My grandfather landed at Omaha on D-Day and had told me that during training for the amphibious landings, everyone was told to NOT strap up while going down the cargo nets onto the landing craft. The reason being that if you fell off the netting and into the water, the force of the water pushing your helmet up would cause the strap to literally choke you out. As a result, virtually no one wore the straps from then on. Also, anyone seen wearing their chin strap was avoided like the plague because it usually indicated he was a replacement and therefore considered inexperienced in the field, just like seeing anyone with clean new boots. My grandfather said they would coat their new boots (if they were lucky to get any in the field) with ox blood to make them look used. Nobody ever wanted to be confused for a FNG.
I've seen guys get choked by their chin straps, myself included, when the lip of the help got caught on something. Usually pulling the soldier upwards or backwards. Fortunately no one it happened to that I saw, myself included, was seriously hurt. And in Iraq, some guys did have their helmets blown off by close proximity explosions (tearing the chin strap in teh process). One guy was in his guard tower when it got hit by an RPG and it tore his helmet off his head. He was ok though.
the strip is not around your neck, but up your chin....i feel this is such an american bs it's incredible! choke you under water, because you're breathing down there? wtf? with that reasoning, nobody should ever fasten the helmet, bikers, skiers, constr. workers.....i mean their heads might come off! sheeeeesh....
@@ivok9846 you have to remember that those helmets were made out of steel! And also mass produced, everyone's heads are not the same size so more likely than not the helmets are oversized! And people who didn't have it properly fitted in the first place! You've also compared new helmets that are designed for completely different environments and scenarios. Those modern helmets have evolved in the last 80 years! Improving with new technology! And I'm curious how helmets will continue to evolve in the next 100 years!!!
My impression of the chin strap rumor was always that it was kind of blown out of proportion by post-war pop-historians. Kind of like the myth of the M1 ping that supposedly got many US soldiers killed, even though the sound of an ejecting clip would be nearly inaudible in the middle of a fire-fight between dozens of soldiers. Occam's razor offers the best explanation: nobody wants a canvas strap rubbing up against their face 24 hours a day lol
@@Whiteshell204 Ever notice the Trials only found them guilty for roughly 300,000 deaths? Nothing close to the 6 million figure we were taught. There's even newspapers from before the war spouting the same rubbish about the 6 million that were persecuted in Europe. That figure counts the ones being persecuted by the Russians for over 200 years.
@@Whiteshell204 That "documentary" is neo-nazi revisionist propaganda, and it gets almost everything wrong from the very first episode. Just a desperate attempt to make the nazis look like the victims.
I tend to agree that it's a myth, but I think the myth was going on during the war, rather than emerge post-war. I remember a friend of mine telling me about artillery in WWII, and mentioned specifically the helmet strap. He said artillery was the scariest thing in the war for him, and said that while other troopers were shitting and pissing in their pants, he was "barfing". I never thought to ask him if he meant belching or vomiting. Thank god I've lived a long life without experiencing war firsthand.
Is his razor single or double edged? Occams razor is not a steadfast deductive brick wall of reasoning, in fact it is an abductive heuristic to develop models, not choose the easiest among possibilities, that’s KISS. For example, Oswald killed JFK because one nut shooting one rifle is the easiest solution. Really, then why did it take over 20,000 sheets of paper to support that simple theory? Not saying he didn’t, just pointing out there was no smoking gun or conviction, so the “simplest” is often unproven and Occams Razor is not a justification for the easy way out.
body armor wasnt realistic in those days. tech wasnt there and its generally very expensive to this day. not to mention most of the rounds they were shooting back then would defeat most body armor available today.
Body armor was tried in WWI, and Korea, and Viet Nam. It was either impractical or only partially effective. The PASGT system of the early 80s was a major step forward, but still to heavy and hot.
They had armor. It was cumbersome. In WWI almost everyone tried some sort of armor, I believe there's instances of it in the American Civil War too, but it was mostly just guys tinkering on the side. With ceramics and Kevlar nowadays armor is much better.
My grandfather toured the Pacific, he had shrapnel/a bullet hit his helmet. He said that he told his platoon to strap helmets during combat because if their helmet fell off and shrapnel hit their heads, they’d be worse off. Plus, running soldiers over rough terrain would at times hold their helmets on with one hand, two hands were better than one for fighting.
A friend of mine in Vietnam (Burgess) was running forward in a firefight when he tripped.... at the same time, a round from an AK went through his helmet, creased his skull, lifted him up and over on his back and cold cocked him. Doc ran up, saw the hole in the helmet (which had fallen down over Burgess' face) and the blood pouring out of the helmet and figured he was dead, and moved on to others. about ten minutes later he came back and Burgess was just sitting there, blood all over him, and a crease down the middle of his scalp. Except for the lost skin, he was fine. It was a million dollar wound and sent him home. Burgess always was lucky, I'll say that for him.
@@xczechr Then it was a group "misremembering".... it was confirmed by several others AND, he had a large divot taken out of his scalp.... and WHEN did anything made for the military ever function up to specifications. It was 1969 and I still remember.
I remember my dad telling about a family member who had a shot hit just right from the side which caused it to go up and around like you said. Though it went from ear to ear instead of front to back in the helmet.
@@xczechr I accidently step on my little dogs toy bare foot and I go flying across the room, I can believe a bullet would also send me flying just from the shock of what is happening let alone the kinetic force. lol
My father fought in the Infantry, Italy WW2. (Yes, I'm old). He told me they didn't wear their chin straps because of the rumor that, a close artillery miss could take your head off. When his column was hit by 88s a little North of Rome, they lost six men killed, with others wounded. He was hit 4 places (shoulder, upper lip, leg and left index finger). He remembered getting as low as he could, and trying to put his helmet back on, while still being shelled. He didn't know why his helmet just kept flopping around, as he tried to grab it, in the dust/smoke. It was because his finger was mostly blown off. I have wonder, just how many G.I.s actually LOST their lives from NOT having their helmets strapped on. Having it fall off during combat just before a wound, accidentally giving away their location when one fell off, while sneaking along a trail, or just the distraction of trying to find it and put it back on in a fight, must have cause the death of many. Soldiers from other countries heads didn't seem to fly off, and they ALL wore them strapped.
@bob smoot, my story goes as such. I was told not to wear the chin strap on my helmet for the same reason as every body else, close explosions ect. But my LT told us we were still required to wear that helmet, and he didn’t care about the strap. Wearing that helmet came into sharp focus for me in August 1967. A lot of infantry companies, when in the rear for a break, guarded the bridges on highway 1. We were on bridge guard on 3 bridges just north of thunder mountain. While walking a road patrol between the bridges, I was hit in the head by a spent round. Never heard it, 1second I was walking, and the next I was lying on the ground with my ears ringing. About 1inch above my right ear, my helmet had a dent about 1 1/2 inch across and 1inch deep. Probably at least a fractured scull if not for that helmet. I didn’t bitch about it too much after that.
SonsOfLorgar, possibly, but don’t know for sure. The vc were setting a lot of booby traps/ “ IED’S” along the highway all the time, that’s the reason for all the patrols. Wasn’t there at the time, but our Delta company was there when the vc were setting a tank trap up close to thunder mountain when the damn thing blew up on them. Didn’t find nothin but pieces parts. One of their LT’S, (Fred Downs) wrote a book called the”killing zone”, pretty good info in his book about that and our whole unit in fact.
At Ft Benning in 1969, one class was taught by a 1LT. In front of his lectern was a steel pot which had been shredded. The LT opened the class by asking if anybody thought the person wearing the helmet when this happened had survived. The response was unanimous (and horrified) no!. His response: well, I was wearing it. He said that he had his chin strap very loose, and when crossing a rice paddy a mortar hit withing 10 yards of him, knocking him over. When he stood up, his platoon sergeant couldn't believe he wasn't dead. His best guess was that the shock wave had lifted the helmet up until the chin strap stopped it, a cloud of shrapnel had riddled it, and the helmet had then fallen back onto his head. It was pretty impressive.
A friend of mine, that I flew with in a National Guard aviation unit, always wore his chin strap. One time I asked him why and he told me his story: He arrived in Da Nang (Vietnam) in 1968 as an MP. The guy he was replacing said he'd never even worn his helmet during his tour because it was so quiet in that area. Two weeks later the Tet Offensive began. Ron was never out of his helmet for the rest of the year. Early into the offensive he was approaching a building in Da Nang and saw an RPG poke out of a window. He dove behind a concrete wall just as it was fired at him. His helmet came off (because it wasn't strapped) and the RPG hit the wall right where he was. It spalled off a bunch of concrete on his side of the wall, and some of it went into the top of his scalp. He has never worn a helmet without strapping it under his chin since. He said he still had bits of concrete surfacing from time to time.
Remember the scene in Blackhawk Down when the Delta lead told the Ranger to get away from the walls when out in the streets. Spall from an RPG that hits a wall will kill you.
@@specag31 I always wondered about that line. It was in the book too, where IIRC (been awhile) the explanation was that RPGs "hug walls", which didn't seem plausible to me. Your explanation makes much more sense. Ricochets and spallation from hits to the wall near you
@@jakeg3733 I was taught in basic training and after to always stay a few inches off of walls because bullets will travel down the walls. It didn’t seem possible to me either but I still did what I was told. I would really like to test that theory though
@@RapidRedRider @Jake G The whole bullets follow walls thing comes from just poking a gun out around a corner without looking and shooting. Those shots usually follow right along the wall since you would usually shoot parallel to the wall, more or less. You don't want to shoot the wall 3 feet in front of you, after all.
@@specag31 bullets also tend to skip if they hit a hard surface at an extreme angle which means if you are pressed up against a wall you could be in the path of bullets that may not have even be fired directly at you. I think of it like skipping a rock off a pond but without gravity pulling the rock back to the pond the “rock” would continue in a trajectory that will remain low to the pond for a long distance. Or in this case the bullet to the wall.
Intuitively, I'd imagine if a blast was strong enough to cause that kind of upward force that the blast hitting the helmet upward would snap your neck, then the blast is also strong enough to cause significant blast trauma to organs, enough where you're probably dead anyway. I know there was one report provided by a military person, but it may have been exaggerated or possibly mistaken as to how that soldier's neck was actually broken.
All it takes to break your neck is to hit the ground the wrong way, and considering that the only response to being shelled that could potentially raise your chance of survival is to get as close to the ground as possible in the shortest amount of time: I imagine that someone throwing themselves to ground with a heavy object encompassing their head in a panic, on rough terrain, could run the risk of damaging their spine. I don't quite remember where I heard the story, but: I heard of an auto-rifleman who lost a tooth on the back sight of his SAW not too long ago while running react-to-fire drills. When he found his tooth and went to the dentist, the dentist confirmed that he in fact, had another mans tooth in his possession, meaning in that exact same spot on the range he was drilling on; someone else had succumbed to that very same accident. Basically, once shit hits the fan and the adrenaline takes over ones faculties; people become incredibly accident prone, which in turn, is largely what combat helmets are for in the first place.
yeah this story on the video is 100% an anecdote..... and likely caused much more harm than good, today we enforce it in the military to keep chin straps ON AT ALL TIMES. people dont strap them because usually it's hot af and you're doing hard warfighting and the strap is uncomfortable. it's the same reason people unstrap their helmets on the sideline during football XD
@@Yora21 yes. and its much easier to deal with the consequences of a spinal injury than a brain inujury caused by the same traumatic force. Priorities.
I think they should have developed breaking mechanism to the helmet strap so it can be strapped safely like how older more brittle type of celluloid films are preferred for old or expensive cameras because you would rather to have a broken film than broken camera.
It's a great example of how your brain focuses on rare scary things instead of actual danger. The most dangerous thing to you in reality is falling and hitting your head, or a piece of shrapnel hitting your head. That was much more likely, and for that you NEED to have your chin strap on. The neck-breaking and H2H combat are extremely rare cases, if they even happened at all. But they were so scared of it that they planned for THAT scenario instead of something like falling and cracking your skull open, which was a very real possibility. It's like how supposedly in WWI they saw a sharp increase in traumatic brain injuries after beginning to use the helmet, and they thought the helmet was bad for a bit. Nope, the helmet was just turning lethal injuries into less lethal and non-lethal injuries. Like getting concussions instead of having brains painted on the trench by shrapnel.
If the blast from a shell can cause the chin strap to break your neck then it is powerful enough to kill you with or without the helmet any way. The thing about explosions is that the shockwave can cause internal injury’s. the victim may appear totally in harmed but a later post Morton shows massive internal injuries and bleeding.
Yes, it is possible for a blast to rip a person's helmet off. Happened to a guy in Iraq when his guard tower was hit by an RPG. he was fine, but his helmet was torn clean off his head.
@Communists are Gross "If the blast from a shell can cause the chin strap to break your neck then it is powerful enough to kill you with or without the helmet any way. " This is wrong, and I corrected it. I suggest you read it again.
exactly my thoughts. but back in the days and with the high ammount of losses, not every body was disected. But i also think that if a shockwave rips so hard on your helmet that it breaks your neck or chokes you to death, it would also cause your lungs to collapse.
@@snakeplissken2148 not true. Explosions are weird like that. I've had the wind knocked out of me, and even had my heart stop from an explosion in Iraq. Others have had their helmets ripped off but never got the wind knocked out of them. Lots of factors affect how an explosion is felt and the impact it has on things around it.
my grandfather was a mechanic in WW2 and fought in north africa. they fixed tanks etc and got into a few german ones. in one the crew were still in place but dead, he reckons the driver was frozen at his controls without a mark on him.
The helmet isn't stopping bullets, but it's going to be protecting your head from a lot of shrapnel and that, to me, seems far more likely to be a scenario you find yourself compared to any of these other crazy stories about broken necks that sound like they were battlefield rumors.
@@MH-jj2ss barely, and really only small caliber bullets at that. Proper battle rifles are going to put a fat hole through your hat, that's why it's better to not get hit, than to try to mitigate damage.
@@mactonightrepealtheth unless you get hit just right for it to deflect off your helmet, most rifle rounds will punhc right through, and full rifle rounds(7.62x51mm Nato and 7.62x54mmR(mosin bullet)), would probably break your neck even if they deflected off, 7.62x31mm might achieve the same effect
Anyone know the history of our modern helmets? Why are they based on the German WWII design? Are the massive bulges on the side to make it stronger? The shape is so distinctive that some soldiers nicknamed it the Fritz helmet.
I was in the army in the early 1980s and heard the same thing. Strapping the chin strap could result in the helmet being blown back by a concussion and taking your head with it. Old myths die hard.
That is still taught as recently as 2016. That's when I got out and everyone was still being trained to unbuckle their helmet when taking artillery or mortar fire.
@@Hercules1-v9m I find that hard to believe. I was an Airborne Infantryman from 2005-2010 and the most I ever got away with was having strapped under my chin instead of on the chin, and only during the day. Night vision wouldn’t stay in front of my eye unless it was on the chin properly.
VIETNAM 1967-1969. THE HELMET WAS SO DAMN HEAVY, I SELDOM EVER WORE IT. PLUS....IN JUNGLE HEAT & HUMIDITY.....IT WAS A REAL,PAIN TO WEAR. I USUALLY ONLY WORE MY BASEBALL HAT!!!
We had a gunny that would always say, “You think you’re John Wayne?” whenever he’d see us with our chinstraps undone We had a Sgt. that was aggressive when it came to our helmets and chinstraps. When he was a LCPL, overseas, he was yelled at for not wearing his, but out of belligerence he took it off and placed it on a trailer next to him when he was standing around. A sniper shot at his head and barely missed. He said he never grabbed his helmet faster in his life and that it stayed glued to him after that.
Everyone had different options. My dad was in the Army in the early 70s and I asked him about this. He said he always had his helmet buttoned because he preferred to have both hands free to fight instead of running around with one hand holding his helmet.
The blast part is questionable, it's likely the concussion caused invisible internal injuries and the strap got the blame. But hand-to-hand combat is real, as is traveling over water in a landing craft or amphibious vehicle. There are situations that I'd want to lose it FAST. There are also times I'd want it strapped so.....
