THE STEEL HELMET.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 August 1917, Page 6

THE STEEL HELMET.

SAVES MANY LIVES.

The retirement of the German's in.Northern France led to considerable discussion as to whether or not they have found a means of doing- away with the present system of long lines of trendies and substituting for this warfare in the open field (writes the correspondent of the New Lork Herald in France). As since the late fall of 1!) M until the beginning of the recent German retirement all the lighting- on the western front has been trench.or seiga warfare, a large percentage of the wounds has been from slow velocity weapons. In fact, about 75 per cent, of the wounded have been hit with shrapnel or pieces oi* shell travelling slowly, and thus making the worst kind of wound. VALTP OF HELMETS. Three per cent, of wounds have been in the head ar.d about lu per cent, in the face or neck. This led to the adoption | by the French of a steel helmet, called I after its inventor, Adrian. The helmets were first used in May, 1915. That their use is justified is shown in an article recently appearing in "La Nature." Aiiimij rifty-iive -cases of I head wounds, forty-two happened to j soldiers without helmets. Twenty-three of these bad fractured ' skulls, while the remaining nineteen had | had scalp wounds. Of the thirteen who f wore helmets, not one had a skull frac- ; lure. Five had slight wounds only, while none of those who had worn a helmet died. Quite a number .of those who had not did die.

The French helmet has proved such % success that Belgium, Italy, Serbia, Russia, and Koumania have equipped llieir troops with the same model bought in I'ranee. The French helmets has a bursting bomb as insignia en its front, and is light blue or khaki in colour, depending on whether it is worn by the .Metropolitan, the French Home Army, or the French Colonial Army.

The Belgian helmet is khaki colored, with the Belgian lion'on the front; the Italian, greenish-blue, with no insignia; Uio Serbian khaki colored, with the Serbian coat-of-arms; the Russian, khakicolored, with the Russian coat-of-arms; and the Roumanian, blue-grey, with the Roumanian coat-of-arms. )

FRFA'CH MAKE 12,000,000 HELMETS. Up to the present the French have made nearly 12,000,000 helmets, using about 12,000 tons of steel. In other words 1 ton of steel will make 1000 helmets. The British also equipped their troops r.ith a steel helmet, which has no rid?*c running from front to rear as lias the Adrian, no decorations, and a rather wide brim, which runs all the way vouiid. It is of khaki color. Armour for the individual soldier disappeared as firearms gradually increased in power. This was because the weight of metal sufficiently thick to stop a •projectile became so groat that a man MHild not carry it, much less march and fight in it. In fact, the development of firearms had become a necessity, as the ordinary weapons frequently were useless against armour.

There was a battle in 1\ or thorn Italy In Hie fifteenth century in which ':nousands of armoured men were' engaged. But only one met his death. He fell oft" his horse and was smothered in the mud, hU mail being so heavy that he was unjiblc to pet up. As the power of firearms increased the point was readied where any attempt at protection was useless and even danger<H!:.i, because it meant dirty fragments parried into what otherwise was frequently a clean wound.