After the muskets were added to the battlefield, cold weapons were gradually eliminated by the army. Ancient armor has also been on the verge of being eliminated, because on the battlefield of the hot weapons of the bullets, the traditional armor and helmets will not only be very bulky, but also can not be the damage caused by the bullets.
Military Network - The German infantry division at the beginning of World War II, the strength of the strong, the back of the fall!
However, this situation changed differently in the First World War, when a large number of heavy machine guns were invested on the battlefield, and the application of this weapon made the infantry have to abandon the mode of operation of large-scale mobile operations in the field, and the battle between the two sides became a kind of "trench confrontation".
The tanks had not yet slaughtered all sides on the battlefield, and both sides used large-caliber artillery to fire against each other. Therefore, the soldiers need to face the overwhelming number of shells flying every day, and they can only hide in the dug trenches to ensure their safety.
However, the trenches at that time were also open-air, and there were few underground fortifications. So even if you hide in the trenches, the flying shell fragments and the wreckage of the fortifications will still cause a lot of damage to the soldiers, especially the unprotected heads. At this time, the role of traditional helmets is very large.
The German army at that time was different from the British and French armies in that they would still wear a helmet, but the helmet they wore was not the military helmet we know now, but to be precise, a leather "pointed helmet" that looked very gorgeous.
In the mid-nineteenth century, King Frederick of Prussia personally designed a high-top military hat. Later, in 1856, this high-top military hat unique to Prussian soldiers was modified to lower the height of the hat to fit the soldier's head more closely, and a "spear tip" was designed on the top of the hat.
The original spear tip was made of wool, which did not play a protective role, so the material was changed from wool to tin later. It is obvious that this Prussian helmet has only some decorative effects.
So at the outbreak of World War I, the Germans at that time wore such leather pointed military hats on their heads. The gleaming signs on the hat and the tip of the spear are particularly conspicuous, which can make people notice at a glance, so the soldiers are also very easy to expose their position in the trenches, in fact, it is not as good as the cloth hat on the head of the British and French allies, and the German army is not blatantly saying to the other side, "I am here, fight here".
For this reason, the Germans in the trenches needed a more practical helmet, so a German designer designed a strange appearance of the "steel helmet".
The helmet's headdress is made of metal about five to seven millimeters thick, and the protective area goes directly to the eyes and nose. Inside the helmets there was also a leather lining and shock absorbing cloth, and finally a hat strap was used to secure the helmet to the soldier's head. But this steel helmet not only looks really ugly, but also the protection effect is not very good. Not to mention that it was still very heavy, almost two kilograms, and it was very bulky to take it for combat, which was like a burden. Therefore, this steel helmet was only produced for fifteen hundred in the end and then discontinued.
By 1915, German medics Friedrich Schweder and Auguste Biel had designed a steel helmet for the German army, taking into account the head injuries of soldiers and the styles of helmets worn by knights of the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages.
The new helmets are modern in appearance, and the spear tips and other ornaments they used to have have been removed. And in order to provide better protection for the heads of soldiers on the battlefield, there are not only front and back edges, but also an outer edge above the ears.
The head of the helmet is round, which is mainly used to protect the head of the soldier, and its lower brim is open to protect the soldier's neck and ears. Moreover, two symmetrical bumps are also designed in the upper part of the helmet, which is actually equivalent to the "lugs" vent.
The convex trunnion is designed to serve two purposes, one is that it can be installed on the front with a five-millimeter thick armor plate, which can attack the full-power lead-core rifle shell to a certain extent, and the other is that it can act as a vent and reduce echo. Usually, german snipers and commandos were equipped with such armor plates.
After being tested in actual combat, this cross-line steel helmet was satisfied by the German high-level in terms of appearance and protective effect. Later, this steel helmet was called the M1916 steel helmet, and it was not long before it was mass-produced for use by soldiers on the front line. The Germans also left the traditional flashy pointed helmets, and the standard modern steel helmets were equipped.
The M1916 steel helmet not only has excellent anti-elasticity, but also is the earliest steel helmet in the world at that time.
The raw material used in the M1916 steel helmet is martensitic chrome-nickel steel, which cannot be stamped, but must be hot pressed for one-time molding. Therefore, its production cost is relatively high, but this also has the advantage that other materials of steel helmets are difficult to compare, that is, the hardness is very high.
The Germans also put a lot of effort into its appearance, and between 1916 and 17, the surface of the helmet was still painted in gray and white, and except for the Storm Commando, few people would paint their helmets. Later, in July 1918, General Ludendorff instructed that the helmets must be camouflaged in multiple colors.
Therefore, in the First World War, the German M1916 steel helmet has been camouflage regularized, in the future war, the German army continued to optimize the M1916 steel helmet, there was a steel helmet called M1917 and M1918.
After the defeat in World War I, when Hitler came to power, he said that the helmet must be improved, and it needs to be more beautiful and used. Therefore, in 1934, the German army again developed a new steel helmet, but their thinking continued to M1916 steel helmet, which was based on this basis to make certain changes. In June 1935, the newly designed steel helmet was finalized as the M35 military helmet. The helmet has a more complex lining, but the cushioning is also better, and the top fits more closely to the soldier's head, so comfort is optimized, so it was used until the end of World War II.