I feel if you get hand to hand and you don't use your helmet to bash a skull in via headbutting, you're not taking advantage of America's number 1 surprise, our thick ass skulls
If you're close enough for the concussive force of a blast to snap your neck via your helmet's chin strap, you're already dead. He was a doctor, not a physicist. _Maybe_ if a rock or dirt clod was ejected up at just the right angle it could impact his helmet with enough force without otherwise injuring him, but how likely would that have been vs him dying to loosing a precious half-second trying to keep his helmet on or to getting hit in the head by a rock falling from being blown into the air by an explosion? He was a doctor, not a statistician.
I am inclined to believe it simply from experience in a 'route clearance' unit in Iraq, we had multiple hits where guys inside the vehicle would have their helmets ripped off and in one case blown up and out of the turret landing a dozen meters or so away from the vehicle. Our ACHs were designed with break free webbing inside though, but when you factor the amount of force required to break that webbing and launch the ACH up and out that far, I am inclined to say it is plausible at least, if not probable.
The shockwave from an explosion causing internal injuries is a definite possibility,. There was a test conducted some years ago on using full faced helmets in order to protect troops from being shot in the face. However, it was found that shockwaves from explosions were far worse in a full faced helmet than standard open faced helmet since they would bounce a round the inside of the full faced helmets.. So concussive forces causing internal injuries are definitely a thing.
@@Riceball01 perhaps ironically, modern understanding of explosion physics and advances in computer modeling could probably mitigate those problems, but now the AP properties of rifle rounds are so high that the amount of weight on the neck and restrictions on breathing and situational awareness would still mean that such face armor would still be impractical even for longer distances where it might actually provide protection. Considering practical chest protection hasn't moved much past a single, small, mostly-flat plate front and back, I don't see bulletproof head protection in the near future.
In Austria 🇦🇹 Europe we had the same helmet but on the chin strap a kind of metal piece which opened easily when the pressure from the front was too high or from behind when a enemy soldier would strangle You. I still kept my old helmet after 35 years of duty beside my modern kevlar helmet. Greetings from Linz- Austria 🇦🇹😎👍✌️🌞🍺💪🐺
I have one of those Austrian surplus helmets here in the States! And excellent design. The liner with its leather parts is far more comfortable than the webbed liner of the US helmet.
It's not relevant to this topic, but I've always liked the name "Wolfgang". It's probably so common in German-speaking countries that no one there gives it a second thought, but I'm always pleasantly surprised to see it. :)
When I arrived at Ft. Bliss in late 1979 I was assigned to F Troop, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. At that time we were still wearing OD Green fatigues and the Vietnam era Steel Pot. SOP for the Regiment was no wearing of fastened chin straps in the field. We were to snap them, place them behind the helmet then place the elastic helmet band with the twin 'cat's eyes' to the rear, covering the chin strap which more or less held it in place. A couple of years later I PCS'ed to 1/33 Armored Battalion, 3rd Armored Division in West Germany. There they had already transitioned to the new, 1st generation, Kevlar helmet and SOP there was chin straps were to be fastened at anytime the helmet was worn. Boy, and God help you if the 1st Sergeant or Sergeant Major spotted you without it snapped. This then became the standard in every other unit I served in during my 22 year, active duty career. Cool Video!
Yes, in the 1980s (in 2nd Inf. Division, Korea and 9th Inf. Division in Ft. Lewis), we definitely had to keep our chin straps snapped (fastened around our chins, of course) whenever we wore our helmets. In Korea, we transitioned from the steel pots to the kevlar helmets in the summer of 1985 (B Co., 2nd Platoon, 1/17th Mech. Inf. "Buffaloes").
@@brp5497 >apparently knowing that deserts that you've previously lived in are fucking hot is being a military expert now XD man cant even handle light banter, truly a bruh moment
@@soni3608; Well, the most 'fun' were the ATEPs in New Mexico, North of Bliss. We called it "the broiler". 105+ degrees was not uncommon. Try being in a track in MOPP 4 while wearing the old M25 tanker's gas mask that had no drinking tube. Parts of our uniforms would be solid, crusted white from salt and sweat. Then when the sun set behind the mountains you'd feel like you were freezing to death. Days like those showed you what you were made of. I was in Saudi in 90-91 and it never felt as bad as Ft. Bliss and Ft. Irwin.
British troops used to have the lanyard for their pistol worn around their necks, but it was moved to the belt due to fears of an enemy soldier using it to strangle or control the officer in hand to hand combat. I believe it was one of those things that was thought might happen, but generally didn't.
An example of good risk management, I'd say. Even if the risk is minimal, there was no reason to risk it in the first place as it served no purpose and had no advantage, particularly given that WW1 British officers weren't issued a rifle, so any fighting they did do would probably be close quarters. Of course, the ultimately sensible thing was to remove the lanyard entirely and improve holsters so there was no need for the belt-and-braces approach of having both.
Did you know that the amount of head injuries in combat greatly increased once soldiers began wearing helmets? This is because they’d get hurt from shrapnel or bullets blunt force. But a soldier without a helmet would not worry as one hit to the head would kill him outright. Correlation ≠ Causation
Kind of similar as the "where to reinforce the planes" thing, where the places that *didn't* have bullet holes on returning planes should be reinforced, because getting hit there is what knocked it out of the sky, and the places that returning planes had holes were places that weren't critical to airworthiness.
We still wore steel pots when I was in the Army in the late 1980s. Most left the chin strap unbuckled because it was uncomfortable. I imagine the same thing applied in WWII. I never wore my strap buckled until the night I climbed up on my tank and the helmet fell off my head. We were parked next to a ravine, and it fell all the way down. Got it the next morning but still I learned my lesson.
We used the US helmet when I was in the Ozzie army in the 80's.The buckle was a small steel ball on a thin stem which fitted through a slot.I asked an NCO about the strange set up and he said they got rid of the normal buckle because necks were being snapped and with the new set up the ball would break off and allow the helmet to blow free from your head and thereby leaving your neck intact.Don't know how right this was but it made sense.You really do need to wear the chinstrap as the helmets fall off so easily.Maybe they thought it looked cooler to leave them unbuckled in the movies?
David Finch, where were you stationed? I went through basic in 1985 at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, in a steel pot. When I got to first duty station in Germany in November of that year, everyone already had steel pots. I don’t know how long they had them, but the newness had already worn off. They weren’t talking like they just got them.
@@mountainguyed67 At that time, I was stationed at Fort Hunter Liggett, which was a sub-post of Fort Ord, in California. Our job was to simulate a Soviet Motorized Rifle Company when the military wanted to test new equipment to see how they would fare vs. Red Force (USACDEC, "Vision to Victory, Sir!"). We were the ones who proved the SGT York Air Defense vehicle was crap, and we also proved the new Marine LAV was pretty good. Since we weren't a front line combat unit, we may have kept the steel pot longer then most (I left in 1989 and we still had them then.)
@@davidfinch7407 I’ve been to Hunter Liggett a few times, we once drove there on tank trails from Camp Roberts. I did nineteen years in National Guard after getting out of Regular Army. I went to Fort Ord a bunch of times too.
My old high school ROTC instructor had fought as an infantryman in WWII and Korea and he was convinced the chin strap could get you killed. Other vets told me the same thing, but many of them also claimed the M1 carbine would not penetrate the winter clothing of Chicom troops. That myth has long since been dispelled, but there is no point in arguing it with a vet. I too hated the chin strap. The M1 helmet would bounce around on your head, whether you had the strap connected or not. The strap chaffed the neck and chin while the weight of the helmet strained the neck muscles. Thankfully, being Air Force, I rarely had to done the M1 helmet, but I was once sent on a deployment to Egypt where we were simulating wartime conditions. The Army Colonel I worked for was a stickler for using the chin strap. We were wearing the PAGT helmet which had replaced the M1. I found it to be a bit more stable and comfortable than the M1, but I still hated the chin strap. I would only connect it when I saw him coming. Shades of George Patton.
" The strap chaffed the neck and chin " and that's why people didn't want to wear them. Get some sand and dirt grit in between the strap and your skin and it really doesn't take long.
The old "battle rifle" rounds would go through the side of an APC, so people did NOT like "downgrading" to carbine bullets, even though you could dump fifteen downrange for every five Garand rounds. The number one gunshot death in america? The 22. long rifle. The whole "stopping power" myth comes from the British transitioning from massive .57 calibre hollow point rounds that blew arms and legs off to .45 copper jacket rounds that went straight through without stopping.
@Colonel K The M1 carbine's .30 round has retains more energy at 100 yards than a .357 Magnum with a 158 grain bullet at the end of its revolver's muzzle.
It wasn't that the M1 couldn't penetrate the clothing it was the Chinese soldiers were charging them while on something that made them feel no pain, it was some kind of Opium abstract that the Chinese army gave to their troops that they would take a few minutes before going into combat.
@@Jarlemoore1 I've heard that rumor before but I've never known a Korean War vet mention it, nor have I seen any valid informational source to confirm or deny it. If you know of one, please post it so I can research it further.
Patton was a man like any other. He was good at his job, but he still could make errors. So I think it is good to have someone that validly disagrees with you from time to time.
All I know is I wore the old style helmet in Germany in the mid 80’s and they were painfully heavy. It was tough on your neck. This was during exercises. I can’t imagine wearing one virtually all the time.
During my service we never fastened the chin strap. This was due to the fact the strap would rub against the skin on the side of the chin and leave a painful raw spot.
Chafing is the worst. It's funny how we can have the largest military budget in the world but it takes us decades to make a chin strap comfortable enough to be used
The chinstrap can be pretty loose actually, mine doesnt even touch my neck. It still keeps it on my head so it doesnt fall off, which is it purpose. I work as a surveyour and while im out on construction sites we have to wear helmets with chin strap buckled. I have it pretty loose, the most irretsting thing is the fact that ive been used to just easily put it on take it off without having to use my both hands to buckle that chin strap. And at winter time if i zip my jacket all the way up my neck and wear a buff around my neck i have to take a little time arranging things so that its comfortable. Not buckling a chin strap as a soldier in combat is down right idiotic, why on earth wouldnt you do that. I thought it mostly was a movie thing because it doesnt "look cool". I can see the classic *one hand on top of the helmet rifle in the other while running through artillery and machine gun fire* scene and who in the right mind would think that is effective, or an efficient trade off for whatever reason you tell yourself you dont need to buckle up.
I also wore those string sandals with a single strap between the big toe for like 3 months while i was backpacking in Australia, i got sore between the toes to the point of bleeding. Then suddenly my skin adapted and those sandals soon where a part of my feet. No issues.
The lack of the use of chin straps in my personal experience as a Marine in Viet Nam (Jan '69-Aug '70) was, yes, they were uncomfortable and annoying in temperatures that were regularly 90-100 degrees with humidity to match. Although I actually knew a couple of Marines that used their chin straps regularly, especially on night ambushes. Just reinforces that there are exceptions to nearly all commonalities. 🤨🙄😆✌
Haha thankyou! All these comments of war hacks. In reality, It was uncomfortable, irritated sensitive skin after a dry shave, made it easy to remove and was just a classic salty move.
as with many things, there is a time and a place to wear a chin strap, and are times and places where you don't, recognizing those times and places, and acting accordingly seems to be the appropriate strategy. for example i am vice chief of a fire fighter department, we wear helmets obviously, but the guy who goes into a burning building is obviously also wearing the strap, while guy who is standing away from the action to warn traffic is not going to bother with that, he's not wearing the helmet for protection, but to make sure drivers can see him in the dark, he's also not bending over to the point where the helmet could fall, so he does not need the strap.
From my experience as a collector, they also itch horribly if you have even slight stubble on your face. I imagine shaving was hard to keep up with in the field sometimes.
Ex soldier here. The chin strap had a quick release mechanism that would break away if to much head ripping force was applied. Ya didn't wear the damn thing because it was uncomfortable. The helmet stayed on quite well without the strap.
we must have had newer kevlar i reckon, because i had never heard about this myth until today. i look back at my youth and wonder how the f i'm still alive
family member gave me their helmet from when they were in service (in the 70's) and that little metal part on the strap was already broken . makes sense now
During my time in German military i learned that our helmet straps also were build in a way that they fail if a certain forced was excerted. They explained it that if a bullet or other stuff were to hit the helmet it's supposed to come of and take the majority of the energy with it instead of having the neck absorb the whole impact.
used to be common practice to avoid heavy concussions from fragments, helmets were less protective back then to the wearers comfort so there was no padding to reduce concussive movement
We still used the M1 helmets when I was in the Navy in the early 1970s. Our helmets had the quick release straps, but we would sometimes "loosen" the clip if they were stiff to release. We all knew the dangers of blast taking the helmet off our heads and causing injury, but also the danger of a fall and hanging up the helmet on shipboard protrusions which could cause severe injury as well.
In 1980 when I enlisted we received a new chin strap that replaced the old WWII designed one. The new chin strap was clipped onto the M1 helmet on the same D-rings as the old one but had a snap button, a chin “cup” that was two pieces of cotton webbing that you put your chin in, and was adjustable by pulling on straps and clamping down the clamp clips to keep the chin strap in place. The helmet liner kept the thin leather strip. This was intended for ground troops. The airborne troops kept their M1 version with the helmet liner chin strap that was similar to the new ground troops version and neck strap. Eventually in 1984-85 we received the new Kevlar helmets with improved suspension system. I have a reproduction M1 with camouflage cover and the replacement chin strap as a “souvenir” of when I enlisted and I have 2 Kevlar helmets (the original “Fritz” and the “Mitch” version, that came later.
@@wilfredosoto2722 Didn't they also add the nape strap and change the material for the liner? I think chin strap got a color change too. WW2 is the brown patchwork looking interior, while Vietnam had the more green looking one with the A shaped clips.
Served as Infantry in Vietnam, 1968. No chin strap ever snapped ever by any man I witnessed. When you ran, you had you weapon in one hand, the other on the steel pot to keep it from bouncing off. It made a great pillow when you were allowed to sleep. Came back to the USA on a stretcher with a lot of holes in me.
this is very similar reason to why the british grenediers where there chin strap so loosley, because if a bullet or something larger would hit this huge hat it would snap your neck
When I was in, I found they got dirty and gross after a while. They would make your face break out. You had to wash them in the laundry to keep them clean. I assume 1 year in the field would make them feel like you were strapping some road kill to your face. As far as the explosion breaking your neck, I think that if you are close enough for that to happen, the explosion is probably going to end you.
Honestly this is one of those things I love when researching history, the fact that you might of specified that things should be *done like this* but when on the actual ground that becomes absolute nonsense and people will immediately do things how they like. For me it was the thing that took me out of my teenage statistic based 'video gamey' interest in history and into the more anecdotal and personal experience of history, because you suddenly realize just the impossible, improbable and unexpected will quickly become possible, probable and very common once you start looking for it
As a former Army Paratrooper, our chin straps had two snaps and an "A" frame that fit under and in front of the chin. It had to be strapped in order to prevent loss jumping from a plane. However, most the time the chin strap was not fasten for [one reason only] - IT WAS UNCOMFORTABLE.
My father was a proud member of Patton's 3rd. Army, 4th. Armored Division, serving in Europe during the Second World War. He told me when I was a very young boy that he and his comrades did not fasten their M1 Helmet chinstraps, and the reason he gave was that it could break a soldier's neck, were he too close to the concussion of a bomb blast.
Reading everyone’s stories in the comments is absolutely fascinating, thank you for allowing me to experience the many lives you all lead through your stories
I wore the M1 for a while but I found it hard to keep on while on the move without buckling up. And you don't want to run through a battlefield with one hand holding your helmet on your head.
If your helmet was bouncing around chances are that your head band and liner webbing was not adjusted correctly. Your helmet was designed to fit your head, not sit on top of it.
As an ex-IDF soldier I can state from experience that the only helmet strap that I felt comfortable with was the US parachute troops model with a chin cup & a side release lock which sits on your chin & not around your neck .
