BACKGROUND: The French were the first to have a general issue, "modern ", steel helmet in WWI and developed the classic "Adrian" style helmet in early 1915 followed by the British army later that year and by the German’s in 1916. By September of 1915 most French front line personnel had received the helmet and by the end of the year over three million had been manufactured and distributed. The next helmet produced by the French was the M26. It differed from the M16 by being pressed out of a single piece of manganese steel and had a different liner making it easier to manufacture.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: A green painted helmet with a separate, standard French artillery emblem which has an embossed flaming bomb with crossed canons and a raised "RF" ("Republique Français") cypher. The leather liner appears to have been replaced (wartime should be black), but the leather chinstrap appears original. Roughly a size 55. There is some denting to the crown.