Stahlhelm M1916 (WW1 german helmet)

The Stahlhelm ('steel helmet') is a German military steel helmet to provide protection against shrapnel and fragments of grenades. The German Army began to replace the traditional boiled leather Pickelhaube ('spiked helmet') with the Stahlhelm in 1916. The design had side-mounted horn-like ventilator lugs which were support for an additional steel brow plate or Stirnpanzer, which only ever saw limited use by snipers and trench raiding parties, as it was too heavy. Reserve Lieutenant Walter Schulze described his combat introduction to the helmet on the Somme, 29 July 1916: "... suddenly, with a great clanging thud, I was hit on the forehead and knocked flying onto the floor of the trench... a shrapnel bullet had hit my helmet with great violence, without piercing it, but sufficiently hard to dent it. If I had, as had been usual up until a few days previously, been wearing a cap, then the Regiment would have had one more man killed." Photogrammetry capture: © Saulius Zaura www.dronepartner.lt 2022