Mk I steel helmet with second pattern Cruise visor : British Army

British Mk I steel helmet. This helmet is based on the standard British Army 'Brodie' pattern, but has an additional chain mail visor. The visor is attached to an edging strip which supports a curved metal rod running immediately inside the front rim of the helmet. This supporting rim extends only halfway around the helmet (the rear half has a raw edge) and ends in broad flanges which, as well as supporting the visor rod, also form the chinstrap retainers. The triangular chain veil, which hangs directly in front of the wearer's eyes, has a central nasal bar, and can be flipped up to sit over the helmet rim on the outside. The springs which would originally have held the veil firmly in position are missing. The chinstrap varies from the standard Brodie pattern, being a two piece tongue and buckle, rather than the normal single loop strap with sliding buckle. The outside surface of the helmet has a thick painted charcoal blue/grey finish, and the liner is the standard Brodie pattern item made of felt, cotton and oilcloth.

The Cruise visored helmets were named after their inventor, Captain Richard R Cruise, of the Royal Army Medical Corps. During early 1917, concerned by the number of soldiers being blinded by shrapnel and shell splinters, Cruise devised a chain mail veil or curtain for attachment to the standard British War Office 'Brodie' steel helmet. In service by summer 1917, the first pattern veil was a rectangular section of mail, (tested and guaranteed proof against a three-ounce shrapnel round fired at a distance of one hundred yards) attached to a rail inside the front rim of the helmet. This 'curtain' could be drawn to one side, allowing the wearer to sight his rifle, and could also be pulled back over the top of the helmet brim, and clipped onto horn-like hooks to clear the field of vision entirely. Soldiers in the field generally found the veil to be an annoying distraction, and often removed the mail section altogether, leaving the conspicuous hooks. Photos also exist showing the helmet worn reversed so that the mail hung behind the wearer's neck. Cruise's second pattern helmet was designed to address some of the criticisms directed at the earlier design. The central nasal bar and spring tensioning allowed the veil to be quickly flipped up and securely located without hook retainers, while the new triangular shape of the curtain was less likely to flap into the wearer's face. Despite the added safety offered by the Cruise Helmets, they never proved popular with combat troops, and it is not clear whether the second pattern was in fact ever issued on the Western Front during the war. Some repainted examples were certainly used by the British police force during the Second World War.