The
Brodie helmet, called
Helmet, steel, Mark I helmet in Britain and the
M1917 Helmet in the U.S. was a
steel combat helmet designed and patented in 1915 by the Briton John L. Brodie. Colloquially, it was also called the
shrapnel helmet or
Tommy helmet, and in the
United States known as a
doughboy helmet.
[1]During the first year of World War I, none of the combatants offered steel helmets to their troops. The soldiers of most nations went into battle wearing simple cloth caps that offered virtually no protection from modern weapons. German troops wore the traditional leather Pickelhaube, also of little protective value.
The huge number of lethal head wounds that modern weapons were inflicting upon the French Army led them to introduce the first of the modern steel helmets in the summer of 1915.[2] The first French helmets were bowl-shaped steel "skullcaps" worn under the cloth caps. However, these rudimentary helmets were soon replaced by the Model 1915 Adrian helmet, (designed by August-Louise Adrian).[3] The idea was later adopted by numerous other combatant nations.
At about the same time, the British War Office had also seen a similar need for steel helmets. The War Office Invention Department was asked to evaluate the French design but they decided that it was not strong enough and was too complex to be swiftly manufactured - the British industry was not geared up to an all-out effort of war production in the initial stages of World War I, which also led to the shell shortage of 1915.