Marine infantry here, we still had the same stuff guys had in desert storm, so we would buy straps and replace it. One of the few time we got away with customizing gear. No one cared, or noticed.
@@theenzoferrari458 Happy Easter or Passover if you are celebrating, Gal Gadot served in the IDF as a conscript unlike most fake Hollyweird stars who have never given 5 minutes service to their country
I think you nailed it--a chinstrap that actually sits on your chin! You don't see many photos of modern American soldiers or Marines wearing their helmets without such a strap. Sad it took 70 years to figure this technology out!
I was a jarhead in an infantry unit. The only time we wore our chinstraps fastened was when we were in a parade or stood in a "static display," where civilians could view us.
My Dad told me once that you could tell the difference between the Army and Marines on statues based on how they wore their helmet straps. The Army let them hang loose cause it was rumored that if a round hit your helmet and it was strapped it would give you whiplash, but unstrapped it would just take the helmet off your head. The Marines had them strapped cause if a round hit, it would pull you back and get you out of the line of fire. I don't know if this is true or not but it's interesting to think about.
A round hitting you in the head throwing you back out of fire is complete BS, a round passes through you and barely moves your body. There's a clip of an afghan US soldier hit in the helmet, it's quite popular, he hardly moves.
@@Roebuck325 I think the logic is that if it's not fast enough to punch right through (like if it's a particularly big and slow bullet, or if they were from far enough away), it's gonna push the person in the opposite direction of where the bullet came from, so theoretically the saying does make sense. Either it basically kills you and passes right through, or it'll knock some sense into you.
@@Roebuck325 It's not complete BS. Bullets ricochet and lose a lot of energy (velocity) when bouncing off. Even helmets of WW2 might have stopped slow projectiles. I've seen projectiles very similar to those used by the Axis bouncing off mere dirt. Now imagine urban warfare, where there are many flat hard surfaces all around. Chances are very high you will see ricocheting projectiles. If you wanna see for yourself: try finding some videos from the Invasion of Iraq. I remember seeing quite a lot of footage of battles going down very long avenues in Bagdad and Fallujah. You could see projectiles "hopping" on the tarmac.
@@norrecvizharan1177 If you're hit in the direction of the bullet, it wont throw you out of the direction of the bullet, just away, so you can get hit more. Nothing about that theory adds up
if i'm remembering correctly, marine kevlar has snap-away buttons, and you are considered out of uniform if you're not wearing your chin strap. subtle things like this prevents bad guys from donning your homie's uniform, infiltrating your camp, and slaughtering you as you sleep. despite this, every marine agrees wearing a helmet without a chinstrap makes you look 1.5x cooler
Where the head goes, the body will follow. Jr High football lesson. But here's another example of chinstrap history. You could always identify a Roman Legionnaire by the scar under his chin from the strap cutting into the skin.
In Vietnam we wore the same helmets and in addition to having the buckle around the top of the helmet there was an inside strap that fit around the base of the back of your skull that was supposed to be a more secure way of wearing it. You never would want to have the buckles hanging loose because they snagged on dense jungle and made noise too.
My grandfather told me that they were told wearing your helmet with no chin strap gave you a higher chance of a bullet deflecting off of the helmet instead of penetrating it.
A report from WW1 claimed that when soldiers attempted to pull a fallen soldier from out of the mud, into which had fallen, face down, by pulling on his helmet to get him some air, they broke his neck in the process, because his chin strap had been fastened. Depends on the situation, I suppose.
When I went into the army in '75, we wore the same steel pots my dad wore in WW II. There were a couple of ways to fasten them. One way was very secure and if someone grabbed your helmet rim as a handle, they could easily break your neck with the added leverage. The same could happen from the concussion of a nearby explosion. The way we (and my dad's contemporaries) fastened theirs was by clicking the springy 'hook' part (sort of a snap latch) over a little ball on the other strap. That held the helmet from flying off if you were fighting or running or whatever, but if someone grabbed it or a shockwave hit it, the little ball would pull through the slot/snap and the helmet would be free. I'm sorry I couldn't give a better description, but if you look at the chin strap on those helmets, you'll see what I mean. Mine worked pretty well. Just pop out the liner and use it as a shaving or bathing basin and then, when you're done, dump the water out and put it back on as head protection. I also served again about 12 years later and, by then, we had the "Fritz" helmets. The Fritz was [probably better protection, but I liked the old steel pot more. Oh, and you could also dig with the old steel pots, too.
@@danielf1313 Ahh... so that's the nomenclature for it. Well, dad was still in combat in 1945, (he also served after the war), so that has to be the chin strap he was talking about. In the video, the chin strap they showed with the ball looked exactly like the one I was issued in 1975.
I was on a Recondo team in 2001, and they taught us to break sentrys' necks by grabbing their helmet from the back and basically cranking it like a steering wheel. Which seemed pretty graphic and hardcore to me at the time. Later on, post 9-11, when some guys in my unit got to talking with an old Englishman who had been in the SAS, it seemed downright humane compared to the stories he told us.
@@willchurch8376 Oh, those Ol' WW II commandos were pretty rough. But, today's Rangers and beyond are pretty damned physically and scientifically good at flipping someone's "off switch," too. I did like the Brit's Sykes-Fairbairn knife as a fighting/killing knife, but our USMC K-Bar was a better all around knife. The Sykes was a pretty good streamlined update of some types of medieval daggers and looked to be pretty good at it's job from the front, back or through the collar-bone -- especially with the element of surprise, but I doubt it was much of a "camp" knife compared to the K-Bar.
@@yepiratesworkshop7997 Heh, I had a (non-issued, surplus purchased) K-Bar back in the day, had about two hundred confirmed kills with it. Of course, those kills were 100% cans of tuna, sardines, soup, etc. Wouldn't want to use an SF knife on those.
I’m sure I remember seeing an American WWll movie filmed during that period based in the pacific theatre, where one newbie had his chin strap done up and veterans of the platoon said not to because of hand to hand fighting with the Japanese. A scene later showed the newbie in exactly that situation whereby the Japanese was pulling his helmet backwards from behind but he survived and thereafter never did his chin strap up again. Can’t remember the film though
When I entered the Army in 1968, I was surprised to learn that the chin strap was attached to the helmet liner and not to the steel pot itself. A lot of the publicity films actually show soldiers wearing only the liner.
Here I was thinking that films that portrayed the loose chin strap was just to make the characters look like they are in casual mode or have been doing the war stuff for ages so are relaxed.
The steel helmets used in the Finnish army during my conscription in the 90:s had two clasps to attach the chin strap, one was solid and the other one was split so it would come off if pulled with a moderate force. We were told to only use the solid one when hanging the helmet on our packs etc. to prevent it from accidentally falling and always the split one when actually wearing the helmet to prevent neck injury/choking in case the helmet got snagged on something. Explosive blasts were not mentioned though, just getting stuck on tree branches etc.
I have seen soldiers get the lip of their helmets get caught on things, and guys get jerked by the strap. even experienced it myself more than once. Fortunately no one got seriously injured, but sometimes it could have ended badly. But the helmets didn't stay on well without the strap, but we did undo it plenty. Also over time of constant use the strap gets nasty and itchy, and you have to scrub and clean it constantly.
During my service I used the old style helmets as well as the new style kevlar helmets. There was a huge difference in comfort between the two. The old style helmet was painfull on your skull and was moving around a lot, when you fastened the strap it was even more uncomfortable so nobody was fastening it. The kevlar helmets however were much much more comfortable and we wouldn't mind fastening the chin strap, however our chins would get all sweaty but other than that I wouldn't see how we wouldn't use it in combat situation as it really pivoted on your chin
The Kevlar helmets bear a strong resemblance to those used by the Germans in the World Wars for a good reason. In WW1, the German Army consulted a sculptor when designing their helmet. The artist pointed out that the human head is oval and flattened on top. The M-1 helmet was designed with the idea that the head was more spherical and as a result did not fit as well.
My time was after the 'steel pot' days, but I remember the old PAGST helmets and wore variants of the ACH during Iraq and Afghanistan. I am inclined to believe the trauma risk simply from experience in a 'route clearance' unit in Iraq, we had multiple hits where guys inside the vehicle would have their helmets ripped off and in one case blown up and out of the turret landing a dozen meters or so away from the vehicle. Our ACHs were designed with break free webbing inside though, but when you factor the amount of force required to break that webbing and launch the ACH up and out that far, I am inclined to say it is plausible at least, if not probable
I was taught that it took 50 pounds of force to break free strapping. That's probably about right although I never did any real research into it. Just trusted the riggers and black hats.
When I was in the US Army in the 1980s-90s, there was a period when I was initially issued the M1 helmet. During that time, I was also issued the new replacement chin strap - which did not have a quick release - just a button snap, was angled forward from the D rings on the helmet, and had a chin pocket for the point of the chin, rather than the old flat strap which went under the chin with the quick release. I recently put together an M1 helmet to match what I had when I was in the service, and was able to purchase the replacement strap, nomenclature: "STRAP, CHIN, GROUND TROOPS' HELMET, STEEL, M-1 1EA, DLA100-88-F-EC02 A 6/88" I assume from that description that the new strap was manufactured in 1988. I preferred the replacement strap, since it was more adjustable, comfortable due to what must have been a cotton blend chin piece sewed to the heavy duty nylon strap, stayed on my chin better, and stabilized the helmet when moving better as well. Later on my unit was issued the Kevlar PASGT which had a different chin strap system for the helmet.
@@lodragan i believe in the later m1 helmet guides issued with helmets. checked reynosas book on post ww2 m1s. all it says is "...and also contained a snap fastener for quick release."
We always wore the chin strap to our Kevlars. We never heard the rumor that it could result in a snapped cervical spine if an artillery or mortar round landed nearby. If it lands close enough to blow an unrestrained helmet off, I would say the risk of severe injury or death from shrapnel was greater.
Personal chinstrap use on variations of the Kevlar helmet from 1990-2015 over the course of multiple conflicts, operations, and wars. They work and save lives. Those that did not were injured or died under indirect / direct fire.
True story! During an attack by the 94th ID at the confluence of the Saar and Moselle Rivers in February 1945, an artillery round exploded close to my late father. The concussion knocked off his helmet and shrapnel cut his face. The helmet was damaged. He wanted to get off the line. The doc put on a bandage and sent him back. The Army gave him a purple heart. Years later he developed Parkinson's disease perhaps from the head injury. The VA took care of everything. 🙂Nevertheless, his decline was long. Now, would the concussion have broken his neck? Who knows? I suppose the quick release buckle did its job.
@@thurin84 Thanks. I never asked while he was alive. He had a scar on the tip of his nose. Had that shell fragment been an inch here or there, I wouldn't be typing this reply.
There’s also the fact that the old helmets, like old steel cars, were designed to keep their shape when impacted. Many decades of research of mashed bodies in car crashes, and pureed brains under helmets, led to cars and helmets being deformable, absorbing some of the impact shock. As such, having an old helmet unbuckled meant that if you got shot in the head, the helmet would fly off, greatly reducing the chance of the brain playing ping pong in the skull. Yes, you then had an unprotected head, but chances are you had been knocked flat, or ducked damn fast, so a second shot was likely to miss.
the M1 helmet won't stop a bullet. it's designed to protect the wearer from shrapnel and debris only. It's only the advent of modern composite materials like kevlar and light-weight ceramics which allow the modern ACH to protect the wearer from actual bullets.
When I was a young apprentice tradesman an old British ex commando told me that one way to take out a German sentry was to sneak up behind him, pull his helmet back over his head, this put the leather chin strap around his neck - a good strong twist of the helmet and he was dead in a few seconds. I asked could this happen to a British soldier, he said no because the British helmet chin straps were elastic
I was recently watching a U.S. Marine Corp training video on hand to hand combat and it mentioned leaving the helmet unstrapped so it could be quickly used as a shield or bludgeon in close quarters. It also mentioned that a strapped helmet on an enemy mad a convenient handle in a fight!
Yeah US Navy vet here (recent), but they always had us remove helmets when training abandon ship drills, since if you hit the water with your helmet strapped on, the water catching in the helmet supposedly will cause your heat to be jerked back and up while your body is entering the water, either choking you out or outright snapping your neck. The physics of concussive blasts are VERY similar to the physics of water entry. That is to say, compressed air acts very much like a fluid, and is outright treated as one in fluid dynamics. So I would wager there's more truth to that "myth" than people want to give it credit for. Modern day Humans have some religious propensity about opposing "old myths" without realizing many of them have more than a little truth to them. It's a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Just because something is a bit of an old wartime myth doesn't mean there isn't some truth to it, and ignoring that while on some crusade to look rational is the height of irrationality.
Ah yes a "muh-service-time-specialist" Air doesn't behave like a fluid because it can't. It's a completely different state of gas and liquid Helmets are worn because humans found out they protect the head better than a skull alone If you wanna go for a swim, you don't need a helmet. Now this knwoledge is quite old if that helps you. I am just annoyed how some people abuse the fact that for some reason others believe that experience comes from simply existing somewhere at a certain point in time. You being in the navy doesn't change the laws of physics or the fact that helmets exist and are worn correctly for reasons my guy.
@@jacqirius It's not a "muh-service-time-specialist" statement, kiddo, it's a "this is what the military currently does and why" statement. So you know, my first degree was physics and I was a nuclear officer in the Navy. Among the topics I've studied to make this statement is fluid dynamics/mechanics. If you have ever studied fluid mechancs - as you have not - you would know one of the assumptions is that incompressible fluid (which water generally is) and high speed gas have similar properties and are mathematically (and physically) treated as the same at high speeds and/or high pressures. Clearly, you've never studied these topics, or you wouldn't pull out a high schoolers understanding of the phases of matter as a rebuttal to someone discussing fluid dynamics. You not being in the Navy and you not studying physics or engineering doesn't change the laws of physics, my guy. ...and you being a snarky jerk about it to try and show someone up when you're actually wrong doesn't help your case. . Snark aside: Liquids and gasses are not the same, I never said they were. But when doing with moderately high speeds (which don't have to be very high) and/or pressures, a fluid and a gas function the same way. It's why you can have things like a Venturi Effect with moving gas OR moving liquid, for example. So, my guy, next time you think to correct someone on the internet and be a snarky little pest about it, take a minute, look up the topic, and make sure you aren't actually WRONG. Me being in service has nothing to do with the laws of physics, nor did I ever say so. The LAWS OF PHYSICS are what I was addressing, from my extensive knowledge of physics, engineering, nuclear plant dynamics, and I was merely referencing that even in a more "mundane" application of jumping off a ship in cases of abandoning ship, the same physics are still at play and are comparable to the topic being discussed here. So chillax, kid.
My elementary school teacher fought in D-Day and across France in WW II and he told us this chin strap thing. True or not, he believed it. He didn't mention helmets as a hand to hand combat item an enemy could use it against the Soldier. (And I find it highly unlikely) However, I did find an old US Army hand to hand combat manual that illustrated how a US Soldier could kill an enemy sentry with a helmet. After sneaking up on the enemy, he'd seize the enemy's shoulder with his non dominant hand, wedge his fore arm at the base of the neck, and simultaneously use his dominant hand to reach over the top of the sentry and grab the front rim of his helmet and violently jerk it back. The helmet strap and leverage would snap the sentry's neck. That might have been where that rumor came from. Though in the very next paragraph the manual stated that if the sentry didn't wear his helmet strapped or it came free, the US Soldier was to flip the helmet over and bash the sentry on the top of the head with it.
Its not to use the helmet as a weapon.. The enemy would grab hold of it using it as leverage to gain an advantage, the same as someone with long hair compared with short hair....
This is a classic example of the "but sometimes" fallacy. Could wearing your chin strap SOMETIMES end up being a liability, causing injury or death? Absolutely. But what's going to happen MOST of the time is the chin strap keeps you from being separated from your helmet, and the helmet SAVES your life. Everyone PAYS ATTENTION to those "but sometimes" situations, though, and thus the tremendous OVERALL advantage of the chin strap is neglected.
