Just curious,about the purpose

[sunray]

"...No, a hit in a heavy steel helmet will not break anyone's neck..." You're right. The steel hatted shooter would be dead. Helmets do not stop bullets.
Sam Hughes was nuttier than a bag of hammers. He was responsible for the Ross being sent over with the First Contingent in W. W. I, despite the rifle being a piece of junk. Worked ok as a target rifle, but was useless for military applications. The RCMP got the first 1,000, in Feb., 1906 and dumped them in the Fall of '06. One mountie had an eye injury from shooting it. Even the Militia, who had next to nothing, didn't want them.
Charlie Ross was one of Hughes' buddies and cheated at the tests done in 1901. Got caught putting oil on the Lee-Enfield bolts just before the 'dirty rifle' test. The Ross came out far behind the Enfield in all the tests. Jammamatics. The Enfield fired 1,000 rounds with no fuss, the Ross jammed after 300, front sight fell off due to it being soldered on with regular solder. Hughes bought them anyway. Gave his buddies the contracts.

 

[guninhand]

I suspect the shovel with the hole was not meant to stop bullets, but was meant to drain off water when shoveling. Also anything with a small hole in it would be good to take a quick peek, as long as it was already placed in view of the enemy.

 

[SDC]

I suspect the shovel with the hole was not meant to stop bullets, but was meant to drain off water when shoveling. Also anything with a small hole in it would be good to take a quick peek, as long as it was already placed in view of the enemy.

From: Official History of the Canadian Army in the First World War, p 26
Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914-1919, Colonel G. W. L. Nicholson -

"An item of personal equipment for the troops in which Colonel Hughes took a special interest was the "MacAdam" shovel, an implement modelled upon a pre-war Swiss invention and patented by the Minister's woman secretary, whose name it bore. Designed to serve as a combined shield and entrenching tool for the infantryman, it had a blade 8-1/2 by 9-3/4 inches made of three-sixteenths inch steel (said to be capable of stopping a bullet at 300 yards). When used as a shield, it was stuck into the ground on a four-inch handle which formed an extension of the blade, two loopholes being provided, a large one for shooting and a smaller for sighting through. Twenty-five thousand MacAdam shovels were purchased in Philadelphia at $1.35 each, were taken to England, where even with the addition of a special folding handle they proved unsatisfactory. The Commander of the 1st Canadian Division reported that they were not effective as shields, were too heavy for the men to carry and were awkward to dig with. The issue of entrenching tools of War Office pattern to the Division brought prompt instructions from Hughes to "hold a tight hand on all that improper work over there" and to cancel the order for the English implement, which he termed "absolutely useless for any purpose". Nevertheless, the 1st Division proceeded to France without their MacAdam shovels, and when trials in the field by the 2nd Division brought more adverse reports, all were withdrawn from use and eventually sold for $1400 as scrap metal."

Plus, another picture showing how Hughes envisioned it being used:

 

[f_soldaten04]

Oh yes ive seen pictures of these plates. Apparently they weighed about 4kgm, and it wa quite hard on your neck after a few hours of fighting! Talking about snipers, does anyone know what rifle the sniper uses in "All Quiet on the Western Front" to kill Paul Baumer in the 1930's movie? It is a French sniper, and the rifle seems to be sportered.

 

[eltorro]

We were taught to place the shovels with the handle in our belts and the metal part covering our hearts. and I'm not that old...

seriously.

looking back.... , but realistically I don't know if it is just boosting moral/confidence, or it can stop some grenade fragments, or what?

What were they thinking?
Did the story with the Bible that stopped a bullet go too far?

 

[Mk VII]

the frontal helmet plate was very little used by the Germans - if you ever wear one you quickly see that it was far too heavy and ill-balanced to be used for long. Nonetheless the pivot 'knobs' continued to be fitted on all helmets through 1918