I know those who have frequented this forum for a while have been subjected to my posts regarding Wartime Civil Defense items. I am not really sure why they appeal to me other than having been a military brat and living in the civilian environment while my father was away.Although my father was an Army Air Corps Radio Gunner during WWII who continued his service in the Air Force upon reenlisting after the war,I only had experience with hearing about the Nazi side of things.We lived in a small village in Belgium where the sole German was a former Wehrmacht soldier who gardened in his "Dice Shakers" I always wondered why he was grouchy! His son Thomas and I were friends and always played soldier together with our other friends from the village,but when speaking with the locals there was always discussion about what they did as civilians during the war to cope with the threat of air raids.No one ever mentioned wearing helmets.The cellars were always regarded as a safe comfortable place rather than the dark damp frightening places we see in horror films here.I have often wondered about the conditions in Japan during the air raids that inevitably came, raining fire from the sky.What a daunting situation it must have been to try and protect oneself and family from the devastation showering down from above.and in most cases,No Cellars.

After paying attention to the many variations of civil helmets available during the war, I began to try and assemble a collection of variants simply because I found them interesting.They were also less expensive than (although much less exciting to most) combat helmets.It has become quite apparent to me that there were many more variations than I ever expected so I have decided to try to document examples as I come across them to hopefully to create a database if you will, of pieces I encounter.This is not to say that I won’t ever mistakenly add a Construction helmet or batters helmet but perhaps down the road as the knowledge base continues to grow I will leave something behind to build upon.Even the poorest of fathers would have most likely passed on a few drinks or treats to put a helmet on his children especially if mother insisted.Not that they would have done much other than give a frail sense of being prepared… Here is my latest example It resembles a Jockeys hat and is made of a lightweight pressed fiber material with cotton chin straps. a band of magnetic metal surrounds the helmet and the vent eyelets are also magnetic however, the rivets retaining the band and headliner straps are non magnetic and possibly aluminum or pot metal.

Click to enlarge the picture