While I certainly admire the educated approach you’re coming from, is there any data supporting your “most of the time” claim? Thought I’d ask before going on my last field op before getting out lol
My great uncle's and gdad in ww2 fighting in the jungle did not wear stiff chin straps because the enemy could sneak up on sentries and easily snap necks. When I myself joined up mid 80s, the British Army still had elasticated straps to remedy this. How ever running with a one -all fits -all steel helmet with boing boing strapping was pain inducing.
My grandfather was a British tank commander in the Scot's Greys from Africa to Normandy. There were being fired at by German tanks and artillery on a hill in Normandy. Was known as quite a nasty fight but I forget the hill number sadly. Shells were cutting down trees and Nebelwerfers were dropping. Being a tank commander, he was out of his hatch maintaining situational awareness. One Nebelwerfer round exploded in the trees and shrapnel went into the back of his head, narrowly missing his spine. He only survived due to his "tin" helmet. Got sent home after that of course. I'd imagine due to the shallow nature of the British helmet, it was probably fully strapped.
I was haveing a airsoft war with a veteran and had an m1 on with the strap fastened. He told me "NEVER DO THAT" He demonstrated why by pinning me behind a door by the helmet. I went to move wile being shot and I was stuck. Could not move my arm to undue it but also was being unloaded on from the crack in the door
@@JohnSmith-zk8xp no. He told me to hide in a room and I picked the wall behind the door. I expected him to come in slow and carefully. He busted in and held the door from feeling me behind it. Effectively pining my head to the wall.
That has nothing to do with having on helmet straps and helmet size and everything to do with the way we are trained. Guy going in and passing the door face always slams the door back into the wall in case someone is back there. The helmet might have "made it worse", but arguably that's just not the case because you were fucked from the get-go due to lack of training and knowledge on our techniques which, as you found out the hard way, plans for guys like you thinking they are clever and hiding behind the door.
If you ever had to strap a helmet, you would know about the painful chaffing. Strapping on in 100F weather with 95% RH will give you a large raw patch of skin under your chin.
And leaving your helmet unbuckled so that you either lose it or you are constantly distracted by its unrestrained motion as it flops over your eyes will give you an 8mm hole in your forehead.
Sort of like the seat belt argument. 99.9% of seat belts and strapped helmets protect the user. But humans will key in on that .1% to bolster their flawed argument.
As a former infantryman with 2 tours..(Ne Desit Virtus!!)I can tell you we hated chin straps on our kevlars because they were very uncomfortable and you don't dare want to sweat in one. Another reason was a myth that we heard (supposedly handed down from WWII or Vietnam I can't remember) that, having the chinstrap unbottoned or the helmet "loose" deadened a bullet strike because the helmet is able to act more as a shock absorber if it can move freely....thus...supposedly dispersing more of the bullet's energy and reducing the chance of penetration.... We used to play around with new Joes who buttoned theirs and "lightly" butt stroke the sides of their kevlars because it made their heads jolt and nearly tip them over....and then we would say "that chin strap gonna kill you". When they unbuttoned it we would pop them again with same stroke and the helmet would bounce off their head or spin around a little but they didn't take anywhere near the shock. We used to do this to each other often in my unit.....lot of fights and dogpiles happened over it..but it was part of hazing...
Side note: worked with Mitsubishi field reps on the construction of a geothermal generator install. The Japanese field engineers wore hard hats with a chin strap. We wore standard hard hats without chin straps. During heavy storms we would walk outside and our hard hats would be blown off and sent bouncing down the parking lot. We had a painter slipped on a large pipe and his hard hat went flying as he bounced around from his fall protection harness. Bottom line, guys now wear strap secured “Bump” caps for this kind of work. I can see advantages/disadvantages to both types.
From the WW2 films I've seen, the German helmet had better straps than we had. As a matter of fact, Germans had better equipment than we had. Thirty years later, we learned to do things the 'German' way.
I remember in boot camp in 72, strap the helmet. The strap had a ball which was in a 2 prong groove. If the percussion of a big explosion occurred, that pressure separated the prongs by the ball.
I wore the steel pot from 81 to 85 when we were issued the kevlar helmet. We were always told to keep the helmets strapped. I always unsnapped my strap at the range because I was a left handed shooter and the hot brass would sometimes catch between cheek and strap.
As retired infantry officer, there are WAY more benefits to wearing a helmet than not to wear one. Sure it may be uncomfortable, but it could save your life in countless ways. And if I didn't have a chin strap, I would be chasing my helmet on the ground every few minutes. I look at it as dumb movie bravado
My grandpa fought in WW2. He saw a ship sink from an enemy torpedo. Many of the soldiers jumped into the water to get away from the burning ship. Sadly many of them had their helmets strapped. The moment they hit the water the force of the strapped helmet hitting the water immediately snapped their necks. Such a small detail that most people in a panicked state would have overlooked. These were infantrymen being transported. Very sad way to go. "Soldiers were ordered to abandon ship and jump feet first into the water. Some men with their steel helmets still strapped tight broke their necks as they hit the water."
When I was in Somalia in 93 you couldn’t leave a compound without your protective gear and helmet on with chin strap. So I put it all on, went through the entrance/exit, then took it off. We sat on sandbags and had them in the foot well. What effected us the most are skinny’s opening the doors while moving through a choke point. They really weren’t scared of getting shot but were definitely scared of getting sliced with a bayonet. So I always had my bayonet taped to my right hand. We didn’t have armored up hummer’s nor did we have air conditioning any where. We Jerry rigged M-60 Machine guns on the rails that held up the plastic covers which we had opened on the top. No single vehicles could travel alone. So I had one M-60 covering from 9to 3 north and the other M-60 on the second Hummer pointing towards the rear. It is hard to explain but I never felt scared but as a Company Commander my every thought was concerned with completing our missions and bringing all 160 soldiers back home. One thing that the movies get wrong is the AK 7.62x39 can only be stopped by 3 or more sandbags deep.
I was in Somalia in 93 too with the Field Hospital. I was there when the Blackhawk went down and we had one holiday where we saw over 1,000 wounded. I tended to not want to wear my battle rattle at all but I was out running on the compound one morning and had on my headphones (prohibited by our CO) and I saw one of our gate guards running toward me so I changed my route to miss him but he angled to me again. I kept on running and then he tackled me. I hit the ground and when my headphones flew off I could hear a 50 caliber shooting into our compound and the alarm sounding to move inside. The guard said he ran almost half a mile to catch me in all his gear. My CO was not amused and I got an ass-chewing in the morning meeting in front of all the primary staff. Good times.
Fascinating excursion into a tiny detail we casual historians of the war probably never heard of before. And further proof of just how many questions war can raise, and how many people are working behind the scenes to answer them, and how much competing analysis they leave behind. Even the Patton movie turned this into an issue of wearing the helmet or not, rather than one about the strap. Questions: 1. Do chinstraps even feature in other countries' helmets of the era? I seem to recall seeing them on Brodie helmets. 2. Do they provide any real advantage in keeping the helmet on your head? 3. Is it possible to reliably stay helmeted in action when unstrapped? 4. Did the back of the head solution help keep the helmet on or just get the strap off men's necks and out of the way? 5. How did the risk of the strap breaking a neck under artillery fire compare to the risk of head wounds to unhelmeted men from shrapnel of that same artillery fire?
A friend of mine was a cadet in the 90s and while riding in the back of a truck during a training, a fellow cadet rested the front of his helmet on his rifle barrel. They hit a bump and it jammed the tip of the barrel between his forehead. I think they had to cut the strap off to release the helmet. That story is probably says less about the danger of the chin strap than it does about the stupidity of teenagers.
well you never served so you wouldnt know that is a common excersize used by soldiers to get a little shut eye. I think your buddy was pulling your leg a bit about having to cut it off
Actually one of our guys was grappling with an NVA soldier and he grabbed his own helmet and used it to beat the enemy soldier to death because the chin strap was buckled behind the pot.
There also was a greater chance of concussion during artillery barrages if the chin strap was on. When on the march the discomfort could save your life, so most did use it.
As Marine color guard, our blues cover has a chin strap for decoration over the bill. When we were on board a ship decommissioning we added another chin strap to not disturb the existing one because of high winds during the ceremony.
You didn't mention the disaster in the training for the D-day Landings when German E-Boats bumped in to the flotilla of transports carrying US troops at night. Several Allied vessels were sunk or damaged and quite a number of soldiers, wearing their chinstraps fastened, snapped their necks when abandoning ship. The weight of their gear dragged them underwater so quickly the air pocket trapped in the helmet acted like a brake and that was that! Incidentally Michael Bentine of the Goons fame, told a funny (not at the time!) Account of his helmet, strapped under his chin. He was talking with a volunteer 'casualty' during a training exercise. Said casualty, a veteran of the First WW, was laying on a stretcher at MB's feet. MB, looking down at the volunteer, nodded his head at something the Old Boy said. MB's helmet slipped off his head, dropped and hit the Old Boy smack in the face, knocking him out cold (and thus supplying one real casualty for real treatment!) I believe the old guy survived the experience 😂
There's a lot of Military Legends (equivalent to Urban Legends) that get started by lazy soldiers looking for an excuse to be lazy. The idea that being close enough to an explosion that the shockwave would yank the helmet hard enough to snap your neck is pretty ridiculous if you think about it. First of all artillery, bombs and land mines don't just explode they're made to throw metal fragments in every direction so being in a situation where you only got hit by the shockwave is pretty damn unlikely. Sure you might be in a trench or around the corner of building from a bomb going off but the shockwave would be decreased by no longer being a direct line. For the explosion to be close enough and powerful enough that even the indirect shockwave affected you it would be powerful enough to collapse the building or the sides of the trench. As for the Hand to Hand argument, why would the enemy be grabbing on to your helmet when they could be stabbing you with a bayonet (on the rifle or just in the hand) or hitting at you with something like an entrenching tool or even just their fists. About the only time you could make the argument not to wear helmets would be if you were clearing a small tunnel (ala the runnel rats in Cu Chi in the Vietnam War). Any other time you'd want the helmet for extra protection from being hit.
The grabbing if the helmet is just grappling. You put something g in their eyes, like their helmet, and tlnow they can't see where you're going to stab. That way, there's not a chance they block you. Grappling is one of the most important aspects of hand to hand combat that isn't using fixed martial arts.
@@volatile100 If it's purely unarmed, grappling has it's place as it's difficult to get an incapacitating strike with just fists before you can get in close enough to get them in a lock. In the military context, were your opponent can have weapons and, more importantly, friends with weapons, committing to try and get a lock just isn't smart. Even if you get in close enough to make an effective grapple and manage a perfect choke hold he could be sticking you with a knife 5-6 times before he passes out or his buddies could be putting a boot to your head or a bayonet in your back. I'm not saying there's never been a soldier that has used grappling to win in that kind of situation but I would say it's not something you should plan to try and do. I'd also say that worrying about unarmed combat as a rationale for not wearing a chin strap is pretty weak to begin with. Shrapnel from bombs and grenades is a lot more likely to kill you on the modern battlefield and have a helmet slip off while you're diving for cover and leaving your head exposed is going to get you dead a heck of lot more often.
@@volatile100 helmet keeps them from being able to knock you out unconscious with a 1-2 punch combo before they can get in close enough to grab your helmet because they'd break their fist on its steel. Not to mention if they're close enough to grab your helmet they're close enough to eye gouge you with their thumb or fishhook your nose anyway. Not to mention if you have your helmet on you can bash their nose in with your helmet, OR if you're the one defending you can tuck your chin in and use your helmet to deflect his attempt at head butting you.
I used that helmet when I was in the military and we always kept it strapped on because it would slip off your head because it was quite heavy- we had the airborne type chin straps that kept it on your head securely. If you didn't strap your helmet, it would be the first thing you loose when you start jumping around and hitting the deck.
It was normal in basic training in the British Army in mid 40s for chinstraps to be fastened. Instructors also taught that helmet was to be worn down over the eyes for best protection. I believe that the strap conections on both sides of the helmet were designed to break in event of excessive pressure from explosive force.
![[UNCUT] ขยี้ "อลิส" ปม "คลิปลับแตงโม" เปิดชื่อคนพยายามแฮก "มือถือแตงโม" I คนดังนั่งเคลียร์I 10ก.พ.68](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_RPLEIi5Sz8/mqdefault.jpg)
My grandfather landed at Omaha on D-Day and had told me that during training for the amphibious landings, everyone was told to NOT strap up while going down the cargo nets onto the landing craft. The reason being that if you fell off the netting and into the water, the force of the water pushing your helmet up would cause the strap to literally choke you out. As a result, virtually no one wore the straps from then on. Also, anyone seen wearing their chin strap was avoided like the plague because it usually indicated he was a replacement and therefore considered inexperienced in the field, just like seeing anyone with clean new boots. My grandfather said they would coat their new boots (if they were lucky to get any in the field) with ox blood to make them look used. Nobody ever wanted to be confused for a FNG.
I've seen guys get choked by their chin straps, myself included, when the lip of the help got caught on something. Usually pulling the soldier upwards or backwards. Fortunately no one it happened to that I saw, myself included, was seriously hurt. And in Iraq, some guys did have their helmets blown off by close proximity explosions (tearing the chin strap in teh process). One guy was in his guard tower when it got hit by an RPG and it tore his helmet off his head. He was ok though.
@@SoloRenegade I seen one guy get choked out in a roll over simulator 😂
@@brp5497 true asf 😆
the strip is not around your neck, but up your chin....i feel this is such an american bs it's incredible!
choke you under water, because you're breathing down there? wtf?
with that reasoning, nobody should ever fasten the helmet, bikers, skiers, constr. workers.....i mean their heads might come off!
sheeeeesh....
@@ivok9846 you have to remember that those helmets were made out of steel! And also mass produced, everyone's heads are not the same size so more likely than not the helmets are oversized! And people who didn't have it properly fitted in the first place!
You've also compared new helmets that are designed for completely different environments and scenarios. Those modern helmets have evolved in the last 80 years! Improving with new technology!
And I'm curious how helmets will continue to evolve in the next 100 years!!!
My impression of the chin strap rumor was always that it was kind of blown out of proportion by post-war pop-historians. Kind of like the myth of the M1 ping that supposedly got many US soldiers killed, even though the sound of an ejecting clip would be nearly inaudible in the middle of a fire-fight between dozens of soldiers.
Occam's razor offers the best explanation: nobody wants a canvas strap rubbing up against their face 24 hours a day lol
most of what we believe about WW2 is "blown out of proportion"
Europa: The Last Battle
@@Whiteshell204 Ever notice the Trials only found them guilty for roughly 300,000 deaths? Nothing close to the 6 million figure we were taught. There's even newspapers from before the war spouting the same rubbish about the 6 million that were persecuted in Europe. That figure counts the ones being persecuted by the Russians for over 200 years.
@@Whiteshell204 That "documentary" is neo-nazi revisionist propaganda, and it gets almost everything wrong from the very first episode. Just a desperate attempt to make the nazis look like the victims.
I tend to agree that it's a myth, but I think the myth was going on during the war, rather than emerge post-war. I remember a friend of mine telling me about artillery in WWII, and mentioned specifically the helmet strap. He said artillery was the scariest thing in the war for him, and said that while other troopers were shitting and pissing in their pants, he was "barfing". I never thought to ask him if he meant belching or vomiting. Thank god I've lived a long life without experiencing war firsthand.
Is his razor single or double edged? Occams razor is not a steadfast deductive brick wall of reasoning, in fact it is an abductive heuristic to develop models, not choose the easiest among possibilities, that’s KISS. For example, Oswald killed JFK because one nut shooting one rifle is the easiest solution. Really, then why did it take over 20,000 sheets of paper to support that simple theory? Not saying he didn’t, just pointing out there was no smoking gun or conviction, so the “simplest” is often unproven and Occams Razor is not a justification for the easy way out.
What amazes me is the brass of the U.S. military was nearly obsessed with helmets for nearly a century before they had any thought about body armor.
body armor wasnt realistic in those days. tech wasnt there and its generally very expensive to this day. not to mention most of the rounds they were shooting back then would defeat most body armor available today.
