I was watching Saving Private Ryan the other day and noticed that there seems to be a net or something like that covering the helmets of the American soldiers. No such nets were on the German helmets.
What are they really, if not nets? What’s their purpose? And why didn’t the Germans have them too?
The main purpose would be allow camouflage to be added, so your shiny steel helmet would not be over-visible.
To reduce shine and allow extra camouflage.
The Germans don’t seem to have indulged in this practice very much. Complete cloth covers for it, yes, to some extent.
In the film, the Rangers didn’t have netting on their helmets, but Airborne units made use of the netting.
Most films don’t seem to indicate any consistency between type of unit and presence of netting. Airborne units appear to make the most consistent use of netting, but sometimes they don’t employ it. Sometimes US infantry has netting, sometimes they don’t.
When Canadian Forces (Princess Patricias Canadian Light Infantry) first deployed to Afghanistan they made use of nets and “scrimmage” (I think that is the correct term…bits of cloth) on their helmets. Since they’ve adopted the CADPAT Arid, I don’t see it very often.
And it was awful handy to stick things in.