France French Pith Helmets

[Peter_Suciu]

Anyone else have any French pith helmets to show? I've really gotten into collecting the pith helmets in the last few years.

This is my French Model 1886 Pith Helmet, and it features the insignia of the French Marine Infantry. These helmets were used in various French colonies around the world including Africa. These helmets were also used by the three battalions of the 9th and 11th Marine Infantry that fought in China during the Boxer Rebellion.

[Peter_Suciu]

A new addition of mine. Based on the British Wolseley design, the Model 1931 tropical helmet was used throughout the French colonies, including those in Africa, the Middle East, South America, the Pacific and French Indo-China. These helmets were used by both Vichy and Free French Forces in World War II. This examples features the standard marine anchor.

[Peter_Suciu]

Here is a very unique helmet that I recently picked up. This is known as the French Indochina helmet. This style of helmet was based on the French Model 1931 tropical helmet, but is made of a lightweight pressed fiber with a water-proof canvas cover. These were locally produced helmet in French Indochina, and used as private purchase officer's helmets. These feature a plastic liner system, which would be later used with the North Vietnamese Army sun helmets. So these are sort of the "missing link" between the French tropical helmet and the Vietnamese sun helmets... and it is sort of the interesting that the former native army adopted the helmet of the imperialist.

This example was made in Saigon, and has a maker's tag from N?n Rang Dong, BVK. The original owner's initials(?) is written in pen: "VAN 3-6-54."

[nesredep]

Hi

Nice and interesting helmet.

nesredep

[Chris Boonzaier]

Do you know anything about the "Dutch" tropical helmets sometimes worn by the Afrikakorps?...

if so... hit us with a thread about it... I think they may be South african instead of Dutch.

[Peter_Suciu]

Do you know anything about the "Dutch" tropical helmets sometimes worn by the Afrikakorps?...

if so... hit us with a thread about it... I think they may be South african instead of Dutch.

I think you may be correct... frankly I think the helmets were French and South African. I don't know where Dutch came from, except some collector's price guide from the 1970s that I have a memory of said "Afrika Korp helmets made by the Dutch." Where would the Germans have gotten those? I guess there could have been some in Holland, but I find that to be unlikely. There were plenty of unissued German pith helmets so why would they use Dutch helmets, and there were no Dutch colonies in Africa so we can rule out that they were captured in the field.

I looked up to see South Africa's role in WWII. Two divisions including the South African 1st Infantry Division and the South African 2nd Infantry Division were in North Africa. It is worth noting that two complete infantry brigades of the 2nd were captured at Tobruk, while the 1st fought at the Battle of El Alamein and was then recalled to South Africa. The South African 6th Armoured Divsion fought in Italy, while the South African 3rd Infantry Division, which was on home defense duty, did send replaces for the 1st and 2nd ID. Additionally one brigade took part in the invasion of Madagascar in 1942.

So it does seem possible that a fair amount of pith helmets, if they were used by the 2nd ID could have fallen into German hands in 1941. Interstingly I've never seen one with German plates on it.

[Chris Boonzaier]

I

So it does seem possible that a fair amount of pith helmets, if they were used by the 2nd ID could have fallen into German hands in 1941. Interstingly I've never seen one with German plates on it.

I used to have a couple of pics with Luftwaffe guys wearing them.

My guess was there were some with Afrikaans writing in them, or an Afrikaans name... and it was considered "Dutch".