At the moment I’m doing some research on the wartime medic M1 helmet. After scanning a great deal of wartime footage for variations in paint, I stumbled on some 5-panel helmets. Not only seem these helmets to be rare, also the cross is always the same type: a red cross on a white circle, the cross doesn’t touch the rim of the white circle (is totally encircled by white). (So far I haven’t seen the rectangular or transparant versions on a 5-panel helmet.)

Does anyone know more about this type of stenciling on medic helmets during the war? Perhaps more photo’s for comparrisson? Or just a good book on medic helmets with the 5-panel version described?

Regards, Bryan

Some reference material so far:

A famous picture, al kinds of variations on the m1 medic helmet are visible, bottom left side a 5-panel helmet, Normandy 1944:

Castellonorato 1944:

This whole div. seems to use "5-panels":

Display at the National Museum of Military History, Diekirch, Luxembourg; in the back a 5-panal helmet: