In the Vietnam war, the soldiers put cigarettes, rifle oil etc. into the helmet net..
In this movie, the nets are all empty
So is the net generally made for extra camouflage or to put stuff, or something other?
Just found an answer: "The netting helps to hold twigs, branches, leaves, or other things to aid in camouflage"
I guess that will do ;)
In the Vietnam war, the soldiers put cigarettes, rifle oil etc. into the helmet net..
In this movie, the nets are all empty
So is the net generally made for extra camouflage or to put stuff, or something other?
Vietnam-era helmets didn't have nets, just solid cloth covers and bands. The band was used as the holder.
shareThe OP was asking about the helmets in the movie, why he mentioned Vietnam War-era helmets is irrelevant to the question he posted.
Since Kelly's Heroes has to do with World War II, I posted the information that was pertinent to the question.
You should read questions more carefully in the future when responding.
"Toto, I've [got] a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
Nets were for camouflage purposes, while few bothered to garnish with foliage and so on.
On the textbook, foilage would break-up the shape of the helmet and blend it in the surronding.
The net had two main purposes: it muffled the sound of metal brushing on everything, like branches or walls.
And avoided that wet helmets became shiny - a common problem.
As said, in Vietnam the helmets had a cloth cover because it did the same things and it will not snag as the nets did - and a fabric cover was cheaper to mass-produce.
The fabric covers has slits for foliage and the same rubber band that was issued with the net - while seldom used in WWII.
There's a scene where there is netting over army guys gathered outside. It's in a tent-like shape.
Was that also to hold camoflage? there isn't any in place in that scene. You see only the netting.
http://www.amazon.com/Save-Send-Delete-Danusha-Goska/dp/1846949866
Supposedly, camouflage nets has pieces of burlap here and there to broke the surface and help to blend into the surronding.
Still also a 'plain' net disguises shadows and broked shapes, if properly draped (basically loosely tent-like and 'flared' on the sides).
I have somewhere a basic training manual with some cartoons 'how to and how not to drape camouflage nets'
For a plane, a plain net may be fooling enough to spoil the aim: for aerial photo reconnassiance, sometimes the netting can be seen on photos, but is almost impossible to see what's under the net - a tank, a command post or just two jeeps?
Sorry for being late, as I perpetually am in IMDB threads:
Locomotiva1 wrote:
The net had two main purposes: it muffled the sound of metal brushing on everything, like branches or walls.
And avoided that wet helmets became shiny - a common problem.
If you're talking about just the net itself: NO.
It couldn't do either of those. It would be worse and defeat any of your supposed benefits by CATCHING ON EVERY TWIG THAT THE SOLDIER PASSED. So it wasn't to make a soldier "more silent and negating of his wearing the helmet." The visual camo effect was only to be gained by whatever the soldier could attach to the net. And a bush attached to the helmet was not to be used during missions requiring "silence."
Yes, you see paratroops wearing helmet bushes in the movie "The Longest Day." But the presumption for those missions was that the enemy would know about the drops, and the subsequent movement of paratroops on the ground would not be "covert missions" that might be compromised by helmet noise, but that visual camo provided by helmet bushes might help.
It would be worse and defeat any of your supposed benefits by CATCHING ON EVERY TWIG THAT THE SOLDIER PASSED.
[deleted]
Actually, the Vietnam era helmets were not solid. I have a small helmet collection and covers had button holes in them. Why? Ask the DoD. And while the Army had elastic bands, which were modified with glow in the dark strips on the back so you could move on a trail with out bumping into the point guy (I think it was in 69-70 era).
But the woefully and forever underfunded USMC didn't have those bands, so they would cut inner tube from whatever they could find around, and that's what they used.
And I know, helmet collecting is strange, and I'm a weirdo and know it, so that's saying a lot!
Hope this helps!
Marines in WWII also used solid camo coverings later as well. So did the Germans and I believe Russians.
shareIt may be BS, but I read that when they tried to issue the USMC camo helmet covers in the ETO that it caused an increase in Blue on Blue because the rationale in that part of the war was "Camo-pattern = German".
shareI've read that, too. Not that all camo patterns were equated with German camo, but the specific jungle pattern used in the Pacific was too close to the dappled patterns used by the Germans, especially by Waffen-SS units. It didn't have to be an exact match, for a GI to see it and fire as a reaction, in the space of a split second. Look at the use of the meatball and white/red rudder stripes in our national markings in the Pacific in early 1942. That red ball was surrounded by a big white star and blue disk, and those red stripes were alternated with white. But to an AA gunner, a flash of red could mean death, so gunners tended to shoot first--they had to, if they stopped to think about it every time, it meant likely death.
"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen."
Actually, although they do look like button holes, the holes in modern-era camo covers are actually for inserting foliage. The only time I really did much of that was in training at Fort Benning, or if we were feeling especially motivated.
And as far as I'm concerned, collecting helmets is much more interesting than a lot of other things. Never could understand people with wine cellars...
It keeps your hair in place, especially after a recent visit to the hairdresser.
share