The Greek Helmet of 1940

Author: Markos Andreou
English translation: Jonathan Ioannis McKelvey

The Greek army during the 1940-41 campaign used three types of helmets: the French Adrian Mle-1915, which you can see in the center, the British MkI on the right, and mainly the Greek helmet on the left, which was ordered in 1936 and manufactured at the Enamel and Metallurgy Factory of Athanasios Kosta in Kea. 

The three types of helmets used by the Greek Army during the 1940-41 period are, from left to right: a) Greek-made by A. Kosta, b) French Adrian Mle-1915, c) British MkI.

Many things have been said about the origin and construction of the Greek helmet used by the Greek Army during the Greco-Italian War, but until now, the documentation of any information about it has not been clear.

Since its creation in 2012, the Hellenic Army 1940 Reenactment Group has started its own historical research to find documented evidence about the origin and construction of the Greek helmet used by the Hellenic Army.

The evidence that emerged from this research undoubtedly proves that the helmet was entirely manufactured in Greece.

Significant elements of the tender announcement and the project assignment for the supply of helmets by the Greek Army in 1936 are found in the book "THE ARMAMENTS OF GREECE 1936-1940" from state documents held by the author Mr. Konstantinos D. Vlassis.

According to these, the first international tender for the supply of 250,000 helmets was announced on December 4, 1935, and took place on January 4, 1936, without any result. It was then repeated on February 20, March 31, and May 10 of the same year, again without result, and finally, on October 15, 1936, six (6) industrial companies submitted offers and samples:

1st: The Greek Enamel and Metallurgy Factory of Kea, Athanasios Kosta. An illustration of the helmet is seen in a sketch from the factory's album on page 23. 

2nd: The Greek Powder and Cartridge Company (Italian firm Maneta). In the 1936 PYRKAL album on page 194, the Greek helmet proposed by the company, similar to the one manufactured at Ath. Kosta's factory in Kea, is shown. 

 3rd: The Zeintze House from Germany. At that time, Germany was manufacturing the well-known M-35 model. 

4th: The Hellenic Industrial Association. We have no information about which helmet they proposed in the tender.

5th: The Czechoslovakian Zbrojovka Brno House, which was then manufacturing the M-32-34 model. 

6th: The Otto Ruben House from Sweden. It is not mentioned which type was proposed from the three existing ones. We can only assume that the most likely type was the M-26, which is found in the center. 

From the report of the tender on 31-10-36, it emerged that only the Greek Enamel and Metallurgy Factory of Kea, Athanasios Kosta, had fully complied with the service's terms. 

The technical competition followed, where according to the record of November 26, 1936, two samples met the terms: those of the Greek Enamel and Metallurgy Factory of Kea, Athanasios Kosta, and the German Zeintze firm, with a score of 100% for the Greek helmet and 94.22% for the German one.

Finally, on December 8, 1936, the Supreme Supply Committee of the Ministry of Military Affairs conducted the financial competition, where once again the Greek Enamel and Metallurgy Factory of Kea, Athanasios Kosta, and the German Zeintze firm were the successful bidders. The price for the Greek helmet was 302.50 drachmas, with Swedish steel as the raw material and a staggered delivery time of 10 months to the General Army Depot in Piraeus, starting 3 months after the contract was signed. 

The price for the German helmet was 321.625 drachmas, with a cheaper three-part liner instead of the more expensive eight-tongued one that was usually produced. Delivery would take place 7 months after the contract was signed. 

In the period until the decision for the supply of the Greek Army helmets was made, new applications and offers were received from foreign suppliers, proposing even second-hand helmets of British, French, and American types, as well as helmets of the Serbian Army of French and Czechoslovakian types (1936), which were deemed unsuitable. 

Particularly interesting in the re-evaluation reports of all participants are the examination records of the Enamel and Metallurgy Factory of Kea, Athanasios Kosta, by a committee of technical officers in April 1935, which certified the factory's suitability for helmet production and the June 25, 1936, registration bulletin on the production capability of up to 50,000 helmets per month.

On December 14, 1936, the ASEA decided to procure 250,000 helmets from the Enamel and Metallurgy Factory of Kea, Athanasios Kosta, at a final price of 290 drachmas each, to be paid in two installments: the first 42,500.00 drachmas in the fiscal year 1937-1938, and the second 30,000,000 drachmas in the fiscal year 1938-1939, without interest.