Body armor was tried in WWI, and Korea, and Viet Nam. It was either impractical or only partially effective. The PASGT system of the early 80s was a major step forward, but still to heavy and hot.
Helmets prevent a huge amount of wounds in combat, or so I've heard
Helmets were used for shrapnel same with the flak jacket of ww2 Korea and Nam
They had armor. It was cumbersome. In WWI almost everyone tried some sort of armor, I believe there's instances of it in the American Civil War too, but it was mostly just guys tinkering on the side.
With ceramics and Kevlar nowadays armor is much better.
My grandfather toured the Pacific, he had shrapnel/a bullet hit his helmet. He said that he told his platoon to strap helmets during combat because if their helmet fell off and shrapnel hit their heads, they’d be worse off. Plus, running soldiers over rough terrain would at times hold their helmets on with one hand, two hands were better than one for fighting.
Compare photos of Marines early in the Pacific versus later. Lots of full uniforms and lopsided helmets versus skins and tightly strapped buckets.
And shut up lmao
A friend of mine in Vietnam (Burgess) was running forward in a firefight when he tripped.... at the same time, a round from an AK went through his helmet, creased his skull, lifted him up and over on his back and cold cocked him. Doc ran up, saw the hole in the helmet (which had fallen down over Burgess' face) and the blood pouring out of the helmet and figured he was dead, and moved on to others. about ten minutes later he came back and Burgess was just sitting there, blood all over him, and a crease down the middle of his scalp. Except for the lost skin, he was fine. It was a million dollar wound and sent him home. Burgess always was lucky, I'll say that for him.
There's not enough kinetic energy in a 7.62mm AK round to lift an adult male body. Your friend either misremembered or lied.
@@xczechr Then it was a group "misremembering".... it was confirmed by several others AND, he had a large divot taken out of his scalp.... and WHEN did anything made for the military ever function up to specifications. It was 1969 and I still remember.
I remember my dad telling about a family member who had a shot hit just right from the side which caused it to go up and around like you said. Though it went from ear to ear instead of front to back in the helmet.
@@xczechr 🤓🤓🤓
@@xczechr I accidently step on my little dogs toy bare foot and I go flying across the room, I can believe a bullet would also send me flying just from the shock of what is happening let alone the kinetic force. lol
My father fought in the Infantry, Italy WW2. (Yes, I'm old). He told me they didn't wear their chin straps because of the rumor that, a close artillery miss could take your head off. When his column was hit by 88s a little North of Rome, they lost six men killed, with others wounded. He was hit 4 places (shoulder, upper lip, leg and left index finger). He remembered getting as low as he could, and trying to put his helmet back on, while still being shelled. He didn't know why his helmet just kept flopping around, as he tried to grab it, in the dust/smoke. It was because his finger was mostly blown off.
I have wonder, just how many G.I.s actually LOST their lives from NOT having their helmets strapped on. Having it fall off during combat just before a wound, accidentally giving away their location when one fell off, while sneaking along a trail, or just the distraction of trying to find it and put it back on in a fight, must have cause the death of many. Soldiers from other countries heads didn't seem to fly off, and they ALL wore them strapped.
Yes, I was wondering the same thing.
Lucky that your father survived.
@bob smoot, my story goes as such. I was told not to wear the chin strap on my helmet for the same reason as every body else, close explosions ect. But my LT told us we were still required to wear that helmet, and he didn’t care about the strap. Wearing that helmet came into sharp focus for me in August 1967. A lot of infantry companies, when in the rear for a break, guarded the bridges on highway 1. We were on bridge guard on 3 bridges just north of thunder mountain. While walking a road patrol between the bridges, I was hit in the head by a spent round. Never heard it, 1second I was walking, and the next I was lying on the ground with my ears ringing. About 1inch above my right ear, my helmet had a dent about 1 1/2 inch across and 1inch deep. Probably at least a fractured scull if not for that helmet. I didn’t bitch about it too much after that.
@@Pointman-yf6or VC sniper?
SonsOfLorgar, possibly, but don’t know for sure. The vc were setting a lot of booby traps/ “ IED’S” along the highway all the time, that’s the reason for all the patrols. Wasn’t there at the time, but our Delta company was there when the vc were setting a tank trap up close to thunder mountain when the damn thing blew up on them. Didn’t find nothin but pieces parts. One of their LT’S, (Fred Downs) wrote a book called the”killing zone”, pretty good info in his book about that and our whole unit in fact.
Yes makes sense to me too use darn strap and not lose your helmet!
At Ft Benning in 1969, one class was taught by a 1LT. In front of his lectern was a steel pot which had been shredded. The LT opened the class by asking if anybody thought the person wearing the helmet when this happened had survived. The response was unanimous (and horrified) no!. His response: well, I was wearing it. He said that he had his chin strap very loose, and when crossing a rice paddy a mortar hit withing 10 yards of him, knocking him over. When he stood up, his platoon sergeant couldn't believe he wasn't dead.
His best guess was that the shock wave had lifted the helmet up until the chin strap stopped it, a cloud of shrapnel had riddled it, and the helmet had then fallen back onto his head.
It was pretty impressive.
Wow ! This is a subject I had never contemplated or heard discussed. What a great and interesting comment you made sir👍🏻
Wow, so the Shrapnel really did just miss the top of his head 😳
@@thalmoragent9344 YEP. MISSED IT BY THAT MUCH. WOULD YOU BELIEVE.....
@@sweetdrahthaar7951 UK
So does that mean you should use a helmet and chin strap? I sure don't know just trying to learn and understand!
A friend of mine, that I flew with in a National Guard aviation unit, always wore his chin strap. One time I asked him why and he told me his story: He arrived in Da Nang (Vietnam) in 1968 as an MP. The guy he was replacing said he'd never even worn his helmet during his tour because it was so quiet in that area. Two weeks later the Tet Offensive began. Ron was never out of his helmet for the rest of the year. Early into the offensive he was approaching a building in Da Nang and saw an RPG poke out of a window. He dove behind a concrete wall just as it was fired at him. His helmet came off (because it wasn't strapped) and the RPG hit the wall right where he was. It spalled off a bunch of concrete on his side of the wall, and some of it went into the top of his scalp. He has never worn a helmet without strapping it under his chin since. He said he still had bits of concrete surfacing from time to time.
Remember the scene in Blackhawk Down when the Delta lead told the Ranger to get away from the walls when out in the streets. Spall from an RPG that hits a wall will kill you.
@@specag31 I always wondered about that line. It was in the book too, where IIRC (been awhile) the explanation was that RPGs "hug walls", which didn't seem plausible to me. Your explanation makes much more sense. Ricochets and spallation from hits to the wall near you
@@jakeg3733 I was taught in basic training and after to always stay a few inches off of walls because bullets will travel down the walls. It didn’t seem possible to me either but I still did what I was told. I would really like to test that theory though
@@RapidRedRider @Jake G The whole bullets follow walls thing comes from just poking a gun out around a corner without looking and shooting. Those shots usually follow right along the wall since you would usually shoot parallel to the wall, more or less. You don't want to shoot the wall 3 feet in front of you, after all.
@@specag31 bullets also tend to skip if they hit a hard surface at an extreme angle which means if you are pressed up against a wall you could be in the path of bullets that may not have even be fired directly at you.
I think of it like skipping a rock off a pond but without gravity pulling the rock back to the pond the “rock” would continue in a trajectory that will remain low to the pond for a long distance. Or in this case the bullet to the wall.
Intuitively, I'd imagine if a blast was strong enough to cause that kind of upward force that the blast hitting the helmet upward would snap your neck, then the blast is also strong enough to cause significant blast trauma to organs, enough where you're probably dead anyway. I know there was one report provided by a military person, but it may have been exaggerated or possibly mistaken as to how that soldier's neck was actually broken.
All it takes to break your neck is to hit the ground the wrong way, and considering that the only response to being shelled that could potentially raise your chance of survival is to get as close to the ground as possible in the shortest amount of time: I imagine that someone throwing themselves to ground with a heavy object encompassing their head in a panic, on rough terrain, could run the risk of damaging their spine. I don't quite remember where I heard the story, but: I heard of an auto-rifleman who lost a tooth on the back sight of his SAW not too long ago while running react-to-fire drills. When he found his tooth and went to the dentist, the dentist confirmed that he in fact, had another mans tooth in his possession, meaning in that exact same spot on the range he was drilling on; someone else had succumbed to that very same accident. Basically, once shit hits the fan and the adrenaline takes over ones faculties; people become incredibly accident prone, which in turn, is largely what combat helmets are for in the first place.
Even if it did happen once, that's hardly a reason to risk loosing your helmet in combat.
yeah this story on the video is 100% an anecdote..... and likely caused much more harm than good, today we enforce it in the military to keep chin straps ON AT ALL TIMES. people dont strap them because usually it's hot af and you're doing hard warfighting and the strap is uncomfortable. it's the same reason people unstrap their helmets on the sideline during football XD
@@Yora21 yes. and its much easier to deal with the consequences of a spinal injury than a brain inujury caused by the same traumatic force. Priorities.
I think they should have developed breaking mechanism to the helmet strap so it can be strapped safely like how older more brittle type of celluloid films are preferred for old or expensive cameras because you would rather to have a broken film than broken camera.
It's a great example of how your brain focuses on rare scary things instead of actual danger. The most dangerous thing to you in reality is falling and hitting your head, or a piece of shrapnel hitting your head. That was much more likely, and for that you NEED to have your chin strap on. The neck-breaking and H2H combat are extremely rare cases, if they even happened at all. But they were so scared of it that they planned for THAT scenario instead of something like falling and cracking your skull open, which was a very real possibility.
It's like how supposedly in WWI they saw a sharp increase in traumatic brain injuries after beginning to use the helmet, and they thought the helmet was bad for a bit. Nope, the helmet was just turning lethal injuries into less lethal and non-lethal injuries. Like getting concussions instead of having brains painted on the trench by shrapnel.
@@masonmunkey6136 close, survivorship bias
@@NoteToUrist ha oops
I like the choice of words to explain the situation near the end
If the blast from a shell can cause the chin strap to break your neck then it is powerful enough to kill you with or without the helmet any way. The thing about explosions is that the shockwave can cause internal injury’s. the victim may appear totally in harmed but a later post Morton shows massive internal injuries and bleeding.
Yes, it is possible for a blast to rip a person's helmet off. Happened to a guy in Iraq when his guard tower was hit by an RPG. he was fine, but his helmet was torn clean off his head.
@Communists are Gross "If the blast from a shell can cause the chin strap to break your neck then it is powerful enough to kill you with or without the helmet any way. "
This is wrong, and I corrected it. I suggest you read it again.
exactly my thoughts. but back in the days and with the high ammount of losses, not every body was disected. But i also think that if a shockwave rips so hard on your helmet that it breaks your neck or chokes you to death, it would also cause your lungs to collapse.
@@snakeplissken2148 not true. Explosions are weird like that. I've had the wind knocked out of me, and even had my heart stop from an explosion in Iraq. Others have had their helmets ripped off but never got the wind knocked out of them. Lots of factors affect how an explosion is felt and the impact it has on things around it.
my grandfather was a mechanic in WW2 and fought in north africa. they fixed tanks etc and got into a few german ones. in one the crew were still in place but dead, he reckons the driver was frozen at his controls without a mark on him.
The helmet isn't stopping bullets, but it's going to be protecting your head from a lot of shrapnel and that, to me, seems far more likely to be a scenario you find yourself compared to any of these other crazy stories about broken necks that sound like they were battlefield rumors.
Modern ones can stop bullets and shrapnell
@@MH-jj2ss barely, and really only small caliber bullets at that. Proper battle rifles are going to put a fat hole through your hat, that's why it's better to not get hit, than to try to mitigate damage.
@@mactonightrepealtheth unless you get hit just right for it to deflect off your helmet, most rifle rounds will punhc right through, and full rifle rounds(7.62x51mm Nato and 7.62x54mmR(mosin bullet)), would probably break your neck even if they deflected off, 7.62x31mm might achieve the same effect
@@mactonightrepealtheth nope the most modern helmets can stop rifle rounds
Anyone know the history of our modern helmets? Why are they based on the German WWII design? Are the massive bulges on the side to make it stronger? The shape is so distinctive that some soldiers nicknamed it the Fritz helmet.
I was in the army in the early 1980s and heard the same thing. Strapping the chin strap could result in the helmet being blown back by a concussion and taking your head with it. Old myths die hard.
That is still taught as recently as 2016. That's when I got out and everyone was still being trained to unbuckle their helmet when taking artillery or mortar fire.
@@Hercules1-v9m I find that hard to believe. I was an Airborne Infantryman from 2005-2010 and the most I ever got away with was having strapped under my chin instead of on the chin, and only during the day. Night vision wouldn’t stay in front of my eye unless it was on the chin properly.
yep thats what our drill sergeants also told us
VIETNAM 1967-1969. THE HELMET WAS SO DAMN HEAVY, I SELDOM EVER WORE IT. PLUS....IN JUNGLE HEAT & HUMIDITY.....IT WAS A REAL,PAIN TO WEAR. I USUALLY ONLY WORE MY BASEBALL HAT!!!
Seems like a charlie foxtrot of training and information in this comment chain so far.
We had a gunny that would always say, “You think you’re John Wayne?” whenever he’d see us with our chinstraps undone
We had a Sgt. that was aggressive when it came to our helmets and chinstraps. When he was a LCPL, overseas, he was yelled at for not wearing his, but out of belligerence he took it off and placed it on a trailer next to him when he was standing around. A sniper shot at his head and barely missed. He said he never grabbed his helmet faster in his life and that it stayed glued to him after that.
Wouldn't have stopped the bullet anyways
I knew if find another Marine talking about not being John Wayne, here.
Yeah a helmet type back then wouldn't of protected him from a rifle bullet.
@@Stormbringer2012 who said he fought in ww2 or vietnam? the guy coulda been a vet of the gulf war or early iraq/afghanistan
wouldnt have mattered, that paper thin sheet of pressed steel wouldnt stop a hammer, much less a bullet.
Everyone had different options. My dad was in the Army in the early 70s and I asked him about this. He said he always had his helmet buttoned because he preferred to have both hands free to fight instead of running around with one hand holding his helmet.
The blast part is questionable, it's likely the concussion caused invisible internal injuries and the strap got the blame. But hand-to-hand combat is real, as is traveling over water in a landing craft or amphibious vehicle. There are situations that I'd want to lose it FAST. There are also times I'd want it strapped so.....
I feel if you get hand to hand and you don't use your helmet to bash a skull in via headbutting, you're not taking advantage of America's number 1 surprise, our thick ass skulls
If you're close enough for the concussive force of a blast to snap your neck via your helmet's chin strap, you're already dead.
He was a doctor, not a physicist.
_Maybe_ if a rock or dirt clod was ejected up at just the right angle it could impact his helmet with enough force without otherwise injuring him, but how likely would that have been vs him dying to loosing a precious half-second trying to keep his helmet on or to getting hit in the head by a rock falling from being blown into the air by an explosion?
He was a doctor, not a statistician.
I am inclined to believe it simply from experience in a 'route clearance' unit in Iraq, we had multiple hits where guys inside the vehicle would have their helmets ripped off and in one case blown up and out of the turret landing a dozen meters or so away from the vehicle. Our ACHs were designed with break free webbing inside though, but when you factor the amount of force required to break that webbing and launch the ACH up and out that far, I am inclined to say it is plausible at least, if not probable.
The shockwave from an explosion causing internal injuries is a definite possibility,. There was a test conducted some years ago on using full faced helmets in order to protect troops from being shot in the face. However, it was found that shockwaves from explosions were far worse in a full faced helmet than standard open faced helmet since they would bounce a round the inside of the full faced helmets.. So concussive forces causing internal injuries are definitely a thing.
@@Riceball01 perhaps ironically, modern understanding of explosion physics and advances in computer modeling could probably mitigate those problems, but now the AP properties of rifle rounds are so high that the amount of weight on the neck and restrictions on breathing and situational awareness would still mean that such face armor would still be impractical even for longer distances where it might actually provide protection.
