Vintage FDNY Video 1943

[firebuffkevin]

All Hands video.   Some apparatus shown are:

two 1920's ALF pumpers
two 1930's vontage Mack pumpers
late 30s Ward La France Pumpers

FDNY All Hands Fire - 1943

 

[guitarman314]

 I saw no Ahrens-Fox but the first still shot was of a 1937 Mack pumper. The first in engine looks like a 1929 ALF and the Ward LaFrance in the background was a 1940 hose wagon

 

[3511]

Near the end is a 1936 Mack with aline stretchd from the hose bed....no roof on the cab.

 

[69 METS]

Interesting video. Towards the end, the comments that scroll down the screen mention the red helmeted personnel are members of the Fire Patrol. In addition to the patrol members, there are a couple of gentlemen seen wearing what appears to be the round civil defense helmets from that era, these helmets also were red.

Some of the sound effects are reminiscent of something from a Three Stooges or Little Rascals episode.

Thanks for making this piece of history available '274'.

 

[raybrag]

I have a WWII vintage Civil Defense helmet . . . it's not red, but a cream color (which just might have been white 60+ years ago), with the CD logo on the front.  It looks like it was probably a leftover from the WWI doughboy helmets that US GIs wore up until the start of WWII. 

 

[3511]

You are correct. They were Army surplus.

 

[69 METS]

I have a WWII vintage Civil Defense helmet . . . it's not red, but a cream color (which just might have been white 60+ years ago), with the CD logo on the front.  It looks like it was probably a leftover from the WWI doughboy helmets that US GIs wore up until the start of WWII. 

We had a pile of them in the cellar of the firehouse years ago, same description but in red (with the CD logo). Years later, there were also yellow helmets shaped somewhat like traditional style New Yorker helmets but made of some type of composite (also with the CD logo on the front).

 

[3511]

The original Army surplus helmets were issued to each company after the Auxiliary Force was organized after Pearl Harbor in 1942. Company captain's had to sign for them on the unit supply roster, account for them each month, and assign them to qualified auxiliaries as they came on board.

By the end of the WWII, there was so much Army surplus that nobody gave a s*#t about old helmets and the were buried in basements like yours. Some remained in use until the late 50's when the "Vollies", as they were sometimes called, went out of service.

I suspect they are an artifact by now, perhaps of some value.