No doubt true. At the start of the Great War none of the armies had steel helmets, the Germans had their leather Pickelhaube but the rest had just a cloth cap. However because of the high number of casualties from Shrapnel shells some sort of head protection became necessary. The French brought out the first, a steel cap liner, in the summer of 1915, followed by the Brits in Sep 1915. It did not become standard issue until 1916, by then greatly improved.. Until then there were kept in the trenches for use by whatever unit was in action. Initially the American troops used the British model, but by 1918 were manufacturing their own. They were intended for protection against shrapnel and not against bullets There were rumours that certain Brit generals were opposed to the issue of helmets as they believed that they man the men look stupid and would make the men go "soft". David ---- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Metcalfe" <Peter-redfern@runbox.com> To: <greatwar@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 8:04 AM Subject: [GREATWAR] Trench Warfare >I was told a story yesterday by a gentleman who worked with a WW1 veteran >in the 1950's who was close to retirement then. > > The old vet told him that when he went over the top he had his rifle in > one hand and his shovel in the other which he used to shield his head from > the bullets and saved his life a number of times. > > Has anyone heard of this before as I certainly haven't. It makes a lot of > sense. > > Peter > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > GREATWAR-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Greetings to all, I am sorry I might have to appear slightly sceptical, not perhaps that the gentleman in question did in fact carry a shovel as well as his rifle when going over the top but rather the ability for the said shovel to protect against bullets. There is no doubt that the shovel may well have provided acceptable protection from 'shrapnel' as indeed did the helmets mentioned by David, which no doubt saved very many lives. I served for 25 years in the Army and at occasional times carried out small arms and explosive demonstrations at both RMAS and School of Infantry Warminster. Of the many demonstrations we provided one was for journalists intending to travel to war areas. During these demonstrations [among other things] we showed and demonstrated the penetration power and effect of small arms fire on various items. Much fun was had when we invited these people to select a hiding place or place of safety if they came under fire. After some selected hiding behind a car we showed the result of one 7.62mm round being fired at the said car at a range of 200 meters, it went in one side and out the other and would have killed those hiding behind. A burst of ten rounds 7.62mm fired from a GPMG at 100 meters would penetrate a single layer brick wall. The point of my long winded story is that even during WW1 I might expect a shovel not to stop the penetration of a rifle or machine gun bullet. Shrapnel perhaps yes, a direct fired bullet I am doubtful. Best Regards Peter Fellowes ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Parker" <parker3250@rogers.com> To: <greatwar@rootsweb.com> Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 2:36 PM Subject: Re: [GREATWAR] Trench Warfare > No doubt true. > At the start of the Great War none of the armies had steel helmets, > the Germans had their leather Pickelhaube but the rest had just a cloth > cap. > However because of the high number of casualties from Shrapnel shells some > sort of head protection became necessary. The French brought out the > first, a steel cap liner, in the summer of 1915, followed by the Brits in > Sep 1915. It did not become standard issue until 1916, by then greatly > improved.. Until then there were kept in the trenches for use by whatever > unit was in action. Initially the American troops used the British model, > but by 1918 were manufacturing their own. They were intended for > protection > against shrapnel and not against bullets > There were rumours that certain Brit generals were opposed to the issue > of helmets as they believed that they man the men look stupid and would > make > the men go "soft". > > David > > ---- Original Message ----- > From: "Peter Metcalfe" <Peter-redfern@runbox.com> > To: <greatwar@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2007 8:04 AM > Subject: [GREATWAR] Trench Warfare > > >>I was told a story yesterday by a gentleman who worked with a WW1 veteran >>in the 1950's who was close to retirement then. >> >> The old vet told him that when he went over the top he had his rifle in >> one hand and his shovel in the other which he used to shield his head >> from >> the bullets and saved his life a number of times. >> >> Has anyone heard of this before as I certainly haven't. It makes a lot of >> sense. >> >> Peter >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to >> GREATWAR-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the >> quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > GREATWAR-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message

But remember Canadian Sam Hughes experiment with the McAdam shovel. There were many misconceptions about what warfare would be like in 1914, even among the "experts".