Original French WWII Nickel Plated M26 Adrian “Parade” Helmet for Marshal Pétain’s Vichy France Guards – Complete Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is an excellent honest condition WWII French M1926 Adrian Helmet for Marshal Pétain’s Vichy France Guards. This example is in very good original condition, showing signs of honest wear and wear that has accumulated over the past several decades from storage. Affixed to the front is the emblem for the Guards, which features the FF Badge with Vichy France axe. The badge has undoubtedly been on the helmet since the beginning!

Size is approximately US 7.25 (58cm). Features a wonderful complete original leather liner in excellent condition, complete with its original drawstring. The chinstrap is not present. The overall condition of the helmet is excellent. These helmets are getting more and more hard to find on the market.

An excellent example to add to the collection! This is a perfect specimen which can serve as a representative example of French Guard Forces during WWII!

The M-1926 Adrian Helmet:
In 1926 the Adrian helmet was modified by being constructed of stronger steel and simplified by having the main part of the helmet stamped from one piece of metal, and therefore without the joining rim around the helmet that characterizes the
M15. The large ventilation hole under the comb, which had been a weak point of the old design, was also replaced with a series of small holes. The M26 helmet continued in use with the French Army until after World War II, and was also used by the French police up to the 1970s.

The Guard was a military force in Vichy France, created from the Mobile Republican Guard after it was dissolved in November 1940. It is now the modern Mobile Gendarmerie.

The Guard should not be confused with the new units created by the government of Vichy France, notably the Groupes mobiles de réserve (GMR) that belonged to the National Police (whose postwar successor were the Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité) or with the Garde du Maréchal (which were part of the National Gendarmerie).

The Mobile Republican Guard (MRG) was created in 1921. It had reached a strength of 21,000 men in 1940, with as many as 5,000 of them being captured during the Battle of France. The conditions of the Armistice of 22 June 1940 limited France’s Armistice Army to 100,000 soldiers in Metropolitan France affected the Gendarmerie, which was also part of the Army. Only 6,000 gendarmes were permitted.