“Battle of Pozieres Ridge. Troops of the 1st Australian Division (1st ANZAC Corps), some wearing German helmets, photographed between La Boisselle and Pozieres on their return from the taking of Pozieres, 23 July 1916.” By John Warwick Brooke.
“The Kaiser, on horseback, photographed smiling and surrounded by his men during the manoeuvres of 1905. This photograph subsequently became a popular propaganda image, identifying the Kaiser with the common soldier.”
Thepickelhaube, literally “spiked bonnet,” was originally designed for use in the Prussian military by Friedrich Wilhelm IV in 1842. It was made from boiled leather and trimmed with metal. The spike is sometimes, usually in the case of artillery regiments, replaced with an orb. The helmet, thanks in large part to Allied propaganda during the First World War, is now thought of as a symbol of Imperial Germany. However, in its heyday, the pickelhaube swept the uniforms of the world by storm, like the Prussians at Sedan. The upper image is a pickelhaube from the uniform of a German infantryman from WWI. The lower, interestingly enough, is the U.S. Army Dress Helmet, Model 1881. It remained a part of the dress uniform of the United States Army until 1902.
U.S. Marines about 1890 with pickelhaube helmet. Pickelhaube helmets are copied from the German Army; they became fashionable after the Franco-Prussian war. The U.S. Army, the Chilean Army, Swedish Army and the British Army, among others, used pickelhaube helmets.
