Chin straps in WWII

[taurusowner]

I just watched all of Band of Brothers again, and I'm up to episode 6 of The Pacific.  And I just have one question: did soldiers/marines in WWII EVER use the chin straps on their helmets?  I only ask because in the modern Army, they are required and regulations aside, it's just plain smart.  Running through a building in occupied France can't be all that different from one in Baghdad.  Riding around in a Jeep can't be all that different from a HMMWV.  Helmets bounce off when you're in combat unless they're secured.  So why is it ever single depiction of soldiers or marines in WWII shows them with their helmet straps undone?

/just irked me

[S. Williamson]

Maybe it's not "film-friendly." 

http://wwiimedic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/189932.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/American_troops_on_board_a_landing_craft.jpg
http://castlemaine-boy.smugmug.com/photos/161739236-O.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a160/Billanderson/african-americans-wwii-006.jpg

[taurusowner]

I was thinking something similar, but I can't see how a chin strap would detract from filming.  It's not like they obscure the face.  And the makers of BoB/The Pacific are alleged to go to great lengths to makes things realistic; why screw that up?

[Devonai]

I remember hearing a long time ago that soldiers of that time believed that if a round or some shrapnel hit your helmet, the force would transfer down your neck and snap your vertebrae.  Thus, keeping the strap loose would knock off the helmet but leave the soldier alive.  If this sounds like BS, it did to me, too, so it doesn't surprise me that it was never official doctrine.

[vaskidmark]

The chin strap on the old steel pots did not go on your chin, it went under your jaw.  If you fastened it, it chafed.  A lot.

The steel pot was designed to protect you from shrapnel.  It evolved from the (literal) tin pots the Brits wore as overhead cover in WWI, dropping down to offer some ptotection to the side of the head.

The Kpots do offer ballistic resistence, so I'm told.  As such, one would want it to remain firmly in place so that it could provide that protection, as opposed to the deflection of spent shards of metal the old steel pots were good for.

As required by law and custom:  In my day .......

you could wash your feet in your helmet
you could dig a foxhole with your helmet
you could cook a meal in your helmet
you could take a dump in your helmet

while these young whippersnappers can't even ...................

stay safe.

skidmark

[230RN]

I've always wondered about that, too.  I kind of thought it was because of blast effect lifting your helmet and maybe taking your danged fool haid off with it.

I also thought about that when fastening my cycle helmets (motor- and bi-).  At speed on a motorcycle, if it got snagged in a high-speed dump, it might do the same thing.

But I figured the probability of it getting snagged and taking your aforesaid danged fool head with it was much lower than the probability of your aforesaid danged fool head getting bashed by a rock, so I just shrugged and buckled it and said a Hail Mary and drove off.

Terry, 230RN

[RoadKingLarry]

Haven't any of you ever watched Sands of Iwo Jima? It is all explained in the movie.