The Adrian helmet was an influential design of combat helmet originally produced for the French Army during World War I. Its original version, the M15, was the first standard helmet of the French Army and was designed when millions of French troops were engaged in trench warfare, and head wounds from the falling shrapnel generated by indirect fire became a frequent cause of battlefield casualties. Introduced in 1915, it was the first modern steel helmet and it served as the basic helmet of many armies well into the 1930s. Initially issued to infantry soldiers, in modified form they were also issued to cavalry and tank crews. A subsequent version, the M26, was used during World War II.

General Information: The French supplied Serbian armed forces with 123,000 Model 1915 helmets. The Serbian helmets were painted brown like other foreign-used M15s. They had a frontal badge that was the coat of arms for Peter I, the King of Serbia from 1903 to 1918. The double headed eagle was adopted from the Nemanjic dynasty that ruled Serbia in the Middle Ages. The shield in the middle of the badge contains a cross with four firesteels, or file strikers, facing opposite directions. Firesteels were used to start fires using a flint and tinder. They were part of a musketeer’s tinderbox, which may be the root their symbolism in the Serbian coat of arms. They are not “Cs,” or Cyrillic “Ss,” as is commonly understood. (In the Cyrillic alphabet a “C” is equivalent to an “S” in the Latin alphabet.)

Collector Notes: After the First World War, when Serbia became part of Yugoslavia, many of the Serbian helmets were refurbished. The old badges were replaced with similar new ones that represented the unity of the different nationalities that comprised the new country. These helmets were painted green. Subsequently, presumably following the German conquest of Yugoslavia, large numbers of Yugoslavian Adrian type helmets were transferred to German-allied Bulgarian military facilities. There, they were again refurbished for use by Bulgarian armed forces. This involved removal of the badges, repainting, and installation of new liners. These Bulgarian helmets are interesting objects too. They can be readily identified by the domed bolts used to secure the liners. Because of this long history of use and refurbishment, a Serbian M15 in its original condition is a very rare thing.

Weight: 676g

ITEM NO. sl184