Steel Helmet, MKII: British

Standard bowl-shaped MkII steel helmet, painted olive green. Internally the helmet features a black oilskin liner made of five tongues with a rubber pad to the crown. Fitted with a khaki coloured sprung canvas web chinstrap.

Worn by Warrant Officer James Cardwell of 226 Squadron RAF during the Second World War.

James 'Jim' 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 operations, Cardwell's B-25 was hit by flak and on one occasion they were forced to land in 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 (navigator), Sgt J Cardwell (air gunner) and Sgt A Coventry (air gunner). 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. He died in 2001.

CARDWELL, J 1902837