M1917 helmet worn by Henry Jetton Tudury
![](https://msarmedforcesmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2001-037-001-web-1024x576.jpg)
This M1917 helmet belonged to Tudury and is typical of those worn by American soldiers in World War I. During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, Private Tudury received a glancing hit from an artillery shell to his head, badly denting his helmet but effectively deflecting the projectile. Possibly as a token of good luck, he continued to wear the damaged helmet throughout his time in service.
As recounted by Tudury in his diary, “We were in the Meuse-Argonne…going through tortures of hell, where the bloodiest battle of them all that I was in, men were getting torn to, pieces by, direct fire from Austrian 88ths & one pounders, I was hit on the ‘bean’ by a head of a three inch shell, I don’t think it had full speed, it bent my helmet, and dazed me for about five minutes, my head stopped the helmet from bending more, had a hickey on my head.”