German Model 1918 cut out steel helmet

German Model 1918 steel helmet with leather liner and chinstrap. The helmet has cut-out ear sections in the brim to assist hearing. The exterior and interior are painted in an overall grey green colour which appears to have run during application. The leather liner is attached to the helmet by three rivets. Three leather pads, backed with cotton pouches, are spaced equally around the leather liner, each containing a horsehair cushion.

There are six lace holes at the top of the liner, with a length of leather thonging threaded through them. The leather chinstrap can be adjusted by a pair of steel sliding buckles, and is attached to rings riveted to the leather headband of the liner. Inside the crown are the stamped markings 'T[or 'F'] 65', which may indicate the manufacturer and helmet size, although German helmets were normally manufactured in even sizes only. A pair of ventilating lugs on the brow of the helmet also provide the mounting points for a detachable brow plate.

The Model 1918 cut out steel helmet was a variation to the standard Model 1918 helmet, where sections were removed from the brim adjacent to the wearers ears to improve general hearing. It also made it possible to use field telephones without removing the helmet. The original Stahlschutzhelm, or 'steel protective helmet', was widely introduced into German Army service in early 1916, following a series of trials the previous year. It replaced the various types of headdress (including caps, pickelhaubes and shakos) previously worn, which offered little or no protection to the wearer from shell splinters or shrapnel balls.

The new helmet (known as the Model 1916) was carefully designed to protect the neck and ears of the wearer, while still allowing excellent frontal vision and adequate ventilation. Provision was made for the addition of a detachable brow plate, making the helmet fully resistant to small-arms fire at ranges of 50 metres or more. The design was certainly the most effective piece of protective headgear produced by any of the combatants during the war, and the basic shape, with various modifications, remained in production until the end of the Second World War.

In 1917, owing to shortages, the leather helmet lining band was altered to one made of sheet metal. Externally, this Model 1917 was identical to its predecessor, and it was not until 1918 that modifications were made to the shell itself. A number of helmets (approximately 100,000) were produced with the cut-out sections over the ear.

The majority of Model 1918 helmets were externally similar to the earlier design, but the two rivets for the chinstrap lugs, which had been a feature of the outer shell of the Model 1916, were removed. As the detachable chinstrap of the Model 1916 was frequently misplaced, it was replaced by a new two-piece strap with a central steel carbine clip, the attachment points for this new strap being riveted directly to the liner.