Irish coalscuttle helmet

Up to 1937 Irish Army troops wore German style coal-scuttle helmets manufactured by Vickers in the UK.
Malcolm

could anyone direct me to some pictures of this on the web as a quick search drew a blank, i'm absolutely fascinated to see this.
cheers,

eBay.co.uk: EIRE PREPARES FOR INVASION - Cleaning Anti-Tank Rifle (item 120117490741 end time 17-May-07 20:58:51 BST)

Just found this. The identification notes on the back seem to be pretty conclusive (as oppossed to some pictures I've seen that have been questionable):

"Ireland prepares for invasion
New pictures of the Irish Army in Training
The recruiting of the Irish Army is now in swing

Cleaning the anti-tank rifle - while members of the Army studying map behind"

There's no date but the first line implies that it 1939 onwards.

 

The collar insignia looks like:


2nd Infantry Battalion

Irish Military Insignia HomePage

 

VP, yes I did but now can't find the link or the picture now. Do you still have them?

Sorry Kyt, went to merge my posts and included yours too.SORRY Owen

 

Ahh, well done Owen. That's the picture I'd sent to VP sometime back, from another forum. Can't find the forum now.

 

Yes indeed they did use Mausers. But I think they adopted a more "British Uniform" as the "emergency" (As we called the war) progressed. Here is a link to the Irish Army Website : Introduction - The Irish Defence Forces

As you scroll down you will see a pic of a Bofors gun crew wearing british style helmets.

 

I remember an article in Mil. Mod. back in the 80s by one of the Fosten brothers about Irish Army uniforms.
If I remember rightly it was a dark green and they wore black '08 webbing.
Wonder if Za has that in his collection of old Mil Mods?

Hmm, should have... problem is I never took the trouble of making an index of the contents, so if you con't come up with a bit more detail I'd have to do a lot of digging, and I'm somewhat strapped for time right now.

 

I remember being at a Military fair a couple of years back where a local man gave a talk on Northern Irelands home guard. He had a few photos of the Irish army and their German like helmets. According to a few men he had interviewed there was many a story of edgy home guard patrols firing on our Irish neighbours thinking that an invasion had begun.
This lead to a rapid rethink in headgear.

 

They have adopted a more European style recently, using Austrian Steyrs as the default Infantry weapon. They still use the GPMG as their support weapon of choice.

 

There's a site on the Net SOMEWHERE that lists every small arm used by the Irish Defence Forces during the war by type and quantity; it would be fair to say it was quite a mish-mash!!! IIRC numbers' wise by around 1942-43 the SMLE was by far the most common battle rifle, with of all things the "legendary" WWI Ross Rifle for the LSF coming a close second!!!

 

Great pic mate. The Irish Army have been a good advocate of the Armored Car over the years.

 

If you look at information surrounding Operation Green - the Nazi plan from invasion of neutral Southern Ireland, the Allied Forces in the North came up with Plan W, the armed support for possible invasion of the south

It would have cost many Irish lives if the Allied forces coming down from the north just shot at everything in what appeared to be a german helmet! Hence the need to rethink following the first joint talks in May 1940 and to get rid of the coal scuttle


pics of helmets
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