How medieval helmets inspired the ones from 20th century, part I

How medieval helmets inspired the ones from 20^th century, part I

It’s incredible how sometimes the equipment from distant – and we do mean distant – past can inspire modern designers to create something new, but with the elements of the old. And there is a specific type of an item that is quite often based on past designs: the helmets. You would be surprised how many of them used during the world wars (or other ones) were created by people that had the helmets that had been crafted centuries ago in mind. Let’s take a look at some of them, starting with a famous British one.

The ancestor with its own ancestor

The helmet we are talking about is the so-called Brodie Helmet that served British soldiers well during the time of the Great War. According to some sources its design was partially based on the medieval kettle hats. But while a kettle hat was the ancestor of the Brodie Helmet, we can say that some even older helmets were the “base” for the kettle hats themselves. And they were much, much older. But where should we look for the kettle hats’ ancestors?

According to several sources, including Polish ones, we should look for their traces in the ancient times. One of the authors is starting his “investigation” with the definition of the kettle hat that says that a kettle hat is defined as ‘a helmet with a brim’. So he tried to search for very old helmet types that had a brim. Although the first helmets were designed in the Middle East and there were even five types of them: conical, hemispherical, conical crested, hemispherical crested, and composite none of them actually had a brim. Both from the Iron Age and the Bronze Age.

So we’ve got to look for them a bit later in history. And we can find several helmets fitting the description or the definition in ancient times, in the lands once belonging to the Roman Empire (and maybe a bit before). Probably the oldest Italic helmet with a brim was the bossed helmet. It originated from the Picenum. They stayed in use for nearly 2 centuries: between the first half of the 7^th until the beginning of the 5^th century, BC of course. The so-called Negau helmets was also an interesting archaeological finding. 26 of them were discovered near Negau village in the Duchy of Styria in 1811. Those had an Etruscan provenance and were quite popular in Eturia between 6^th and 5^th century BC.

The new life of kettle hats

Few centuries passed until the kettle hats became popular in Europe again. It’s difficult to determine, or even to speculate why it took them so long. But finally, around the end of 12^th century they started to get reintroduced again. And this time for much longer than before. Kelly DeVries and Robert Douglas Smith inform us in their book that “The earlier examples, at least till well into the fourteenth century, were constructed like the spanglehelm – from an iron framework in which the spaces were filled with separate trangular-shaped plates – though later examples were made from either a single piece of iron or from two plates joined down a central ridge” (DeVries, Smith, 128). It is important to say that these helmets were rather both cheap and easy to produce. So there is no surprise that they were in wide use by the common soldiers. But it could happen that also knights or the representatives of upper classes also did wear them.

As we mentioned, this time the history of the use of kettle hats was quite long. They were still present in the 17^th century Europe. Although their popularity varied among between the ages. They were rather popular in countries like (in the present sense of this word) Italy and Germany up to the end of 14^th century and the middle of 15^th one, respectively. Speaking of Germany, something interesting happened in this country in the 15^th century.

Somehow around 1460s both the kettle hat design and the sallet design “merged” and the result was a new type of helmet: the so-called German sallet. Later in history, in the 16^th century for example, kettle hats were still quite popular, but their name has changed and they were called morions that were described as helmets with tall skull and narrow brim. These elements were also fitted with cheek-pieces, tied together under the chin of a soldier. And now let’s finally head to the 20^th century.

The history behind the “Brodie helmet”

You go to war. That means your soldiers need some good head protection, right? Well… wrong. At least when it comes to the Great War, a.k.a. World War I. You will probably enter a state of a big shock, but imagine that when that war began in 1914, no army – we repeat – no army, neither German, British, French, Russian etc. used any armor to protect the heads of their soldiers, not to mention the whole body. A good recipe for a cannon fodder… Oh, sorry. We missed the Germans. They were wearing spiked ornamental leather helmet called a Pickelhaube. But still, that’s all. In the meantime their opponents from Great Britain and France had only… cloth caps. Well, not to mention any safety aspects, that could not even be a decorative element. In the meantime soldiers fighting during the Great War started receiving better equipment, including some true head protection. For example French soldiers started wearing metal skull caps. They also evolved later and that’s how the Adrian Helmet Model 1915 was created. And just to mention: by September 1915 all French soldiers were wearing such helmets.

Obviously the British War Office also had to do something to not to stay behind. At first they even tried the lazy way. And what do we mean by that? Well, they even tried to evaluate French helmets, but they did not fit them well: they seemed too complex to be produced at the required scale. They needed their own design. And this is when John Brodie came into play. He designed a nice helmet and even patented it in August 1915. Such helmet could be even pressed from a single sheet of steel. And to be honest they were better than French Adrian ones. In what ways? They were being made of steel, but not pure steel: 12% of the material was manganese content. This was improving the helmet in comparison to Adrian Helmet in two ways: first, the Brodie Helmets did not have to be hardened, second, they simply could deform at impact without braking. Result: higher level of safety.

And so soon (by September 1915) first Mark I Brodie Helmets were sent to the front line. They even received some nicknames, such as Tommy Helmet or Shrapnel Helmet. But! There was one, partially funny, “but”. They were just too little of them so far, so when one group of soldiers had to be replaced, they all had to leave the helmets, so their substitutes could use them. And it had to work like this until all British troops were equipped with a Brodie Helmet and that happened by April 1916. What’s more: by summer that year nearly million of these helmets have been produced. Quite a lot, wasn’t it? In fact, they appeared to be even better than expected. They could even make the soldiers’ heads safer from direct fire. Again, thanks to those 12% mentioned above. They even could deflect bullets! Not every time, but to some extent they actually could.

Ok, French and British troops came unprepared at the very beginning of the war, but if you join the conflict at the later stage you can expect such forces to actually be better equipped. Especially when it is 1917 already. And especially if you are American. And that’s what Americans thought too. They actually entered Europe with helmets of their own design that were called Montana Peak and Campaign Hat. But at the battlefield they failed miserably. Maybe that’s because they only real “action” they were ever tested in were the ones on the US-Mexican border. So what did the Americans do? They asked their closest ally for a big delivery. Yes – they ordered the Mark I Brodie Helmets – and a lot of them: some 400 000! And later – it’s a good business anyway – they acquired the rights to produce the Brodie Helmets on their own. But as for the US helmets production: another fun fact – by September 1918 the US Army has already contracted some 7 000 000 helmets, but… soon the war ended, so such massive order became obsolete. Yet still over 2 700 000 helmets have been produced. These ones were more of their own design and those were the M1917 ones.

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If we take a look at it from the ancient times to modern history we can say that the kettle hat/Brodie Helmet came a very long and not so long way at the same time. Materials have changed. The way in which they are produced changed. But the base idea and the purpose still stays the same. It’s like it has been said in a famous PC (and not only) game: “War never changes”.

Sources:

M. W. Anderson, Featured Artificat: U.S. Model 1917 Helmet, “Arkansas Military History Journal”, No. 1, vol. 14/2020.

K. DeVries, R. D. Smith, Medieval Weapons, ABC Clio, Santa Barbara 2007.

D. Gosk, Ancient brimmed helmets as an introduction to medieval kettle hats?, “Fasciculi Archaeologiae Historicae” vol XXXIV/2021.

D. Piselli, MKII helmets of the Second World War and their use in the Italian Campaign, Mediagraf Spa, Padova 2020.

Herbert Gnaś