Original French WWII Model 1935 Tanker Armored Vehicle Helmet with R.F. Badge Original Items

Original Item: Only One Available. This is very difficult type of helmet to find, known as the Chars de Combat helmet or Armored vehicle helmet. Features a steel skull shell with rear visor and front leather brow pad. These helmets were issued to armored vehicle and tank crews in the French military before and during Word War Two. This particular example has ear cutouts in the shell, something we have only seen once before!

The helmet features much of its original paint and has an RF (République Française) flaming bomb badge on the front, the standard badge for the French Army. This helmet is fitted with a standard “Adrian” style leather flap liner, which does not have the ear flaps usually seen on the tanker helmets. There are also chin strap loops just in front of the ear cutouts, though the chin strap is missing. These were configured this way so that headphones could be worn while using the helmet, so this may be a specific helmet for tank commanders or radio operators.

Condition is good, though the liner is definitely worn, and has partly detached from the mounting brackets in the front and back. There is also wear to the shell, dents, and loss of paint on the exterior. The rear left side of the helmet in particular has a sizeable dent, so this helmet definitely has some stories to tell!

Size is approximately a US 7 (56cm). A scarce helmet to find and in very good overall condition. A helmet certainly encountered on the Maginot Line and at the early days of the fall of France 1940.