CLOTH CAPS, STEEL HELMETS

There were any number of errors in Gareth Prenderghast's article Cloth caps and steel helmets (May issue). The ones most obvious to me were:

The ‘winter trench cap’ (formally aka as the Cap, Winter, Service Dress) was not a pattern of 1915, but one of November 1914. If he comes across one made in 1918, Gerald should give it a very wide berth as it was discontinued from the clothing scales in the spring of 1916.

The first pattern of ‘soft trench cap’ was introduced in March 1916, rather than the ‘Spring of 1916’ and the Brodie helmet didn't feature the rubber ring in the liner until May 1917.

And if he can source Gor Blimey winter trench caps for £350, I would like to order a dozen for which I would gladly pay him, say, £700 each. Similarly, if he is paying twice as much for US Brodies as he is for British ones, I also have a bridge to sell him.

Jack Griffin by email

Gerald Prenderghast replies:

Thank you for your most interesting letter. I do not profess to being an expert on WWI headgear and would like to thank you for your comments and corrections. I can only say that I included the information in the article from what I thought were a number of reliable sources.