Why did German helmets make "horns"

Already during the First World War, old pickels, pointed leather helmets were replaced by stalhelms, steel helmets. Which is not surprising, because helmets made of leather or paper no longer met the requirements of the trench warfare. And it so happened that over time the stalhelms became one of the most recognizable attributes of the Wehrmacht soldiers.

Steel helmets of the first sample, later called M1916, began to enter the armed forces en masse. Additional armor plates, which were included in the kit and were mounted on special horns, helped to increase their strength. Such an addition made the helmet impenetrable, but, to the terrible detection of the soldiers, the strength of the rifle shell during the strike on these helmets was so great that it simply broke its necks. So the soldiers quickly realized that it was better not to be in such a reliable, but much safer stallhelm, and all armored plates remained dusting in warehouses. But from the mount-horns it was so easy to get rid of it.

As a result, the Allies immediately began to chuckle at the horniness of German soldiers. The most common was the joke about the wives of the Wehrmacht soldiers, who, because their husbands had been fighting for so long, had already given them horns that even cut through their helmets.

Further, Stahlhelm had several not very different modifications until the Stahlhelm M35 helmet appeared, which many consider the best helmet model for the entire Second World War. It was made of steel with the addition of molybdenum, which made the headgear a very strong protection, able to withstand pressure up to 220 kg per mm².

So, despite the very tragic beginning, the Germans were nevertheless able to modernize the stalhelm into one of the most reliable helmets of their time.