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Brodie helmets in the Free State military?

  • 18-11-2020 2:30pm
    #1
    Hyus
    Registered Users Posts: 14 ✭


    When looking at images of the Free State defence forces, it strikes me that the only headgear I see are either cloth caps or those stahlhelm looking helmets. Given that a lot of our other equipment was British (like Lee-Enfield rifles), was there any use of Brodie helmets by the Free State during the 1920s-30s? Or what about later during the Emergency?

    Also, as a related side question, does anyone know if we had an equivalent during the Emergency to the civilian "Zuckerman helmets" issued in Britain? Given the bombing of Dublin and other parts of the country, I wondered if the government offered anything like that for sale to civilians or public servants (like the fire brigades), since neutrality obviously wasn't a guarantee of safety.


Comments

  • #2
    whisky_galore
    Registered Users Posts: 15,703 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    https://www.military.ie/en/public-information/defence-forces-museums/defence-forces-history/history-of-the-army/history-of-the-army.jpg

    Yes they had Brodie ones from about 1940 onwards, the "Fritz" helmets were then painted white and cascaded down to Civil Defence and other Emergency services.
    Before the Vickers helmets, just various types of forage cap, no helmets.


  • #3
    Mick Tator
    Registered Users Posts: 651 ✭✭✭Mick Tator


    They were in use certainly up to the late 50's in the regular army


  • #4
    Fann Linn
    Registered Users Posts: 7,770 ✭✭✭Fann Linn


    Mick Tator wrote: »
    They were in use certainly up to the late 50's in the regular army


    Had one of them on my head in the early 80s as part of 20 Inf Batt FCA. ðŸ˜႒


  • #5
    Samsonsmasher
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 610 ✭✭✭Samsonsmasher


    Hyus wrote: »
    When looking at images of the Free State defence forces, it strikes me that the only headgear I see are either cloth caps or those stahlhelm looking helmets. Given that a lot of our other equipment was British (like Lee-Enfield rifles), was there any use of Brodie helmets by the Free State during the 1920s-30s? Or what about later during the Emergency?

    Also, as a related side question, does anyone know if we had an equivalent during the Emergency to the civilian "Zuckerman helmets" issued in Britain? Given the bombing of Dublin and other parts of the country, I wondered if the government offered anything like that for sale to civilians or public servants (like the fire brigades), since neutrality obviously wasn't a guarantee of safety.

    British style helmets belt kit and the Bren Lee Enfield and Sten were used by the Irish Defence Forces during the Emergency and after. The American M1 helmet was used by Irish troops in the Congo. British Brodie helmets were replaced by helmets similar to the later pot shaped British helmets influenced by the WW2 British paratrooper helmet design which did away with the steel hat shape. The current helmet is s Rabintex design.


  • #6
    Sattwa06
    Registered Users Posts: 32 ✭Sattwa06


    Fann Linn wrote: »
    Had one of them on my head in the early 80s as part of 20 Inf Batt FCA. ðŸ˜႒

    Agus mise freisin ... (Complacht na bfFiann)


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  • #7
    Stovepipe
    Registered Users Posts: 2,979 ✭✭✭Stovepipe


    The DF never had the Sten; we had the Carl Gustav M 45, which looked similar, and the Brodie helmet was replaced by the British 1944 pattern (the turtle helmet), which was utter ****e by the time I got to wear it for mortar firing in the FCA in the 1980s. Dispatch riders may have had the British para helmet with leather "neck", but I'm not exactly sure about that. The Vickers helmet was widely disliked because it was big, heavy and men were not fitted properly for it so it slid all over their heads and when men lay down to fire, their pack always knocked it forward over their eyes. The Brodie was a better fit. The first generation Rabintex was a good unit but had to be fitted properly and that was not always understood by storemen and soldiers alike. I saw them "field-modified" to fit. In the Air Corps, the pilot's and aircrew helmets were individually fitted and the pilots wore skullcaps under them.


  • #8
    V8 Interceptor
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 1,332 ✭✭✭V8 Interceptor


    I recall a British reel of film showing the Free State army on manoeuvres during WW2 with the commentary "Here they are with their German helmets, ashamed of their Britishness".


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