War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Berlin, Royal Palace.

William IV looked at the pointed helmet he designed himself, and he liked it as much as he liked it.

"It's so perfect!"

"What a masterpiece!"

With a burst of boasting from the court officials, the Prussian M1842 cavalry helmet was finalized.

The M1842 cavalry helmet is actually still a leather helmet, but the peak is made of metal. This design, which looks like a nail inserted into the helmet, was actually designed by Frederick William IV himself.

This pointed helmet, also known as a spiked helmet, was originally used to show off the masculinity and powerful combat power of the Prussians. It was indeed loved by successive Prussian emperors, and even German military leaders such as Otto von Bismarck and Paul von Hindenburg liked to pose for photos wearing spiked helmets.

Especially after the Franco-Prussian War, the bristling beard and spiked helmet became symbols of pride for Prussian soldiers.

(It’s like a portrait of Bismarck, a typical painting style at that time.)

Although William IV claimed that he was inspired by the mythical unicorn, which symbolizes loyalty and beauty, the helmet was ridiculed and caricatured nationally and internationally as soon as it came out.

Heinrich Heine considered the spiked helmet to be exaggerated and superficial, and wrote a satirical poem comparing the spiked helmet to a lightning rod.

The helmet was even openly criticized in the Rheinische Zeitung newspaper.

"Yes, yes, I like this helmet. It shows the highest wisdom! The inspiration of the king! I'm just afraid that when the storm hits, that romantic crown will attract lightning!"

As a result, the Lightning Crown has become one of the synonyms of the Prussian M1842 helmet. Of course, Franz will not miss this feast. Although he cannot go out in person, it is still okay to get a vest and post a few negative reviews.

Comments within the German Confederation were quite polite, but when it came to the British, they contemptuously called it the "Devil's Horn".

The French began to speculate on the use of this helmet, and even the most famous French satirical newspaper "Folly" publicly solicited possible uses of this helmet from the society, claiming that it would help France become great again.

Ever since, all kinds of fantastic ideas have appeared everywhere in French newspapers.

For example, you can use the devil's horn to kill the opponent, or use it to open bottle caps, or when setting up a tent, you can have a few soldiers stand upside down to instantly fix it.

But in the end, the lightning rod of the German poet Heine got the most votes. The "Stupid" newspaper was going to award the prize of 5,000 francs to this great poet, but it was rejected on the grounds that his inspiration came from His Majesty the Kingdom.

So the editor-in-chief of the Folly newspaper mailed the five thousand franc bonus to Frederick William IV, and the latter actually thought that his design had been recognized by the international community.

But when he saw the content of the letter, he wanted to tear it into pieces, but as a king, he could only act like he didn't care.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty the Great King, your inspiration has entertained the masses and we would like to express our gratitude to you."

——The French newspaper Folly pays tribute to you.

In fact, the peak design of this helmet was so that the cavalry troops could use it as a stand for wearing feathers and horsehair. This was very common in the army at that time and could be used for decoration and boosting morale.

Second, and most importantly, adding a spire can effectively deflect the stabbing aimed at the head, because in cavalry combat at that time, saber-saber slashing was a routine tactic.

Of course, you can't help but mention the Austrian Lancers and the American Pistol Cavalry.

Austria Vienna.

The Prussian helmet controversy reminded the Austrians that it was time for them to design new helmets. Austrian design must not follow in the footsteps of Prussia, it must be generous, decent and practical.

As a result, there was another quarrel within the Austrian imperial government. Prince Metternich advocated continuing to use Hungarian-style cloth and leather helmets, and even the felt hats often worn by Hungarian hussars.

The advantage of this kind of equipment is that it is beautiful, practical, and cheap, but it has no effect on preventing hacking, and soldiers often fill it with colorful decorations, which affects the overall look and gives the opponent a very unpleasant feeling. Weak, giving ordinary people the feeling of a ragtag army.

Count Korolav visited experts and the most famous blacksmith family in Austria to design a helmet for the cavalry of the Austrian Empire. He thought it was the perfect helmet.

This helmet is larger and sturdier than the Prussian helmet. It is wrapped with iron plates made of fine leather. It can protect against most slashes and can even block shotgun attacks at a distance of 50 meters.

(Their experiment was that the steel balls could not penetrate the helmet. As for what would happen to the head under the helmet, it was not up to them.)

There is a semicircular slot made of brass on the top of the helmet, which can be used to place a large number of decorations, such as tall feathers tied into a semicircle.

(In fact, this was the later standard helmet of the Austrian Empire cavalry)

In order to keep the military appearance neat, the semicircular decorations on the helmets can be uniformly changed to black and gold, which can better highlight the temperament of the Austrian soldiers and the financial resources of the empire.

Of course, old book friends should know that none of the products produced by Austrians for practical purposes are practical.

The same goes for Count Korolav's helmet, which weighs up to 3.5 kilograms without feathers.

What is the concept of 3.5 kilograms? Some people will definitely say that the weight of individual equipment of American soldiers is as high as 53 kilograms, but please understand that this is the 19th century.

Moreover, even the high-end tactical helmets used by American special forces usually weigh less than 1.7 kilograms in combat, and the Prussian peaked helmets during the same period weighed only 0.6-0.8 kilograms.

The famous M35 during World War II only weighed 1.4 kilograms. This shows how outrageous Count Korolaf's helmet was.

Of course, he is not entirely concerned about safety and appearance. The price of this kind of helmet is very high, which will involve the interests of many people, including his own.

The same goes for Metternich's request to maintain the status quo, because he wants to safeguard the interests of those supporters. Army procurement has always been a hot commodity. Unless it is Franz, everyone wants to make a huge profit.

Regarding the dispute between the two parties, the royal family wanted to see the military's attitude, but in fact the military had no attitude on this matter. Because Count Tural himself had been on the battlefield, he felt that it made no difference whether the cavalry had a helmet or not. It was better to get a breastplate for practical use.

After all, there is almost no chance of survival after being shot in the head, and chopping to the head is entirely a Tatar practice, which has long been proven obsolete.

Russia once sent Tatar cavalry and Russian infantry to encircle the Hungarian hussars, but the result was that 2,000 hussars easily tore apart the Tatar formation.

Later, tens of thousands of Tatar cavalry broke up the ranks of Russian infantry while fleeing, leading to Russia's defeat. Afterwards, the Tsar saw clearly the weak nature of the Tatar cavalry and began a series of annihilation activities.

The book returns to its true story.

The military had no attitude, so the debate had to be shelved. In fact, it was not until 1848 that the Austrian Empire finally decided to use this helmet after Count Korolaf came to power.

The design of M35 and even M42 helmets is not difficult to achieve. Because there is not much technical content, Franz can easily make such a helmet, but the appearance of this helmet is seriously different from the style of the mid-19th century. The sense of dissonance is very serious.

Just imagine, Napoleon and Wellington, one with an Adrian steel helmet, one with a flying saucer on his head, and then Archduke Karl with a group of hussars carrying M35s, what a scene it would be.

(The Adrian steel helmet is a famous French steel helmet, the flying saucer refers to the famous British flying saucer helmet MK-1 during World War I, and the M35 is a classic German helmet in World War II.)