A new acquisition, my first in nine months (money’s too tight to mention). But irresistable even at *that price*. This is one of the myriad versions of what we know as the Swiss M48, in this case an ex-UK HSRAC shell with a Swiss strap, liner, and shadow-black granulated paint. It’s a nice one and I am enormously pleased to have it. This one, unlike some of these conversions, does *not* have Swiss vents punched into the upper rear.

According to the excellent WWH site around 13,000 surplus HSAT, HSRAC, and DR shells were acquired by the Swiss in 1946, and mostly refurbished with a variety of Swiss liners and straps. This is a ex Armoured Corps helmet. Note that this one has not had the Swiss vents added - that seems to have happened with some of the early conversions.

Many of these helmets seemed to have been passed to the Croats during the 1990s wars - they were frequently seen on news broadcasts - and those probably ended up in the scrapheap. That goes some way to explaining why the M48 (and the later M48/62, which is a totally Swiss-made product) is a comparatively uncommon helmet.

View from above showing the blind rivet filling the hole where the HSRAC nut&bolt liner fitting would have been.

A stamp - annoyingly slightly illegible. The date can’t actually be ‘1900′ and probably not ‘1950′ either, so I’m going with 1960.
The stamp also reads “Zahler AG - SACK-FRABRIK-BERN’ Possibly.
There is another stamp on another lobe which might read “WAEBISCHER BERN” Perhaps. Distressing lack of fabled Swiss precision in the stamping department, really.

Critical clue to tell a HSRAC shell conversion from a genuine Swiss M48/62 - see the blind rivet to the right of the image, between the sets of three and two rivets for the Swiss liner and strap, and the applied rim, replaced in the Swiss product by a small and simple up and out fold.

Click to enlarge the picture