The German Army had helmets that seem to have stood the test of time-the US Army now uses a similar design.
The British kept those WWI-style “half helmets”-they seemed to offer little protection (aside from falling shrapnel)-why did they keep such an old design?
The French had neat helmets-elaborate, with a nice decorative crest-were they actually good at protecting your head?
The US Army and the Russians used a similar design.
As for the Roumanians-they had really weird headgear.
What was the best design?
And, for assualt troops-were helmets worth the trouble? they are heavy and disrupt your sighting a rifle-did most troops leave them off? Many units just wore berets.
The Germany Army ‘Fritz’ type helmet was the best helmet in WWII. I’ve seen comparisons between it and US/British helmets on Discovery and Military Channel (I don’t recall them comparing it to Soviet or French designs, but I don’t recall either of those being particularly exceptional) and it beat both for protection.
-XT
AKA the M4 or M5?
You answered your own question in the OP. After years of study, the US adapted the basic German design as being the best compromise between protection and being able to see and hear.
British helmets were a design from WW1, which protected from downward traveling fragments. This was a big deal in the trenches. Not so much when you weren’t in one.
Sorry, can’t really look stuff up atm. IIRC, the AKA was a WWI style helmet with the bolt thingies on the side, so definitely not that one. I’m not familiar with the other model numbers…the ones I was thinking of were (again from memory) the M-1935 or M-1940/42 models that were tested. Millions of them were made and from the tests I recall they performed better than any other helmet tested on the show…which probably had something to do with why the US Army eventually adopted a similar design layout using modern materials.
-XT
Heh, by AKA I meant Also Known As. But I got the names wrong – I was thinking of the M35 and M40 helmets. Like this.