World War 1 helmets modelled by girls who helped make them

Short quirky World War I newsclip, originally entitled 'Wartime milliners,' in which factory girls who helped make (at least some of)the British 'tin hats' or Brodie helmets, are shown, some wearing or holding them. Followed by work scene and finishing with 3 soldiers trying them on. Undated, but my guess is 1916 when the helmet came into general use. Hardly dressed for metal bashing, the girls may have made and attached the chinstraps and complicated suspension lining. Shows feminisation (and partial juvenilisation) of British industrial workforce during the latter part of World War One.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• First
• World
• War
• One
• Great_War
• WW1
• Britain
• military
• Brodie_helmet
• tin_hat
• women
• emancipation
• British_army
• combat
• helmets

[Zagato86Trueno]

Helmets were originally trench store items from what I've heard. The battalion being relieved gave their helmets over to the battalion taking over their positions (as it was at St. Eloi in March/April '16).

Also...not sure if the 3 soldiers at the end are all Canadian, but the fellow on the right definately is (wearing Canadian 7 Button Tunic).

[wallygreeninker]

Interesting that you should say that he's a Canadian as the first battle (according to wiki) in which the helmets were used in large numbers was at St Eloi, April 1916, in which action the 2nd Canadian Division took part. Could just be a coincidence , of course.

[bunnter]

My late grandfather a ww1 veteran told me that only a handfull of helmets were avaliable for his unit as late as 1916.Much of the surviving footage was staged and fails to present an acurate impression ..

[wallygreeninker]

The helmets were piloted with officers and small units in late 1915 and given to some larger units in early 1916 - I get the impression everybody had one on the western front by the time of the Somme. Shortages were hard to cover up in WWI - there was a shell scandal in 1915 and questions asked in the house about obsolete fighter panes in 1917.

[hackberryflat]

A comment, I read the "shell scandal" -complaints about US made artillery shells not firing brought charges of manufacturer malfeasance;the truth was the shells in question were a part of a ship load & that ship had been torpedoed;the "holds" were flooded; the artillery shells were awash; but the ship didn't sink,it made port, and the shells weren't unloaded right away; originally were to be discarded,but "inspectors" thinking it a waste and the war needed the shells, put them into the supply.

[wallygreeninker]

the shell scandal that's usually referred to as such was about the failure of British factories to produce enough shells which ppl believed was because Asquith's ministry was failing to take a pro-active enough approach - something rectified by the appointment of Lloyd-George as Minister of Munitions.

[adecker31]

Just want to say the people who are commenting are awesomely informed - how aware was the public in England of the helmet shortages and was this a response to their worries? Or just a general, "we're doing our part so they can do theirs" kind of thing?

[wallygreeninker]

Having seen rockwriter's vid 'steel pots', I suspect these women aren't dressed for the dirty business of pressing, trimming and painting steel (female munitions workers wore overalls and caps) - perhaps they carried out the more time consuming process of fitting the liners and chinstraps.