Considering practical chest protection hasn't moved much past a single, small, mostly-flat plate front and back, I don't see bulletproof head protection in the near future.
In Austria 🇦🇹 Europe we had the same helmet but on the chin strap a kind of metal piece which opened easily when the pressure from the front was too high or from behind when a enemy soldier would strangle You. I still kept my old helmet after 35 years of duty beside my modern kevlar helmet. Greetings from Linz- Austria 🇦🇹😎👍✌️🌞🍺💪🐺
I have one of those Austrian surplus helmets here in the States! And excellent design. The liner with its leather parts is far more comfortable than the webbed liner of the US helmet.
Howdy neighbor.
Scottsdale, AZ
It's not relevant to this topic, but I've always liked the name "Wolfgang". It's probably so common in German-speaking countries that no one there gives it a second thought, but I'm always pleasantly surprised to see it. :)
@@mjxw for younger generations it is rather uncommon and not used very much anymore but many older people especially from Austria still have that name
I love your efforts to stop on their track the americans who would confuse Austria with Australia
When I arrived at Ft. Bliss in late 1979 I was assigned to F Troop, 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. At that time we were still wearing OD Green fatigues and the Vietnam era Steel Pot. SOP for the Regiment was no wearing of fastened chin straps in the field. We were to snap them, place them behind the helmet then place the elastic helmet band with the twin 'cat's eyes' to the rear, covering the chin strap which more or less held it in place.
A couple of years later I PCS'ed to 1/33 Armored Battalion, 3rd Armored Division in West Germany. There they had already transitioned to the new, 1st generation, Kevlar helmet and SOP there was chin straps were to be fastened at anytime the helmet was worn. Boy, and God help you if the 1st Sergeant or Sergeant Major spotted you without it snapped. This then became the standard in every other unit I served in during my 22 year, active duty career.
Cool Video!
Yes, in the 1980s (in 2nd Inf. Division, Korea and 9th Inf. Division in Ft. Lewis), we definitely had to keep our chin straps snapped (fastened around our chins, of course) whenever we wore our helmets.
In Korea, we transitioned from the steel pots to the kevlar helmets in the summer of 1985 (B Co., 2nd Platoon, 1/17th Mech. Inf. "Buffaloes").
Cool anecdote, thank you for sharing
Having a steel pot in Fort Bliss?
Your head must have been burning considering the heat lmao
@@brp5497 >apparently knowing that deserts that you've previously lived in are fucking hot is being a military expert now XD
man cant even handle light banter, truly a bruh moment
@@soni3608; Well, the most 'fun' were the ATEPs in New Mexico, North of Bliss. We called it "the broiler". 105+ degrees was not uncommon. Try being in a track in MOPP 4 while wearing the old M25 tanker's gas mask that had no drinking tube. Parts of our uniforms would be solid, crusted white from salt and sweat. Then when the sun set behind the mountains you'd feel like you were freezing to death. Days like those showed you what you were made of. I was in Saudi in 90-91 and it never felt as bad as Ft. Bliss and Ft. Irwin.
British troops used to have the lanyard for their pistol worn around their necks, but it was moved to the belt due to fears of an enemy soldier using it to strangle or control the officer in hand to hand combat. I believe it was one of those things that was thought might happen, but generally didn't.
Also tended to get caught on stuff, I imagine.
An example of good risk management, I'd say.
Even if the risk is minimal, there was no reason to risk it in the first place as it served no purpose and had no advantage, particularly given that WW1 British officers weren't issued a rifle, so any fighting they did do would probably be close quarters.
Of course, the ultimately sensible thing was to remove the lanyard entirely and improve holsters so there was no need for the belt-and-braces approach of having both.
Did you know that the amount of head injuries in combat greatly increased once soldiers began wearing helmets?
This is because they’d get hurt from shrapnel or bullets blunt force. But a soldier without a helmet would not worry as one hit to the head would kill him outright.
Correlation ≠ Causation
Discovered by the British army in WW1, who were about to scrap the helmets until someone dug a little deeper.
Have a beige point
@@tommo258 Lindy Beige?
Kind of similar as the "where to reinforce the planes" thing, where the places that *didn't* have bullet holes on returning planes should be reinforced, because getting hit there is what knocked it out of the sky, and the places that returning planes had holes were places that weren't critical to airworthiness.
No, the number of injuries were lowered by the helmets. You remembered that puzzle completely wrong.
We still wore steel pots when I was in the Army in the late 1980s. Most left the chin strap unbuckled because it was uncomfortable. I imagine the same thing applied in WWII. I never wore my strap buckled until the night I climbed up on my tank and the helmet fell off my head. We were parked next to a ravine, and it fell all the way down. Got it the next morning but still I learned my lesson.
Lol. More modern years. For me more comfortable helmets. Always had my strap on for those reasons.
We used the US helmet when I was in the Ozzie army in the 80's.The buckle was a small steel ball on a thin stem which fitted through a slot.I asked an NCO about the strange set up and he said they got rid of the normal buckle because necks were being snapped and with the new set up the ball would break off and allow the helmet to blow free from your head and thereby leaving your neck intact.Don't know how right this was but it made sense.You really do need to wear the chinstrap as the helmets fall off so easily.Maybe they thought it looked cooler to leave them unbuckled in the movies?
David Finch, where were you stationed? I went through basic in 1985 at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, in a steel pot. When I got to first duty station in Germany in November of that year, everyone already had steel pots. I don’t know how long they had them, but the newness had already worn off. They weren’t talking like they just got them.
@@mountainguyed67 At that time, I was stationed at Fort Hunter Liggett, which was a sub-post of Fort Ord, in California. Our job was to simulate a Soviet Motorized Rifle Company when the military wanted to test new equipment to see how they would fare vs. Red Force (USACDEC, "Vision to Victory, Sir!"). We were the ones who proved the SGT York Air Defense vehicle was crap, and we also proved the new Marine LAV was pretty good. Since we weren't a front line combat unit, we may have kept the steel pot longer then most (I left in 1989 and we still had them then.)
@@davidfinch7407 I’ve been to Hunter Liggett a few times, we once drove there on tank trails from Camp Roberts. I did nineteen years in National Guard after getting out of Regular Army. I went to Fort Ord a bunch of times too.
My old high school ROTC instructor had fought as an infantryman in WWII and Korea and he was convinced the chin strap could get you killed. Other vets told me the same thing, but many of them also claimed the M1 carbine would not penetrate the winter clothing of Chicom troops. That myth has long since been dispelled, but there is no point in arguing it with a vet. I too hated the chin strap. The M1 helmet would bounce around on your head, whether you had the strap connected or not. The strap chaffed the neck and chin while the weight of the helmet strained the neck muscles. Thankfully, being Air Force, I rarely had to done the M1 helmet, but I was once sent on a deployment to Egypt where we were simulating wartime conditions. The Army Colonel I worked for was a stickler for using the chin strap. We were wearing the PAGT helmet which had replaced the M1. I found it to be a bit more stable and comfortable than the M1, but I still hated the chin strap. I would only connect it when I saw him coming. Shades of George Patton.
" The strap chaffed the neck and chin " and that's why people didn't want to wear them. Get some sand and dirt grit in between the strap and your skin and it really doesn't take long.
The old "battle rifle" rounds would go through the side of an APC, so people did NOT like "downgrading" to carbine bullets, even though you could dump fifteen downrange for every five Garand rounds. The number one gunshot death in america? The 22. long rifle. The whole "stopping power" myth comes from the British transitioning from massive .57 calibre hollow point rounds that blew arms and legs off to .45 copper jacket rounds that went straight through without stopping.
@Colonel K
The M1 carbine's .30 round has retains more energy at 100 yards than a .357 Magnum with a 158 grain bullet at the end of its revolver's muzzle.
It wasn't that the M1 couldn't penetrate the clothing it was the Chinese soldiers were charging them while on something that made them feel no pain, it was some kind of Opium abstract that the Chinese army gave to their troops that they would take a few minutes before going into combat.
@@Jarlemoore1 I've heard that rumor before but I've never known a Korean War vet mention it, nor have I seen any valid informational source to confirm or deny it. If you know of one, please post it so I can research it further.
I admire anybody who would talk back to Patton. Stating that he was a doctor and could handle the hundred dollar penalty really cracked me up. 👍🏻😂
He didn’t say that LTs name, so we can only assume it was LT Randy Marsh, carrying his oversized balls in a wheelbarrow
Patton was a man like any other. He was good at his job, but he still could make errors. So I think it is good to have someone that validly disagrees with you from time to time.
Men were definitely men back then :D
@@OP5redsolocup he called him LT Needleman. Ironic name for someone claiming to be a doctor!
All I know is I wore the old style helmet in Germany in the mid 80’s and they were painfully heavy. It was tough on your neck. This was during exercises. I can’t imagine wearing one virtually all the time.
Goes to show you don't really need an enemy to be misinformed.
During my service we never fastened the chin strap.
This was due to the fact the strap would rub against the skin on the side of the chin and leave a painful raw spot.
Our sergeants would have murdered us if we didn't have our chin straps in the early 2,000's.
You eventually get a callous from it
Chafing is the worst. It's funny how we can have the largest military budget in the world but it takes us decades to make a chin strap comfortable enough to be used
The chinstrap can be pretty loose actually, mine doesnt even touch my neck. It still keeps it on my head so it doesnt fall off, which is it purpose. I work as a surveyour and while im out on construction sites we have to wear helmets with chin strap buckled. I have it pretty loose, the most irretsting thing is the fact that ive been used to just easily put it on take it off without having to use my both hands to buckle that chin strap. And at winter time if i zip my jacket all the way up my neck and wear a buff around my neck i have to take a little time arranging things so that its comfortable.
Not buckling a chin strap as a soldier in combat is down right idiotic, why on earth wouldnt you do that. I thought it mostly was a movie thing because it doesnt "look cool". I can see the classic *one hand on top of the helmet rifle in the other while running through artillery and machine gun fire* scene and who in the right mind would think that is effective, or an efficient trade off for whatever reason you tell yourself you dont need to buckle up.
I also wore those string sandals with a single strap between the big toe for like 3 months while i was backpacking in Australia, i got sore between the toes to the point of bleeding. Then suddenly my skin adapted and those sandals soon where a part of my feet. No issues.
The lack of the use of chin straps in my personal experience as a Marine in Viet Nam (Jan '69-Aug '70) was, yes, they were uncomfortable and annoying in temperatures that were regularly 90-100 degrees with humidity to match. Although I actually knew a couple of Marines that used their chin straps regularly, especially on night ambushes. Just reinforces that there are exceptions to nearly all commonalities. 🤨🙄😆✌
Haha thankyou! All these comments of war hacks. In reality, It was uncomfortable, irritated sensitive skin after a dry shave, made it easy to remove and was just a classic salty move.
Welcome home sir.
as with many things, there is a time and a place to wear a chin strap, and are times and places where you don't, recognizing those times and places, and acting accordingly seems to be the appropriate strategy.
for example i am vice chief of a fire fighter department, we wear helmets obviously, but the guy who goes into a burning building is obviously also wearing the strap, while guy who is standing away from the action to warn traffic is not going to bother with that, he's not wearing the helmet for protection, but to make sure drivers can see him in the dark, he's also not bending over to the point where the helmet could fall, so he does not need the strap.
From my experience as a collector, they also itch horribly if you have even slight stubble on your face. I imagine shaving was hard to keep up with in the field sometimes.
Vietnam vet using emojis and a lotr username? Seems kinda sus man you sure you wore your helmet? Lolol
Ex soldier here. The chin strap had a quick release mechanism that would break away if to much head ripping force was applied. Ya didn't wear the damn thing because it was uncomfortable. The helmet stayed on quite well without the strap.
we must have had newer kevlar i reckon, because i had never heard about this myth until today. i look back at my youth and wonder how the f i'm still alive
You're not even a veteran. No veteran would call himself an "ex-soldier". Stolen valor is a crime.
Agreed. I found the strap ok as long as you were recently shaved... but in the field, who shaves?
Must of seen no action...
family member gave me their helmet from when they were in service (in the 70's) and that little metal part on the strap was already broken . makes sense now
During my time in German military i learned that our helmet straps also were build in a way that they fail if a certain forced was excerted.
They explained it that if a bullet or other stuff were to hit the helmet it's supposed to come of and take the majority of the energy with it instead of having the neck absorb the whole impact.
yeah the whole neck breaking is bs, preventing concussion isn't
used to be common practice to avoid heavy concussions from fragments, helmets were less protective back then to the wearers comfort so there was no padding to reduce concussive movement
We still used the M1 helmets when I was in the Navy in the early 1970s. Our helmets had the quick release straps, but we would sometimes "loosen" the clip if they were stiff to release. We all knew the dangers of blast taking the helmet off our heads and causing injury, but also the danger of a fall and hanging up the helmet on shipboard protrusions which could cause severe injury as well.
That’s retarded
In 1980 when I enlisted we received a new chin strap that replaced the old WWII designed one. The new chin strap was clipped onto the M1 helmet on the same D-rings as the old one but had a snap button, a chin “cup” that was two pieces of cotton webbing that you put your chin in, and was adjustable by pulling on straps and clamping down the clamp clips to keep the chin strap in place. The helmet liner kept the thin leather strip. This was intended for ground troops. The airborne troops kept their M1 version with the helmet liner chin strap that was similar to the new ground troops version and neck strap. Eventually in 1984-85 we received the new Kevlar helmets with improved suspension system. I have a reproduction M1 with camouflage cover and the replacement chin strap as a “souvenir” of when I enlisted and I have 2 Kevlar helmets (the original “Fritz” and the “Mitch” version, that came later.
That's neat. So you weren't issued the Vietnam era chinstrap?
@@huntclanhunt9697 actually the Vietnam era chinstrap was the same as the WWII, and Korean War era, but they added the little ball “clip” to it.
@@wilfredosoto2722 Didn't they also add the nape strap and change the material for the liner? I think chin strap got a color change too.
WW2 is the brown patchwork looking interior, while Vietnam had the more green looking one with the A shaped clips.
Served as Infantry in Vietnam, 1968. No chin strap ever snapped ever by any man I witnessed. When you ran, you had you weapon in one hand, the other on the steel pot to keep it from bouncing off. It made a great pillow when you were allowed to sleep. Came back to the USA on a stretcher with a lot of holes in me.
As a 20 year retired Army, Army Guard, Air Guard guy....I'm glad you were able to tell us your story.
Welcome home sir
Glad to see you made it home. Thanks for your service, sir.
Htf you’re supposed to win a war with one hand holding onto your helmet. Oh wait...
Love your picture! Now, there was a total badass soldier!!!
They didn't strap their helmets so they weren't decapitated when they got caught in an explosion.
this is very similar reason to why the british grenediers where there chin strap so loosley, because if a bullet or something larger would hit this huge hat it would snap your neck
When I was in, I found they got dirty and gross after a while. They would make your face break out. You had to wash them in the laundry to keep them clean. I assume 1 year in the field would make them feel like you were strapping some road kill to your face. As far as the explosion breaking your neck, I think that if you are close enough for that to happen, the explosion is probably going to end you.
Honestly this is one of those things I love when researching history, the fact that you might of specified that things should be *done like this* but when on the actual ground that becomes absolute nonsense and people will immediately do things how they like.
For me it was the thing that took me out of my teenage statistic based 'video gamey' interest in history and into the more anecdotal and personal experience of history, because you suddenly realize just the impossible, improbable and unexpected will quickly become possible, probable and very common once you start looking for it
As a former Army Paratrooper, our chin straps had two snaps and an "A" frame that fit under and in front of the chin. It had to be strapped in order to prevent loss jumping from a plane. However, most the time the chin strap was not fasten for [one reason only] - IT WAS UNCOMFORTABLE.
Parachute strings banged my helmet forward, and the front edge of helmet came down and nearly broke my nose.
