THE TRENCH HELMET.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LX, Issue 17062, 15 August 1917, Page 6

THE TRENCH HELMET.

SAVES OUR SOLDIERS' LIVES.

TRENCHES DO NOT AFFORD SHELTER.

Captain Henry J. Reilly, who was the inilita-ry correspondent 'of the "New York Herald" in France, has, since America joined the Allies, been appointed to a command in the U.S. troops. In the following article he describes ; (how. the steel helmet came to be adopted i for the troops in the trenches, and the great protection they were to the soldiers. Ampng 50 cases of head wounds, when the helmets were first adopted, 43r 'happened to ; soldiers without helmets. None of those who wore helmets died, while most of those without helmets had severe wounds and many of them died. The writer also points out why most of the wounds received nowadays are from the low velocity projectiles. .

'''•The recent retirement of the Germans in Northern France has led to considerable discussion as to whether or y not they have found a means of doing away with the present system of long lines of trenches and substituting for this warfare in the open field.

* As since i.je late fall of 1914 until the beginning of the recent German retirement all the lighting on the Western front has been trench or siege 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 of shell travelling slowly, and thus making the worst kind of wound.

VALUE OF HELMETS

. Ihree per cent, of wounds have been in the head, and about 15 per cent. :n the face or neck. This led to the adoption oy the French of a steel helmet ' called after its inventor. Adrian. The

i helmets were first used in May, 1915 j That their use is justified is shown in ran article recently appearing in La : Nature. Among 55 cases of head "wounds, -L 2 happened to soldiers without .helmets.

...Twenty-three of these had fractured 6kulls, while the remaining 19 had bad scalp wounds. Of the 13 who wore helmets, not one had a skull fracture. Five had slight wounds only, while none jp£ those who had worn a helmet died. Quite a number of those who had not did die. ." ,The French helmet has proved such a-siK-cess that Belgium, Italy, Serbia, Russia, and Rumania have equipped their troops with the same model botight in France. The French helmet jbi\s a bursting bomb as insignia on its front, and ij light blue or khaki in colour, depending on whether it is worn by-the Metropolitan, the French Home army, or the French Colonial army. ~r rT he Belgian helmet is khaki coloured, witl* the Belgian lion on the front; the Italian, greenish-blue, ■ with no insignia; the Serbian, khaki coloured, with the> Serbian coata-of-arms; the Russian, khaki coloured,' with the Russian coat-of-arms; and the Rumanian, blue-grey, .with the Rumanian coat-of-arms.

ZX FRENCH. MAKE 12,000,000 f- . . HELMETS,

■r Up to the present the French have fnade nearly. 12,000,000 helmets, using About 12,000. tons of steel. In-othe-words, a, ton of. steel will make. 1000 helmets.' The British atoo have equipped their troops with a steel helmet, which has no ridge running from front to rear as has the Adrian, no decorations and a ' rather'wide brim, which runs all the way round. It is ci a khaki colour.

. Armour for the individual soldier disappeared as nreanr.a gradually increased in power. This was because the weight of metal sufficiently thick to s.tpp a projectile became so.great that a<man could not carry it, much less -inarch and fight in it. In fact, th e development of firearms had become a necessity, as the ordinary weapons frequently were useless against armour. . I'liere was a battle in Northern Italy -in. the fifteenth century in which thousands of a: loured mm were engaged. . J3i^ only one met his death. He fell off Jus horse and was smothered in the ijnud, his mail being so heavy that he [was unable to get up. (.:'y"As the power of firearms increased, : She .point was reached where any attempt at protection was useless and ever, dangerous, because it meant dirty fragments carried into what otherwise was frequently a clean wound.

HIGH-SPEED BULLETS HOT

■r -The velocity of small-arm projectiles was such that their surface became heated by the friction of the air, and this heat served to sterilise the bullet. The • chief exceptions were the fragments and bullets from the shrapnel used by the field artillery. As the bursting .charge in the shrapnel was generally low power it produced a low velocity in the bullets and fragments thrown out when ! it burst.

■ In fact, the shrapnel bullets on the . outer edge of the cone of dispersion fre- ; quently had so little power that they jtwould not penetrate a man's ordinary I clothing. For this reason the knapsack ion the back or the infantryman has aliways -furnished him, when lying down, a certain amount of protection against shrapnel.

However, with this exception, the j projectiles from modern firearms travel (with such enormous velocity and on rsuch a straight line that the only projection for them is a deep trench. ■; Thua firearms made armour disappear, and the armour was replaced by ■ entrenching, which made the great velocity and flat trajectory of modern firearms almost useless for siege or trench warfare. Therefore, weapon.? ircro dpsighed whose projectiles could reach linen in trenches.

'_ y As the distance between the trenches is never great, and as the higher the :projectile goes up in the air before com;ing down the more difficult it is %o