were made of tough leather, and they were intended to be near as conspicuous as the more commonly worn softer headgear. The famous "pickelhaube" with which Germany entered the Offset World War (it was first issued in 1897) was an updated version of this helmet. It had a visor in forepart and dorsum and a fasten protruding up from the centre. Manner, not the demand for protection, guided the shape of these leather hats.

Despite the introduction of leather helmets, soft caps continued to be the customary headdress for most armies up until World War One. Uk, for example, sent the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) across the Channel wearing peaked caps, while France equipped its men with a traditional wool kepi.

The devastation that began in August 1914 led to a rejection of this tradition of conspicuous uniforms and comfortable (often frivolous) hats. Although the British and Germans did not even so recognize the need for helmets, they at present understood that uniforms should be of cover-up. German troops wore field gray tunic while the British wore olive drab. These muted colors made sense for survival in the trenches only charging over the top confronting sweeping machinegun burn was even so a journey into slaughter. Still, a soldier who blended in with the destroyed landscape of the battlefield, had a slightly better chance of survival than one who stood out wearing clothes of unnatural brilliance.

French Innovation

The Adrian, Public Domain

The French army learned the dangers of the new battlefield all too tragically in the first year of the war, when information technology sent its soldiers storming into High german lines wearing heavy dark blue overcoats and brilliant red pantaloons. Reeling from the losses of and then many of its men, the French army became the first to issue metal helmets.

France had started experimenting in as early as 1912 to develop a metal helmet. At the beginning of the war, some soldiers had been supplied with a small metal cap that fit nether their kepi.

However, the French regular army settled on a larger helmet. It was nicknamed the "Adrian" afterward General Intendant Adrian. The Adrian helmet was a basic basin with a subtly curved brim and a crest that served as both ornamentation and encompass for ventilation. Several other centrolineal armies, including Italia, Belgium, Russia and Poland, used the same design.

The Adrian was manufactured of fairly thin steel, but while information technology provided amend "majuscule" protection than the kepi, it was effective only against glancing shrapnel. Along with the introduction of this new helmet, France also issued the "polio," a new uniform of light "horizon blueish." (The design remained mostly unchanged, with a heavy overcoat still standard garb).

British Design

The Brodie was likewise used past Americans, Public Domain

More striking than the differences between approaches was their ane commonality: both Britain and French republic produced helmets that were reminiscent of medieval designs.

he British Marking 1 (known as the Brodie helmet for its inventor, Engineer John Leopold Brodie) was a simple shallow bowl with a pronounced rim all the way effectually. Its progenitor was a helmet worn primarily past archers in the Middle Ages. For the British, a helmet needed to provide overhead protection from the shrapnel, stones, and dirt that rained down into the trenches during artillery bombardments.

The Brodie was sturdy, if heavy. Information technology was reasonably well balanced, although it even so had a tendency to slip to the side when soldiers were on the run. Most importantly, it did non obstruct the infantryman's sight or hearing. Its main defect was that, like the Adrian, it offered very little side protection to the head. Yet, product was straightforward because the helmet could be made of a single piece of pressed steel.

German and Austrian Pattern

The Stahlhelm, Public Domain

Germany replaced the pickelhaube (which had proved impractical) with the M16 Stahlhelm. In contrast to the Brodie helmet, the Stahlhelm was a deep bowl, with an angled brim, or "brim," running around the sides and back. Information technology shielded a much greater proportion of the wearer's head, only at the price of reducing peripheral vision and limiting hearing. Although the grade of this helmet is credited to the careful research of Dr. Friedrich Schwerd at the Technical University of Hamburg, this helmet is also direct traceable to a medieval forebear.

The Austrian regular army used the same helmet, besides as a variation known as the Berndorfer helmet.

Although the British Mk 1 and the German M16 were notably thicker than the Adrian, none of these helmets was expected to stop a direct bullet hit. Protection of this blazon was viewed every bit impractical, every bit a helmet which was thick enough to terminate a bullet, would also be too heavy for prolonged vesture or reasonable mobility.

Europeans besides experimented with supplemental devices, such as face screens and actress plates that could be attached to the standard helmet during this period. The M16, for example, was produced with two lugs on the side, which allowed a confront shield to be attached when required. All the same, none of these boosted pieces was issued widely. They were meant mainly for observers and snipers who were stationed at the very front lines.

Protecting Soldiers

The Farina, Imperial State of war Museum

Italy did not create a "national" helmet until well after the war but it did experiment very early in the War with a heavy, cylindrical helmet of express coverage called the Farina.

Although it was articulate that soldiers needed ameliorate protection than only fabric hats, developing the right design took time and idea.

For all that they protect soldiers, helmets have several disadvantages. Offset, they are invariably heavy. Protection commonly correlates with thickness, which in turn correlates with weight. The heavier the helmet, the more it tires its wearer. Helmets are likewise awkward for soldiers on the run, as they slip and tilt. They retain body estrus and, when the dominicus is intense, they can concentrate this heat fifty-fifty more than. The more head the helmet covers, the more it reduces the wearer'south visual and auditory senses. Soldiers prefer to be mobile. In fact, a soldier'southward survival depends on his ability to motion chop-chop and reducing a soldier's awareness of his environment can expose him to danger.

Experiments during the Commencement Globe War indicated that blocking the face and protecting the neck left soldiers dangerously exposed. Soldiers need to be able to communicate with their comrades. A helmet that covers the mouth and olfactory organ hampers communication and breathing, both of which are crucial when a soldier is on the movement. Finally, a skirt that is too broad, or a skirt that is too long, restricts movement of the head, specifically when a soldier is tilting his head back to aim his weapon. This trouble is intensified when a soldier is firing from a prone position.

With the introduction of the tank, Britain and France both recognized that tank crews, like the infantry, had particular requirements for protection. Together with leather coveralls that gave some protections against burns and scrapes, tank personnel were also outfitted with helmets that fit into cramped, hot spaces. These helemts also dampened the effects of concussions and loud noises while providing some protection confronting flight rivets. Nonetheless these helmets could also be worn for long sedentary periods.

While the re-introduction of the helmet undoubtedly saved the lives of countless men during World State of war I, other improvements in military technology meant that these men continued to exist exposed to the dangers and horrors of war.

Benjamin L. Apt is the author "Mahan's Forebears: The Debate Over Maritime Strategy, 1868-1883," Naval War College Review, Vol. 50, 1997. He has long been interested in helmet design.

Bring together Us on Facebook!

Click on the icon to left or click here to bring together united states on Facebook for updates on articles!