Weren't the WW2 paratrooper chin straps basically stiff leather cups?
My father was a proud member of Patton's 3rd. Army, 4th. Armored Division, serving in Europe during the Second World War. He told me when I was a very young boy that he and his comrades did not fasten their M1 Helmet chinstraps, and the reason he gave was that it could break a soldier's neck, were he too close to the concussion of a bomb blast.
I’ve also heard the same thing about jumping into water with the helmet. It whiplashes the neck and snaps it.
Reading everyone’s stories in the comments is absolutely fascinating, thank you for allowing me to experience the many lives you all lead through your stories
I wore the M1 for a while but I found it hard to keep on while on the move without buckling up. And you don't want to run through a battlefield with one hand holding your helmet on your head.
If your helmet was bouncing around chances are that your head band and liner webbing was not adjusted correctly. Your helmet was designed to fit your head, not sit on top of it.
As an ex-IDF soldier I can state from experience that the only helmet strap that I felt comfortable with was the US parachute troops model with a chin cup & a side release lock which sits on your chin & not around your neck .
Marine infantry here, we still had the same stuff guys had in desert storm, so we would buy straps and replace it. One of the few time we got away with customizing gear. No one cared, or noticed.
Yeah, chinstrap that sit on your chin are way more comfortable than under the neck
Why hello. Be proud that your military has a wonder woman. She's the best.
@@theenzoferrari458 Happy Easter or Passover if you are celebrating, Gal Gadot served in the IDF as a conscript unlike most fake Hollyweird stars who have never given 5 minutes service to their country
I think you nailed it--a chinstrap that actually sits on your chin! You don't see many photos of modern American soldiers or Marines wearing their helmets without such a strap.
Sad it took 70 years to figure this technology out!
I was a jarhead in an infantry unit. The only time we wore our chinstraps fastened was when we were in a parade or stood in a "static display," where civilians could view us.
I was too, and we were required to keep our chinstrap buckled any time. Period no debate
Comm/Wire 1981-85. Our instructor ordered us to wear our chin straps. "This isn't Hollywood -Marines wear chin straps".
I have another explanation: Soldiers use wacky tabaccie and it might be difficult to chew and spit it with the chin strap on tight.
My Dad told me once that you could tell the difference between the Army and Marines on statues based on how they wore their helmet straps. The Army let them hang loose cause it was rumored that if a round hit your helmet and it was strapped it would give you whiplash, but unstrapped it would just take the helmet off your head. The Marines had them strapped cause if a round hit, it would pull you back and get you out of the line of fire.
I don't know if this is true or not but it's interesting to think about.
A round hitting you in the head throwing you back out of fire is complete BS, a round passes through you and barely moves your body. There's a clip of an afghan US soldier hit in the helmet, it's quite popular, he hardly moves.
@@Roebuck325 I think the logic is that if it's not fast enough to punch right through (like if it's a particularly big and slow bullet, or if they were from far enough away), it's gonna push the person in the opposite direction of where the bullet came from, so theoretically the saying does make sense. Either it basically kills you and passes right through, or it'll knock some sense into you.
@@Roebuck325 It's not complete BS. Bullets ricochet and lose a lot of energy (velocity) when bouncing off. Even helmets of WW2 might have stopped slow projectiles. I've seen projectiles very similar to those used by the Axis bouncing off mere dirt. Now imagine urban warfare, where there are many flat hard surfaces all around. Chances are very high you will see ricocheting projectiles.
If you wanna see for yourself: try finding some videos from the Invasion of Iraq. I remember seeing quite a lot of footage of battles going down very long avenues in Bagdad and Fallujah. You could see projectiles "hopping" on the tarmac.
People expect soldiers to be intelligent.
Both theories prove otherwise
@@norrecvizharan1177 If you're hit in the direction of the bullet, it wont throw you out of the direction of the bullet, just away, so you can get hit more. Nothing about that theory adds up
if i'm remembering correctly, marine kevlar has snap-away buttons, and you are considered out of uniform if you're not wearing your chin strap.
subtle things like this prevents bad guys from donning your homie's uniform, infiltrating your camp, and slaughtering you as you sleep.
despite this, every marine agrees wearing a helmet without a chinstrap makes you look 1.5x cooler
Looking cool is definitely what to concentrate on in a war zone. Goes right along with the high heels when on leave.
Where the head goes, the body will follow. Jr High football lesson. But here's another example of chinstrap history. You could always identify a Roman Legionnaire by the scar under his chin from the strap cutting into the skin.
In Vietnam we wore the same helmets and in addition to having the buckle around the top of the helmet there was an inside strap that fit around the base of the back of your skull that was supposed to be a more secure way of wearing it. You never would want to have the buckles hanging loose because they snagged on dense jungle and made noise too.
My grandfather told me that they were told wearing your helmet with no chin strap gave you a higher chance of a bullet deflecting off of the helmet instead of penetrating it.
A report from WW1 claimed that when soldiers attempted to pull a fallen soldier from out of the mud, into which had fallen, face down, by pulling on his helmet to get him some air, they broke his neck in the process, because his chin strap had been fastened. Depends on the situation, I suppose.
When I went into the army in '75, we wore the same steel pots my dad wore in WW II. There were a couple of ways to fasten them. One way was very secure and if someone grabbed your helmet rim as a handle, they could easily break your neck with the added leverage. The same could happen from the concussion of a nearby explosion. The way we (and my dad's contemporaries) fastened theirs was by clicking the springy 'hook' part (sort of a snap latch) over a little ball on the other strap. That held the helmet from flying off if you were fighting or running or whatever, but if someone grabbed it or a shockwave hit it, the little ball would pull through the slot/snap and the helmet would be free. I'm sorry I couldn't give a better description, but if you look at the chin strap on those helmets, you'll see what I mean. Mine worked pretty well. Just pop out the liner and use it as a shaving or bathing basin and then, when you're done, dump the water out and put it back on as head protection. I also served again about 12 years later and, by then, we had the "Fritz" helmets. The Fritz was [probably better protection, but I liked the old steel pot more. Oh, and you could also dig with the old steel pots, too.
T-1 ball and clevis buckle chinstraps introduced in 1945.
@@danielf1313 Ahh... so that's the nomenclature for it. Well, dad was still in combat in 1945, (he also served after the war), so that has to be the chin strap he was talking about. In the video, the chin strap they showed with the ball looked exactly like the one I was issued in 1975.
I was on a Recondo team in 2001, and they taught us to break sentrys' necks by grabbing their helmet from the back and basically cranking it like a steering wheel. Which seemed pretty graphic and hardcore to me at the time. Later on, post 9-11, when some guys in my unit got to talking with an old Englishman who had been in the SAS, it seemed downright humane compared to the stories he told us.
@@willchurch8376 Oh, those Ol' WW II commandos were pretty rough. But, today's Rangers and beyond are pretty damned physically and scientifically good at flipping someone's "off switch," too. I did like the Brit's Sykes-Fairbairn knife as a fighting/killing knife, but our USMC K-Bar was a better all around knife. The Sykes was a pretty good streamlined update of some types of medieval daggers and looked to be pretty good at it's job from the front, back or through the collar-bone -- especially with the element of surprise, but I doubt it was much of a "camp" knife compared to the K-Bar.
@@yepiratesworkshop7997 Heh, I had a (non-issued, surplus purchased) K-Bar back in the day, had about two hundred confirmed kills with it. Of course, those kills were 100% cans of tuna, sardines, soup, etc. Wouldn't want to use an SF knife on those.
I’m sure I remember seeing an American WWll movie filmed during that period based in the pacific theatre, where one newbie had his chin strap done up and veterans of the platoon said not to because of hand to hand fighting with the Japanese. A scene later showed the newbie in exactly that situation whereby the Japanese was pulling his helmet backwards from behind but he survived and thereafter never did his chin strap up again. Can’t remember the film though
Sands of Iwo Jima I think
@@jasonmckeown6269 : I thought that too but after rewatching it….it’s not on there unless it’s been cut
Don't rely on Hollywood for advice about ANYTHING.
Gung-Ho?
To Hell and Back, starring Audie Murphy
When I entered the Army in 1968, I was surprised to learn that the chin strap was attached to the helmet liner and not to the steel pot itself. A lot of the publicity films actually show soldiers wearing only the liner.
Here I was thinking that films that portrayed the loose chin strap was just to make the characters look like they are in casual mode or have been doing the war stuff for ages so are relaxed.
I really enjoy random bits of info like this. Keep the videos coming & Semper Fi.
As one who wore the old WW2 helmet in the service, the strap was rather uncomfortable.
The steel helmets used in the Finnish army during my conscription in the 90:s had two clasps to attach the chin strap, one was solid and the other one was split so it would come off if pulled with a moderate force. We were told to only use the solid one when hanging the helmet on our packs etc. to prevent it from accidentally falling and always the split one when actually wearing the helmet to prevent neck injury/choking in case the helmet got snagged on something. Explosive blasts were not mentioned though, just getting stuck on tree branches etc.
I have seen soldiers get the lip of their helmets get caught on things, and guys get jerked by the strap. even experienced it myself more than once. Fortunately no one got seriously injured, but sometimes it could have ended badly. But the helmets didn't stay on well without the strap, but we did undo it plenty. Also over time of constant use the strap gets nasty and itchy, and you have to scrub and clean it constantly.
During my service I used the old style helmets as well as the new style kevlar helmets. There was a huge difference in comfort between the two. The old style helmet was painfull on your skull and was moving around a lot, when you fastened the strap it was even more uncomfortable so nobody was fastening it. The kevlar helmets however were much much more comfortable and we wouldn't mind fastening the chin strap, however our chins would get all sweaty but other than that I wouldn't see how we wouldn't use it in combat situation as it really pivoted on your chin
Except you can't pop popcorn or carry water in the kevlar helmet.
The Kevlar helmets bear a strong resemblance to those used by the Germans in the World Wars for a good reason. In WW1, the German Army consulted a sculptor when designing their helmet. The artist pointed out that the human head is oval and flattened on top. The M-1 helmet was designed with the idea that the head was more spherical and as a result did not fit as well.
@@Sforeczka of course you can but you would need a second strap as it would tilt if you held it by it
@@josephnash2081 nice little snippet of knowledge there. I had no idea
Can confirm: it's definitely more confortable without the chin strap fastened. I did a lot of pushups for getting caught with it unbuckled.
My time was after the 'steel pot' days, but I remember the old PAGST helmets and wore variants of the ACH during Iraq and Afghanistan. I am inclined to believe the trauma risk simply from experience in a 'route clearance' unit in Iraq, we had multiple hits where guys inside the vehicle would have their helmets ripped off and in one case blown up and out of the turret landing a dozen meters or so away from the vehicle. Our ACHs were designed with break free webbing inside though, but when you factor the amount of force required to break that webbing and launch the ACH up and out that far, I am inclined to say it is plausible at least, if not probable
I was taught that it took 50 pounds of force to break free strapping. That's probably about right although I never did any real research into it. Just trusted the riggers and black hats.
When I was in the US Army in the 1980s-90s, there was a period when I was initially issued the M1 helmet. During that time, I was also issued the new replacement chin strap - which did not have a quick release - just a button snap, was angled forward from the D rings on the helmet, and had a chin pocket for the point of the chin, rather than the old flat strap which went under the chin with the quick release. I recently put together an M1 helmet to match what I had when I was in the service, and was able to purchase the replacement strap, nomenclature: "STRAP, CHIN, GROUND TROOPS' HELMET, STEEL, M-1 1EA, DLA100-88-F-EC02 A 6/88" I assume from that description that the new strap was manufactured in 1988. I preferred the replacement strap, since it was more adjustable, comfortable due to what must have been a cotton blend chin piece sewed to the heavy duty nylon strap, stayed on my chin better, and stabilized the helmet when moving better as well.
Later on my unit was issued the Kevlar PASGT which had a different chin strap system for the helmet.
the snaps were designed to give way at the same amount of pressure as the T-1 quick release of earlier models.
@@thurin84 Where is that documented please?
@@lodragan i believe in the later m1 helmet guides issued with helmets.
checked reynosas book on post ww2 m1s. all it says is "...and also contained a snap fastener for quick release."
If you run with the strap undone it will falloff
We always wore the chin strap to our Kevlars. We never heard the rumor that it could result in a snapped cervical spine if an artillery or mortar round landed nearby. If it lands close enough to blow an unrestrained helmet off, I would say the risk of severe injury or death from shrapnel was greater.
Personal chinstrap use on variations of the Kevlar helmet from 1990-2015 over the course of multiple conflicts, operations, and wars. They work and save lives. Those that did not were injured or died under indirect / direct fire.
True story! During an attack by the 94th ID at the confluence of the Saar and Moselle Rivers in February 1945, an artillery round exploded close to my late father. The concussion knocked off his helmet and shrapnel cut his face. The helmet was damaged. He wanted to get off the line. The doc put on a bandage and sent him back. The Army gave him a purple heart. Years later he developed Parkinson's disease perhaps from the head injury. The VA took care of everything. 🙂Nevertheless, his decline was long.
Now, would the concussion have broken his neck? Who knows? I suppose the quick release buckle did its job.
he most likely didnt have the quick release. it only made it to the field in very limited numbers late in 45 in the pacific.
@@thurin84 Thanks. I never asked while he was alive. He had a scar on the tip of his nose. Had that shell fragment been an inch here or there, I wouldn't be typing this reply.
@@jerseycitysteve your welcome! well i certainly glad it wasnt an inch here or there!
There’s also the fact that the old helmets, like old steel cars, were designed to keep their shape when impacted. Many decades of research of mashed bodies in car crashes, and pureed brains under helmets, led to cars and helmets being deformable, absorbing some of the impact shock. As such, having an old helmet unbuckled meant that if you got shot in the head, the helmet would fly off, greatly reducing the chance of the brain playing ping pong in the skull. Yes, you then had an unprotected head, but chances are you had been knocked flat, or ducked damn fast, so a second shot was likely to miss.
the M1 helmet won't stop a bullet. it's designed to protect the wearer from shrapnel and debris only. It's only the advent of modern composite materials like kevlar and light-weight ceramics which allow the modern ACH to protect the wearer from actual bullets.
When I was a young apprentice tradesman an old British ex commando told me that one way to take out a German sentry was to sneak up behind him, pull his helmet back over his head, this put the leather chin strap around his neck - a good strong twist of the helmet and he was dead in a few seconds.
I asked could this happen to a British soldier, he said no because the British helmet chin straps were elastic
The ?Why?Why? Clip had me 🤣🤣🤣
I was recently watching a U.S. Marine Corp training video on hand to hand combat and it mentioned leaving the helmet unstrapped so it could be quickly used as a shield or bludgeon in close quarters. It also mentioned that a strapped helmet on an enemy mad a convenient handle in a fight!
It was also a second world war training video. So I guess the Corp got wise a little quicker than some of the other branches?
Yeah US Navy vet here (recent), but they always had us remove helmets when training abandon ship drills, since if you hit the water with your helmet strapped on, the water catching in the helmet supposedly will cause your heat to be jerked back and up while your body is entering the water, either choking you out or outright snapping your neck.
The physics of concussive blasts are VERY similar to the physics of water entry. That is to say, compressed air acts very much like a fluid, and is outright treated as one in fluid dynamics. So I would wager there's more truth to that "myth" than people want to give it credit for. Modern day Humans have some religious propensity about opposing "old myths" without realizing many of them have more than a little truth to them. It's a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Just because something is a bit of an old wartime myth doesn't mean there isn't some truth to it, and ignoring that while on some crusade to look rational is the height of irrationality.
Ah yes a "muh-service-time-specialist"
Air doesn't behave like a fluid because it can't. It's a completely different state of gas and liquid
Helmets are worn because humans found out they protect the head better than a skull alone
If you wanna go for a swim, you don't need a helmet.
Now this knwoledge is quite old if that helps you.
I am just annoyed how some people abuse the fact that for some reason others believe that experience comes from simply existing somewhere at a certain point in time.
You being in the navy doesn't change the laws of physics or the fact that helmets exist and are worn correctly for reasons my guy.
