From January 1943, men of the 303rd Bombardment Group modified steel flak helmets to enable them to be worn directly over flying helmets fitted with earphones. 1st Lieutenant Robert Landry, wrote in 1997, "(this) flak helmet was worn on 32 missions (B-17's) over Germany. Sometimes sat on instead of worn on the head when flak was heavy as Bombardier position in the nose had very little protection from flak coming up from below."



An example of the helmet is held in the collections of the Imperial War Museum.