Naval Radio Operator Helmets -- D Day

[BillyTucci]

Hello All,
I was wondering if anyone can assist me in my research for Sgt. Rock. In the Omaha Beach scene we move to the bridge of a Fletcher Class Destroyer just off shore. This ship will be one that moves in to about 500 yards of the beach and begins shelling the German fortifications.

I have a scene of the Navy men preparing to fire onto the beach, my question is what type of helmet did the radio operators wear?

I have the skipper and several others wear standard M-1s, but the radio operator would need something special to fit over his headphones. A friend (who wrote a great book on the M1) doesn't think an M-1 with cut out sides was common at D Day. He informed me that the early modification of the M-1 helmet had the sides spread and sides cut from the liner to accept earphones, but that was an airforce adjustment. The M-5 helmet with the hinged flaps seems to have been an Airforce item too, and I've seen lots of Pacific theatre radio men wear the larger special helmets, but am not sure if this was present at Normandy.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
B

[gi-rene]

No they have an exceptionally large helmet. I have some data and a picture I scan for ya Billy!

Its PTO though but if its a Fletcher, Navy equipment was common and hell my grandfather can attest to ships sailing between theatres anyways...

I'll hook my printer up and scan it for you so you can see what they look like.

[BillyTucci]

Thank you my friend! It'll be greatly appreciated.

[gi-rene]

Grrr working on the scan but the Mark 2 Talker helmet seems to be common to anyone that had to use a comm set while at GQ. My USMC uniforms and equipment says they were produced starting in '42 and over 300,000 were made so I'm assuming they were prolific in the Navy

[Tom Houlihan]

Without trying to sound too pedantic, those were not radios, they were sound-powered phones.

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[War Historian]

Crewman wearing Navy Mark II "MKII" talkers helmet during battle.

[War Historian]

Crewman wearing Navy Mark II "MKII" talkers helmet during battle.
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[Panzermacher]

We called em "Darth Vader" helmets. They we used by any sound powered phone talkers at many stations.We had the same ones (Mk2 WW2 relics in fact) in the 80's on my ship.