General Information: The intendance was the logistics and supply entity within the French army. It would be roughly equivalent to the quartermaster and ordinance units in the American army. The intendance badge was the last of the eight statutory French army badges that were authorized during the First World War. It is also the scarcest.
Displayed Example: I persuaded a French collector friend to part with this after a few years of reminding him every so often that I was looking for one of these things and that he had two and I had none which was not fair! This acquisition completed my collection of the eight statutory helmet badges used by French armed forces during World War One. It has a faint Reflex – Paris manufacturer’s stamp in the dome. The letter “B” is in the middle of the stamp to indicate that the shell is a medium size.
Collector Notes: Authentic French M15 intendance helmets are very hard to find. They are offered for sale rarely. There are fakes, naturally. The reproduction badges have voided space between the flag poles that radiate from the background. My friend who sold me this helmet, who is also my go-to authority on anything relating to Adrian helmets, told me that he had never seen an authentic intendance badge with the design used for the reproductions. Whether any of these are authentic, I could not say. My advice for collectors, however, would be to look for an example with a badge that looks like the one in this post. This is more of an overall round shape with no empty space between the flag poles.
Period photos of intendance helmets in use seem to be impossible to find. If anybody could supply me such a photograph to use here, I would greatly appreciate it.
Steel Helmets of the World Wars 