It is probably difficult to find in the post-Soviet space a person who does not know what the SS-40 helmet looks like. He himself may not know about this, but he has seen this element of equipment more than once. After all, he appears in the vast majority of Soviet military films, which almost everyone loves. Well, it's time to find out what the Soviet helmet SSH-40 is and what it looks like.
When was adopted
The situation in Europe was heating up. The Soviet Union needed not only weapons, tanks, planes and artillery in order to increase the power of the army, but also the appropriate equipment to protect a simple soldier going into battle or defending a position. Despite the abundance of wars that Russia waged in different centuries with different opponents, the Russian Empire did not establish the production of helmets that would protect soldiers. Although for firefighters special helmets were issued.
As the name implies, it was adopted into service in 1940 - shortly before the start of the war. After all, the SSH-40 helmet is decrypted - a steel helmet of the 1940 model.
At first it was produced at two plants - the Stalingrad "Red October" and the Lysvensky metallurgical plant. But after fierce battles for Stalingrad, production could only be maintained at the second plant - it was in the Urals, in the rear. Over the years alone, about ten million such products were created, which saved the lives of many thousands of Soviet soldiers. Moreover, the production was classified - this signature stamp was removed only relatively recently.
What is a
The SSh-40 helmet itself is steel, it is made of high-strength alloy steel armor. Thanks to this, despite the thickness of about 1.2 millimeters, the steel sheet confidently stopped the bullets, not to mention the fragments of grenades and ordinary blows. The helmet was produced in three sizes - the largest and heaviest weighed eight hundred grams.
In addition to the most durable body, the helmet consisted of a sub-body device - it absorbed the shock, reducing its destructive effect. It consisted of three petals made of dermatin or artificial leather, which provided high resistance to abrasion, although it caused soldiers a lot of inconvenience - the head sweated and itched. But in battle, they did not pay attention to such trifles.
Between themselves, the petals were connected by a cord, which could be tightened or relaxed, adjusting the helmet to the characteristics of the head. On the inside of the petals was a dense cotton pad, which provided a cushioning effect.
The third and last element was the chin strap. Thanks to him, the helmet did not fall on the run, in the fall and in any other extreme situations. It consisted of two parts: one ended with a sliding buckle, and the other pressed a semicircular metal mandrel for convenience. A sliding buckle made it possible to reliably tighten it during the battle and relax when the attack was repulsed, but the danger did not completely pass.
How Budyonny with a saber felt a helmet
M. I. Koryukov, one of the developers of the helmet, talked about how the initial test of the army helmet SS-40 passed. The marshal of the USSR Semen Mikhailovich Budyonny personally conducted it. To begin with, out of habit, he took up the saber, which he masterfully owned. And it was not an ordinary checker - it was made by the best masters of Zlatoust on a special order.
But even after the strongest blow that once cut a man into a gallop in half, not a nick was left on his helmet. After that, the marshal took up the Nagant. He fired from different distances - starting from twenty-five meters and ending with a close shot. And here alloy steel armor did not disappoint. The helmet was thrown up, ears were covered by the crash, but dents, and even more so holes, did not appear in it. A light bullet of 7.62 mm caliber, which surely hits the target at a distance of up to fifty meters (which for most pistols is prohibitive), could not damage the helmet. As a result, Budyonny was pleased with the test result. Further tests were already carried out by experts in a special shooting range using a Mosin rifle and a TT pistol.
Major improvement over predecessor
Was the USSR helmet SSH-40 the first means of protecting the head of ordinary soldiers? It turns out that no. Before it was tested SSH-39 - a year earlier. However, she did not pass the tests, as she had an overly complex, uncomfortable, and not sufficiently reliable underbody.
As a result, certain changes were made to the design. In addition, to increase the durability of the connection between the helmet and the helmet, six rivets were used now, and not three, as before.
How many years the helmet was in service
It’s stupid to argue - the SS-40 helmet perfectly showed itself on the battlefields during the Great Patriotic War. High-quality materials, combined with a carefully thought-out design, saved a lot of lives of ordinary soldiers and officers.
Therefore, she stood in service for twenty years. Only in 1960, a new, improved modification was adopted to replace it - the SSH-60. But even she had quite a few distinctive features. Modifications again undergone only the nape. Now the petals were attached to the top of the helmet, and not in the middle. In addition, shock-absorbing functions were now assigned not to pressed cotton wool, but to special springs.
Conclusion
On this article comes to an end. It briefly, but in as much detail as possible, gives information about what a simple soldier's helmet SS-40 looked like and what it had. The article also describes test methods.