P type – British Airborne Forces jump helmet – BMB 1941

The ‘P-type’ British Airborne Forces jump helmet, introduced in 1941, remains one of the rarest and most sought-after patterns among collectors.

This helmet is the earliest known variant of the P-type: it features aluminium hooks for a ‘web chinstrap’, essentially a modified army helmet strap adapted with two web neck straps, a leather adjustment strap, and a rear buckle. Later P-type helmets were issued with the more familiar brown leather chinstraps, making this early configuration even rarer. Until now, only two examples of this ultra-early type have been recorded!

In the bleak winter of 1940, the War Department faced an urgent challenge: Britain needed to match the devastating success of Hitler’s Fallschirmjäger airborne troops during the Blitzkrieg. This urgency spurred the rapid creation of the Parachute Regiment and its specialist equipment. To meet the demand, Briggs Motor Bodies Ltd of Dagenham was tasked with designing a new steel helmet. Drawing inspiration from captured German examples, their efforts culminated in the production of the pioneering ‘P-type’ helmet in early 1941.

Nicknamed the ‘Duck Bill’ due to its distinctive wide rubber edge banding that extended into a pronounced rear “bill,” the helmets were first used during Operation Biting. Although quickly replaced in 1942 by the more familiar HSAT (Helmet, Steel, Airborne Troops). The ‘P-type’ did not disappear entirely, some paratroopers  kept their original helmets, often trimming away the ‘Duck Bill’. These modified versions went on to see service in North Africa and even during Operation Market Garden in September 1944.

This particular surviving example is especially remarkable. It retains a good portion of its original brown paint and shows clear evidence of heavy field use. The rubber edge remains in place, while the distinctive ‘Duck Bill’ has been periodically removed, a common practice among paratroopers. The liner is intact, complete with its fragile but still-present yellow rubber pads.

To underscore its rarity: fewer than 1,000 P Type helmets were ever produced. Helmets like the P-type are rarely offered on the open market, a truly exceptional opportunity to acquire one of the rarest and most historic British airborne helmets of the Second World War.

The helmet is nicely factory stamped by BMB ‘Briggs Motor Bodies Ltd of Dagenham’, dated 1941 in size 6 3/4. The chinstrap is not present. A profesional tailor from UK is able to make a copy chin strap (please contact us for more information).

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