Helmet, Flak, Type M-4 'Grow': Royal Air Force

Leather-covered steel helmet with chamois-lined interior; there are cut-outs to the ears and a wide chinstrap is attached to helmet at the front and the back edges of the cut-outs. This strap is fastened at the left with a metal pronged buckle, and to the right, by a metal pop-stud fastener. The inside of the helmet has been padded with bunched-up contemporary newspaper pages dated 1 December 1945 (this has been put into a clear polythene bag to prevent long-term acid damage to the helmet).

The Type M-4 'Grow' flak helmet was intended to fit on top of a conventional flying helmet and would permit the wearer to have full use of his ear telephones. The helmet is made of a series of unjoined overlapping strips of Hadfield manganese steel strips, running front to rear, and sandwiched between an outer layer of brown leather and an interior covering of chamois, forming a protective skull-cap. Weighing 2lbs, it required no separate liner as conventional fabric and leather flying helmets proved to have adequate padding for comfort. Initially known as the 'Grow' helmet (from a design credited to US Eighth Air Force surgeon, Colonel Malcolm Grow) it was tested on operational service and 19,000 units were ordered in England to be made by the Wilkinson Sword Company in mid-1943. Production was slow; therefore an urgent request was forwarded to the US Army Ordnance Department to begin manufacturing in the USA. Pending further tests it was found that this helmet was deemed more suitable for use by crewmen in certain turrets, its protective qualities not as successful as the earlier M-3 helmet. A further 2,500 examples were examined for practical testing (known as the T-3) and on successful trials was redesignated the M-4 helmet. Although designated as a standard item from December 1943, it did not fully replace the earlier M-3 but supplemented it. Other modifications were made later and the helmet was eventually made obsolete by arrival of the M-5 in 1945.

Worn by Warrant Officer James Cardwell during the Second World War while on operations over Europe with 226 Squadron RAF.

James Cardwell was born on 31st July 1917 in Castlewellan, County Down, Northern Ireland. Originally a baker by trade, he joined the Belfast Fire Brigade toward the beginning of the war and was on duty during the German air raids on the city in April and May 1941. Due to sectarian tensions in Belfast, which included his fire crew having rocks thrown at them while on duty, Cardwell, raised Catholic, decided to enlist in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) in 1943. In January of the following year, Cardwell was called up for active duty and underwent training with No. 26 Operational Training Unit (OTU) at RAF Wing, Buckinghamshire followed by No. 2 Group Support Unit (GSU) at Swanton Morley, Norfolk. Cardwell qualified as an Air Gunner in January 1945 and was posted to No. 226 Squadron, which by then had become part of the 2nd Tactical Air Force, at Vitry, France. Flying in B-25 Mitchell medium bombers primarily in support of ground operations over France, the Netherlands and Germany, Cardwell completed 34 operations by May 1945. On several of these, Cardwell's B-25 was hit by flak and on one occasion they were forced to land near Brussels due to an engine fire. Cardwell's final flight on 25 May was a ferry duty, in which his crew flew BBC war correspondent Chester Wilmot to Lüneburg where he reported on the suicide of Heinrich Himmler. Cardwell, who saw Himmler's body, remarked that he 'looked as evil in death as in life'. For most of Cardwell's tour, his crew consisted of: W/O J W Bourchier (pilot), F/S W J Dring, Sgt J Cardwell and Sgt A Conventry. Following the war, Cardwell served as an Air Traffic Control Clerk at RAF Hendon, and after leaving the RAF in December 1946 worked as a fireman at Vauxhall Motors. He married his girlfriend Betty Chambers in October 1945 and had three children.

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