@@jacqirius It's not a "muh-service-time-specialist" statement, kiddo, it's a "this is what the military currently does and why" statement.
So you know, my first degree was physics and I was a nuclear officer in the Navy. Among the topics I've studied to make this statement is fluid dynamics/mechanics. If you have ever studied fluid mechancs - as you have not - you would know one of the assumptions is that incompressible fluid (which water generally is) and high speed gas have similar properties and are mathematically (and physically) treated as the same at high speeds and/or high pressures.
Clearly, you've never studied these topics, or you wouldn't pull out a high schoolers understanding of the phases of matter as a rebuttal to someone discussing fluid dynamics.
You not being in the Navy and you not studying physics or engineering doesn't change the laws of physics, my guy.
...and you being a snarky jerk about it to try and show someone up when you're actually wrong doesn't help your case.
.
Snark aside: Liquids and gasses are not the same, I never said they were. But when doing with moderately high speeds (which don't have to be very high) and/or pressures, a fluid and a gas function the same way. It's why you can have things like a Venturi Effect with moving gas OR moving liquid, for example.
So, my guy, next time you think to correct someone on the internet and be a snarky little pest about it, take a minute, look up the topic, and make sure you aren't actually WRONG.
Me being in service has nothing to do with the laws of physics, nor did I ever say so. The LAWS OF PHYSICS are what I was addressing, from my extensive knowledge of physics, engineering, nuclear plant dynamics, and I was merely referencing that even in a more "mundane" application of jumping off a ship in cases of abandoning ship, the same physics are still at play and are comparable to the topic being discussed here.
So chillax, kid.
My elementary school teacher fought in D-Day and across France in WW II and he told us this chin strap thing. True or not, he believed it.
He didn't mention helmets as a hand to hand combat item an enemy could use it against the Soldier. (And I find it highly unlikely) However, I did find an old US Army hand to hand combat manual that illustrated how a US Soldier could kill an enemy sentry with a helmet. After sneaking up on the enemy, he'd seize the enemy's shoulder with his non dominant hand, wedge his fore arm at the base of the neck, and simultaneously use his dominant hand to reach over the top of the sentry and grab the front rim of his helmet and violently jerk it back. The helmet strap and leverage would snap the sentry's neck. That might have been where that rumor came from. Though in the very next paragraph the manual stated that if the sentry didn't wear his helmet strapped or it came free, the US Soldier was to flip the helmet over and bash the sentry on the top of the head with it.
I read the same manual.
Its not to use the helmet as a weapon.. The enemy would grab hold of it using it as leverage to gain an advantage, the same as someone with long hair compared with short hair....
I’m active army and can confirm we unofficially and informally refer to this technique as a “turtle f*ck”
That's also how we were supposed to deal with sharks. Bash them on the nose with your helmet or fist (roll eyes).
Drill apartment showed how your nice enemy friend could sneak up from behind and choke you.
This is a classic example of the "but sometimes" fallacy.
Could wearing your chin strap SOMETIMES end up being a liability, causing injury or death? Absolutely.
But what's going to happen MOST of the time is the chin strap keeps you from being separated from your helmet, and the helmet SAVES your life. Everyone PAYS ATTENTION to those "but sometimes" situations, though, and thus the tremendous OVERALL advantage of the chin strap is neglected.
While I certainly admire the educated approach you’re coming from, is there any data supporting your “most of the time” claim?
Thought I’d ask before going on my last field op before getting out lol
My great uncle's and gdad in ww2 fighting in the jungle did not wear stiff chin straps because the enemy could sneak up on sentries and easily snap necks. When I myself joined up mid 80s, the British Army still had elasticated straps to remedy this. How ever running with a one -all fits -all steel helmet with boing boing strapping was pain inducing.
My grandfather was a British tank commander in the Scot's Greys from Africa to Normandy. There were being fired at by German tanks and artillery on a hill in Normandy. Was known as quite a nasty fight but I forget the hill number sadly. Shells were cutting down trees and Nebelwerfers were dropping. Being a tank commander, he was out of his hatch maintaining situational awareness. One Nebelwerfer round exploded in the trees and shrapnel went into the back of his head, narrowly missing his spine. He only survived due to his "tin" helmet. Got sent home after that of course. I'd imagine due to the shallow nature of the British helmet, it was probably fully strapped.
I was haveing a airsoft war with a veteran and had an m1 on with the strap fastened. He told me "NEVER DO THAT" He demonstrated why by pinning me behind a door by the helmet. I went to move wile being shot and I was stuck. Could not move my arm to undue it but also was being unloaded on from the crack in the door
so he carefully positioned you in such a way as to squeeze the helmet between the door and wall with you wearing it? sounds very pro
@@JohnSmith-zk8xp no. He told me to hide in a room and I picked the wall behind the door. I expected him to come in slow and carefully. He busted in and held the door from feeling me behind it. Effectively pining my head to the wall.
That has nothing to do with having on helmet straps and helmet size and everything to do with the way we are trained. Guy going in and passing the door face always slams the door back into the wall in case someone is back there. The helmet might have "made it worse", but arguably that's just not the case because you were fucked from the get-go due to lack of training and knowledge on our techniques which, as you found out the hard way, plans for guys like you thinking they are clever and hiding behind the door.
If you ever had to strap a helmet, you would know about the painful chaffing. Strapping on in 100F weather with 95% RH will give you a large raw patch of skin under your chin.
And leaving your helmet unbuckled so that you either lose it or you are constantly distracted by its unrestrained motion as it flops over your eyes will give you an 8mm hole in your forehead.
Man those helmets must suck, because I have no problems wearing a climbing helmet all day in 100 degree weather with the strap on.
Sort of like the seat belt argument. 99.9% of seat belts and strapped helmets protect the user. But humans will key in on that .1% to bolster their flawed argument.
well said...Hollywood are responsible for so much BS
The "why. WHY." Bit at beginning made this video perfect
As a former infantryman with 2 tours..(Ne Desit Virtus!!)I can tell you we hated chin straps on our kevlars because they were very uncomfortable and you don't dare want to sweat in one. Another reason was a myth that we heard (supposedly handed down from WWII or Vietnam I can't remember) that, having the chinstrap unbottoned or the helmet "loose" deadened a bullet strike because the helmet is able to act more as a shock absorber if it can move freely....thus...supposedly dispersing more of the bullet's energy and reducing the chance of penetration.... We used to play around with new Joes who buttoned theirs and "lightly" butt stroke the sides of their kevlars because it made their heads jolt and nearly tip them over....and then we would say "that chin strap gonna kill you". When they unbuttoned it we would pop them again with same stroke and the helmet would bounce off their head or spin around a little but they didn't take anywhere near the shock. We used to do this to each other often in my unit.....lot of fights and dogpiles happened over it..but it was part of hazing...
Side note: worked with Mitsubishi field reps on the construction of a geothermal generator install. The Japanese field engineers wore hard hats with a chin strap. We wore standard hard hats without chin straps. During heavy storms we would walk outside and our hard hats would be blown off and sent bouncing down the parking lot. We had a painter slipped on a large pipe and his hard hat went flying as he bounced around from his fall protection harness. Bottom line, guys now wear strap secured “Bump” caps for this kind of work. I can see advantages/disadvantages to both types.
I was OK with the auto/quick release. Without the strap my helmet would easily fall off when running and jumping.
From the WW2 films I've seen, the German helmet had better straps than we had. As a matter of fact, Germans had better equipment than we had. Thirty years later, we learned to do things the 'German' way.
I remember in boot camp in 72, strap the helmet. The strap had a ball which was in a 2 prong groove. If the percussion of a big explosion occurred, that pressure separated the prongs by the ball.
I wore the steel pot from 81 to 85 when we were issued the kevlar helmet. We were always told to keep the helmets strapped. I always unsnapped my strap at the range because I was a left handed shooter and the hot brass would sometimes catch between cheek and strap.
As retired infantry officer, there are WAY more benefits to wearing a helmet than not to wear one. Sure it may be uncomfortable, but it could save your life in countless ways. And if I didn't have a chin strap, I would be chasing my helmet on the ground every few minutes. I look at it as dumb movie bravado
My grandpa fought in WW2. He saw a ship sink from an enemy torpedo. Many of the soldiers jumped into the water to get away from the burning ship. Sadly many of them had their helmets strapped. The moment they hit the water the force of the strapped helmet hitting the water immediately snapped their necks. Such a small detail that most people in a panicked state would have overlooked. These were infantrymen being transported. Very sad way to go.
"Soldiers were ordered to abandon ship and jump feet first into the water. Some men with their steel helmets still strapped tight broke their necks as they hit the water."
Wtf man. Noted don’t jump in water with a helmet
When I was in Somalia in 93 you couldn’t leave a compound without your protective gear and helmet on with chin strap. So I put it all on, went through the entrance/exit, then took it off. We sat on sandbags and had them in the foot well. What effected us the most are skinny’s opening the doors while moving through a choke point. They really weren’t scared of getting shot but were definitely scared of getting sliced with a bayonet. So I always had my bayonet taped to my right hand. We didn’t have armored up hummer’s nor did we have air conditioning any where. We Jerry rigged M-60 Machine guns on the rails that held up the plastic covers which we had opened on the top. No single vehicles could travel alone. So I had one M-60 covering from 9to 3 north and the other M-60 on the second Hummer pointing towards the rear. It is hard to explain but I never felt scared but as a Company Commander my every thought was concerned with completing our missions and bringing all 160 soldiers back home. One thing that the movies get wrong is the AK 7.62x39 can only be stopped by 3 or more sandbags deep.
I was in Somalia in 93 too with the Field Hospital. I was there when the Blackhawk went down and we had one holiday where we saw over 1,000 wounded. I tended to not want to wear my battle rattle at all but I was out running on the compound one morning and had on my headphones (prohibited by our CO) and I saw one of our gate guards running toward me so I changed my route to miss him but he angled to me again. I kept on running and then he tackled me. I hit the ground and when my headphones flew off I could hear a 50 caliber shooting into our compound and the alarm sounding to move inside. The guard said he ran almost half a mile to catch me in all his gear. My CO was not amused and I got an ass-chewing in the morning meeting in front of all the primary staff. Good times.
I was there for operation restore hope. We left before everything went to shit.
First video I'm watching of you and I can already hear the accent. Instant subscription
Fascinating excursion into a tiny detail we casual historians of the war probably never heard of before. And further proof of just how many questions war can raise, and how many people are working behind the scenes to answer them, and how much competing analysis they leave behind.
Even the Patton movie turned this into an issue of wearing the helmet or not, rather than one about the strap. Questions:
1. Do chinstraps even feature in other countries' helmets of the era? I seem to recall seeing them on Brodie helmets.
2. Do they provide any real advantage in keeping the helmet on your head?
3. Is it possible to reliably stay helmeted in action when unstrapped?
4. Did the back of the head solution help keep the helmet on or just get the strap off men's necks and out of the way?
5. How did the risk of the strap breaking a neck under artillery fire compare to the risk of head wounds to unhelmeted men from shrapnel of that same artillery fire?
A friend of mine was a cadet in the 90s and while riding in the back of a truck during a training, a fellow cadet rested the front of his helmet on his rifle barrel. They hit a bump and it jammed the tip of the barrel between his forehead. I think they had to cut the strap off to release the helmet.
That story is probably says less about the danger of the chin strap than it does about the stupidity of teenagers.
well you never served so you wouldnt know that is a common excersize used by soldiers to get a little shut eye. I think your buddy was pulling your leg a bit about having to cut it off
This really has nothing to do with the helmet, but incopetence of the instructors handling of firearms training is obvious.
Actually one of our guys was grappling with an NVA soldier and he grabbed his own helmet and used it to beat the enemy soldier to death because the chin strap was buckled behind the pot.
For a lot of people in San Francisco and Los Angeles, strapping something on means something completely different. 😜
There also was a greater chance of concussion during artillery barrages if the chin strap was on. When on the march the discomfort could save your life, so most did use it.
As Marine color guard, our blues cover has a chin strap for decoration over the bill. When we were on board a ship decommissioning we added another chin strap to not disturb the existing one because of high winds during the ceremony.
You didn't mention the disaster in the training for the D-day Landings when German E-Boats bumped in to the flotilla of transports carrying US troops at night. Several Allied vessels were sunk or damaged and quite a number of soldiers, wearing their chinstraps fastened, snapped their necks when abandoning ship. The weight of their gear dragged them underwater so quickly the air pocket trapped in the helmet acted like a brake and that was that!
Incidentally Michael Bentine of the Goons fame, told a funny (not at the time!) Account of his helmet, strapped under his chin. He was talking with a volunteer 'casualty' during a training exercise. Said casualty, a veteran of the First WW, was laying on a stretcher at MB's feet. MB, looking down at the volunteer, nodded his head at something the Old Boy said. MB's helmet slipped off his head, dropped and hit the Old Boy smack in the face, knocking him out cold (and thus supplying one real casualty for real treatment!) I believe the old guy survived the experience 😂
There's a lot of Military Legends (equivalent to Urban Legends) that get started by lazy soldiers looking for an excuse to be lazy. The idea that being close enough to an explosion that the shockwave would yank the helmet hard enough to snap your neck is pretty ridiculous if you think about it. First of all artillery, bombs and land mines don't just explode they're made to throw metal fragments in every direction so being in a situation where you only got hit by the shockwave is pretty damn unlikely. Sure you might be in a trench or around the corner of building from a bomb going off but the shockwave would be decreased by no longer being a direct line. For the explosion to be close enough and powerful enough that even the indirect shockwave affected you it would be powerful enough to collapse the building or the sides of the trench.
As for the Hand to Hand argument, why would the enemy be grabbing on to your helmet when they could be stabbing you with a bayonet (on the rifle or just in the hand) or hitting at you with something like an entrenching tool or even just their fists. About the only time you could make the argument not to wear helmets would be if you were clearing a small tunnel (ala the runnel rats in Cu Chi in the Vietnam War). Any other time you'd want the helmet for extra protection from being hit.
The grabbing if the helmet is just grappling. You put something g in their eyes, like their helmet, and tlnow they can't see where you're going to stab. That way, there's not a chance they block you. Grappling is one of the most important aspects of hand to hand combat that isn't using fixed martial arts.
@@volatile100 If it's purely unarmed, grappling has it's place as it's difficult to get an incapacitating strike with just fists before you can get in close enough to get them in a lock. In the military context, were your opponent can have weapons and, more importantly, friends with weapons, committing to try and get a lock just isn't smart. Even if you get in close enough to make an effective grapple and manage a perfect choke hold he could be sticking you with a knife 5-6 times before he passes out or his buddies could be putting a boot to your head or a bayonet in your back. I'm not saying there's never been a soldier that has used grappling to win in that kind of situation but I would say it's not something you should plan to try and do.
I'd also say that worrying about unarmed combat as a rationale for not wearing a chin strap is pretty weak to begin with. Shrapnel from bombs and grenades is a lot more likely to kill you on the modern battlefield and have a helmet slip off while you're diving for cover and leaving your head exposed is going to get you dead a heck of lot more often.
@@volatile100 helmet keeps them from being able to knock you out unconscious with a 1-2 punch combo before they can get in close enough to grab your helmet because they'd break their fist on its steel.
Not to mention if they're close enough to grab your helmet they're close enough to eye gouge you with their thumb or fishhook your nose anyway.
Not to mention if you have your helmet on you can bash their nose in with your helmet, OR if you're the one defending you can tuck your chin in and use your helmet to deflect his attempt at head butting you.
Interesting as always!
I used that helmet when I was in the military and we always kept it strapped on because it would slip off your head because it was quite heavy- we had the airborne type chin straps that kept it on your head securely. If you didn't strap your helmet, it would be the first thing you loose when you start jumping around and hitting the deck.
It was normal in basic training in the British Army in mid 40s for chinstraps to be fastened. Instructors also taught that helmet was to be worn down over the eyes for best protection. I believe that the strap conections on both sides of the helmet were designed to break in event of excessive pressure from explosive force.