During our research, we examined more than 300 helmet samples in person, and at the Greek Industry Exhibition in Gazi, Athens, in March 2018, we came into contact with the Friends of the EMAGE Kea Factory Association. 

After obtaining permission from the kind people of the association, Markos Andreou and Georgios Krikelas visited Mr. Ioannis Eygenikos, the last surviving craftsman operator of one of the three presses that shaped the Greek helmets, at his home in Drapetsona on 22/05/2018. 

Mr. Ioannis Eygenikos, with Markos Andreou, during our first visit to his home in Drapetsona, explains technical details about the Greek helmet.

On 26/06/2018, a second visit followed by Markos Andreou and Apostolos Brenda to Mr. I. Eygenikos' home in Kea, to the Museum of the Friends of the EMAGE Kea Factory.
Association, which he maintains, and to the factory, which is now abandoned. 

The EMAGE Kea Factory today, a listed building since 1985 but abandoned.

Indeed, his surname represents his character. After welcoming us with great joy and good mood, in the interview he gave us, he provided his personal testimony and described in every technical detail the entire process of manufacturing the Greek helmet at the Kea factory. 

A plan of the factory depicting the Greek helmet.

As Mr. I. Eygenikos told us, the design of the helmet is by the technical director Mr. Michael Vlados, who was responsible for the design and production of all the factory's products. He was a great mind, a Greek from Russia, who had worked in factories abroad before coming to Greece. In one factory in Russia, he even managed 30,000 employees. His nephew, with the same name, Michael Vlados, also worked at A. Kosta's factory as a technical designer sub-engineer, as well as his niece Maria Vlados in the artistic design studio Sablon.
 

Mr. Michael Vlados is seen on the left in the photo examining the quality of the products.

From just fourteen years old in 1937, Mr. Eygenikos, along with other children of the island, would apply the leather to the helmet's headband with the characteristic bronze double pin for two drachmas a piece, as he described to us with emotion. 

The factory's machine shop, where the helmets were polished and many other tasks were carried out.

Subsequently, he was hired as a craftsman in the factory's machine shop and from there was placed as an operator on the sheet metal pressing machines. The particular press you see is one of the three used by the factory for helmet forming and is located in the outdoor area of the Kea Museum. 

In the courtyard of the museum in Kea, one of the three presses that shaped the Greek helmets can be seen.

Ships from England would bring pieces of circular steel plates, approximately 40 centimeters in diameter and 1.1 millimeters thick.

The manufacturing process began with the oiling of each disc, followed by forming in the press where it took the initial hemispherical shape like a bowl, as Mr. I. Eygenikos described to us. 

Mr. I. Eygenikos shows us how the steel plate disc is placed in the press.

In the photo, you can see a helmet sample from this stage of construction.

It is worth mentioning that the factory had three presses: two with a pressure of 100 tons, each weighing 17 tons, and one with a pressure of 60 tons, weighing 12 tons.

In the photo, you can see the production of Greek helmets, with two of the three forming presses visible. In the background to the left, Mr. I. Evgenikos can be seen at the press during work, as indicated by his name written on the photograph. 

The production of Greek helmets in progress.

The next stage involved marking the perimeter curve, using another helmet as a guide, which was placed on top, followed by trimming the excess sheet metal around the perimeter using the stationary electric shear shown in the photograph. Finally, the edge was curved outward along the entire perimeter on the band saw, forming the characteristic flange. After the helmet’s shape was completed, holes were made for the liner, and finally, it was polished on the lathe. 

The electric shear in the museum’s courtyard, where the craftsmen manually cut the well-known curved shape around the shell’s perimeter, giving the Greek helmet its characteristic form.

The shell, ready and polished.

Next was the furnace, where the helmets were cleaned of oils due to the high temperature and prepared for thermal hardening.

Before the helmets were placed in the furnace in rows of five, special spacers (dies) were inserted into the holes intended for the liner to shape the final width. Mr. Evgenikos also performed this task before an operator was assigned to the press. Once the helmets, now red-hot, reached 800 degrees Celsius, the first thermal hardening was done by quenching them in water, followed by a second thermal hardening with the same preparation but in oil. In the photograph, you can see the furnace where the helmets were placed to undergo subsequent thermal hardening.

Quality control was done on a sample basis for each batch by measuring the hardness of the helmets. The process was as follows: a metal ball was dropped from a specific height onto the helmet, and the rebound was measured. If the hardness was not satisfactory, the hardening process was repeated. 

