US M1 Helmet
Here is a very early M1 shell manufactured by McCord, front seam and fixed chinstrap bales, the chinstrap is the short variant found on early manufactured M1 helmets. The faint heat stamp found on the inside front of the shell is 222E which indicates a production date of July 1942.
The liner has been made by "Hood Rubber Co" of Watertown, Massachusetts, which produced a low pressure liner (the only other manufacturer to do so was "St Clair Rubber Co" of Michigan), the differences of these to the more common high pressure liners was that they could be made at a faster rate and were less expensive, though they were not as robust as the high pressure made examples. Hood Rubber manufactured liners from April 1942 until sometime early in 1944 when their contract was not renewed, they made a total of 206,000 units, the least amount of any liner manufacturer of WWII, which makes these HR examples one of the rarest.
The liner has been made by "Hood Rubber Co" of Watertown, Massachusetts, which produced a low pressure liner (the only other manufacturer to do so was "St Clair Rubber Co" of Michigan), the differences of these to the more common high pressure liners was that they could be made at a faster rate and were less expensive, though they were not as robust as the high pressure made examples. Hood Rubber manufactured liners from April 1942 until sometime early in 1944 when their contract was not renewed, they made a total of 206,000 units, the least amount of any liner manufacturer of WWII, which makes these HR examples one of the rarest.
