Bonus Unsolved Riddle

Army Helmets

originally published January 15, 2010

At the beginning of the First World War, the uniform of the British soldiers included a brown cloth cap. They had not yet discovered the advantages of metal helmets. But, as the war went on, the War Office became alarmed at the high proportion of men suffering head injuries. They therefore decided to replace the cloth cap with metal helmets. Duh! From then on, all soldiers wore the metal helmets. However–and this is the puzzling part–the War Office was amazed to discover that there were more soldiers hospitalized with head injuries than ever before. Now, it can be assumed that the intensity of fighting was the same before and after the metal helmets. So, why should the recorded number of head injuries per battalion increase when the men were wearing metal helmets rather than cloth helmets?

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