The factory's painting department at work. The rotating bases where the helmets were placed are visible.

After the double thermal treatment, the helmets were washed in acid to remove the oils, dried, and then painted khaki with a spray in the factory's painting department, placed on rotating bases.

From the paint shop, all the now-ready shells went to the drying room, where they were left to dry for a day. 

The drying room where the helmets were left to dry for 24 hours.

The internal liners were not made at the factory but were sent along with the chinstraps by the military by ship from Piraeus. 

The female factory workers fitting the internal liners.

They were hand-fitted with four screws and nuts by women working at the factory. During the war, when production reached its peak, all the young women on the island worked, even at home, fitting the liners to the shells.

Once the helmets were completed, the final stage of production was packaging. Each one was wrapped in paper and placed in wooden crates approximately 1x1 meters in size, stacked five helmets high. The crates were sealed and delivered to the Greek Army. A special committee received them at the factory, from where they were loaded onto ships and sent to the front or army warehouses. 

The final stage of production, packaging; in the background on the right, the factory's technical director, Mr. Michail Vlados, is visible.

In the photo, you can see the helmet from the Kea factory being used in Greek Army exercises before the war.

To our great surprise, as Mr. I. Evgenikos described to us, none of the stages of the Greek Helmet production process were automated; all tasks were done manually. 

The staff entering the factory.

During the war, the factory operated 24 hours in three shifts with schedules 6:00 am – 2:00 pm / 2:00 pm – 10:00 pm / 10:00 pm – 6:00 am, employing around 400 workers per shift.

Daily production reached approximately 300-400 pieces per press, and Mr. Evgenikos is sure that the order of 250,000 helmets was completed and exceeded, although it's unknown by how much.

The helmets were manufactured in three sizes: 

The dimensions per size.

a) The small size No 55 with a maximum external width of 22.5 cm and a head circumference of the wearer corresponding to 55 to 56 cm.

b) The medium size No 57 with a maximum external width of 23.5 cm and a head circumference of the wearer corresponding to 57 to 58 cm.

c) And the large size No 59 with a maximum external width of 24.5 cm and a head circumference of the wearer corresponding to 59 to 60 cm.

The internal liners consisted of a metal support ring and a leather lining. The metal ring was made of 20x0.5 mm steel strip. 

The internal liner, fully assembled, ready to be fitted into the shell.

The leather lining was made of thin natural lambskin, which consisted of a perimeter strip, sewn onto it seven tongues forming the head dome, six of them perforated and one bearing pyrography with the inscription Greek Army, Crown, Cross, and the helmet size.

The internal liner No59, fitted into the corresponding size shell, the ink stamp showing the size inside the shell is visible.

The pyrography was found on one of the seven tongues of the leather; this particular internal liner is size 57.

Also, between the leather lining and the metal ring, a wavy woolen fabric strip was inserted to protect the leather from wearing out due to contact with the metal ring, making the helmet more comfortable for the wearer. 

The leather chinstrap was attached to the internal liner; a characteristic of Greek helmets is the double buckles they feature.

Finally, as Mr. I. Evgenikos told us, ballistic tests were also carried out at the factory in the outdoor area on a special base where the helmets were mounted, which still exists today. 

The factory today.

Today, in Kea, the factory that manufactured the Greek helmets of the epic era still stands, defiant against relentless time, but abandoned by the state. The enameling factory’s friends association, with the support of the local government, the island’s residents, and the titanic efforts of its members, such as Mr. Evgenikos, have preserved what remains in their museum at their own expense.

During our tour of the factory's interior, we found remnants of the Greek helmets it produced, metal rings, and leather liners, as seen here among other enameled products and boxes of screws used for their assembly.

Wooden crates containing 1/8x6 screws and nuts used for fitting the internal suspensions to the shells are still on the factory floor!

The Kea Enameling and Metallurgy Factory of Athanasios Kosta wrote a golden page in the history of Greek industry, contributing to the national struggle during the epic of 1940-'41 and proving the timeless ability of Greeks to create and succeed, despite what some may want us to believe otherwise. 

EMAGIE seal.

Thanks to, Ioannis Evgenikos, Georgios Evgenikos, Dionysios Grammatikos, Michail Chanos, Georgios Krikelas, Efrosini Galani, Apostolos Brentas, Konstantinos Vlasis, Savvas Vlasis.

Photos The Greek Helmet of 1940