Bidspirit auction | US Army M1 Steel Combat

US Army M1 Steel Combat Helmet and Liner with 45th Infantry Division Thunderbird Insignia - This is a US Army M1 steel combat helmet and matching liner featuring the insignia of the 45th Infantry Division, known as the Thunderbird Division. The exterior steel shell features original cork-textured olive drab paint with the divisional insignia?a yellow thunderbird centered on a red diamond?hand-painted or stenciled on both the left and right sides. The shell is constructed with a rear-seam rim and swivel-style chinstrap bales, which were introduced in late 1943 and 1944. It includes an Olive Drab #7 canvas chinstrap equipped with a T-1 pressure-release buckle. The interior liner is composed of phenolic resin-impregnated cotton duck with an interior suspension system made of olive drab herringbone twill cotton webbing. An adjustable leather-covered sweatband is attached to the suspension. While a circular manufacturer mark is present in the interior crown of the liner, the characters are not legible, and no specific manufacturer attribution can be made. This configuration is consistent with US military equipment issued from the latter part of World War II through the Korean War.