Green Steel Helmet with Red Cross

The Brodie helmet is a steel combat helmet designed and patented in London in 1915 by Latvian inventor John Leopold Brodie . A modified form of it became the Helmet, Steel, Mark I in Britain and the M1917 Helmet in the US. Colloquially, it was called the shrapnel helmet, battle bowler, Tommy helmet, tin hat, and in the United States the doughboy helmet. It was also known as the dishpan hat, tin pan hat, washbasin and Kelly helmet. The German Army called it the Salatschüssel (salad bowl).

From 1936, The Helmet, Steel, Mark I was fitted with an improved liner and an elasticated webbing chin strap. This final variant served until late 1940, when it was superseded by the slightly modified Mark II, which served the British and Commonwealth forces for the remainder of WW2.

In 1939 Commonwealth Steel Company (in conjunction with Lysaghts) started manufacturing steel helmets in Australia. Commonwealth Steel Company (or Comsteel) was founded in 1917 to manufacture wheels, tyres, axles and steel castings for railway use from a factory in Newcastle, NSW.