On display at the West Point Museum are a number of experimental World War One era helmets by a number of nations, including the US. World War One was a turning point in a lot of areas, not least of which being the return of effective body armor.
As firearms development made plate armor less and less effective on the battlefield, military planners simply gave up on the whole concept. Armor capable of stopping a bullet was so heavy that a soldier encumbered with it would be virtually immobile, so armor vanished and was replaced with… well, not much. The British famously gave their soldiers red coats, so that when they were inevitably shot (red is a bad color to wear as camouflage pretty much *anywhere*), the blood would not be obvious.
But by the time WWI rolled around, a whole lot of soldiers were dying due to head wounds from shrapnel. Thus the need for helmets became blisteringly obvious. The Germans produced their famous design, which survives to this day in general outline. The Brits produced their shallow “war hat” design… terrible for protection from the side, but effective from above. The United States put no helmet of its own into production until the M1 steel pot of WWII.
However, while the US did not field it own helmets in any quantity, it did nevertheless test a number of designs. One such helmet is the Model 8 Helmet shown below. It had a steel pot design much like that which would come along more than two decades later… and an armored face mask which would provide a measure of protection from the front. The Ford Motor Company manufactured a surprising 1,300 of these helmets, designed by curator of arms and armor at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, based on medieval helmet design. They apparently worked, but they messed with vision due to the narrow eyeslits.
More photos of Model 8 helmets can be seen HERE.
The concept certainly has flaws (vision and breathing, for example), but I’d be very interested in seeing a modern version. Made out of modern composites, with polycarbonate lenses over improved eyeslits, such a helmet would provide additional protection. Plus… properly painted, they could give soldiers a terrifying visage. Imagine if a helmet like this was the last thing Osama Bin Laden saw.
