Přilba vz. 32
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The Přilba vz. 32 (Přilba = helmet; vz. = Vzor, Czech for helmet pattern 32 ) was the standard helmet of the Czechoslovak Army from 1935. By 1939 1,021,548 helmets were made.
History and background
After Czechoslovakia was founded after 1918, the army did not have an independent steel helmet. First you put the helmet vz. 20 a, an in-house design that was quite similar to the German steel helmet. Within the army there was pressure to create an independent design. In accordance with this request, the helmet was introduced into the army from 1935. After the destruction of the rest of the Czech Republic , large stocks of the helmet came into the hands of the Wehrmacht. The German army decided not to give out the helmet to its own soldiers. In the course of the war, helmets were handed over to air raids. The Slovak army, however, continued to use the helmet. Finland received around 50,000 copies. Several thousand helmets were given to Chile and Croatia. After the Second World War, the helmet was in the Czechoslovak Army until the development of the Přilba vz. 53 partly in use again.