The steel helmet shown is the Swedish helmet the model of 1937, M/37. The helmet was designed in Sweden in the 1930s, and this helmet design became one of the best in that time This helmet superseded the m/21 steel helmet. Finland took up this design and in 1940 began production, the Finnish helmet was designated the M/40. The tool and steel for the helmet were initially supplied by Swedish companies, while the Finnish helmets had the liners supplied by a local company. The liner is a near copy of the German m/18 helmet liner, it consists of three pads with leather fingers. These pads are fixed directly to the steel helmet. The ball shaped design of the helmet gave it a surprisingly good bullet resistance qualities.

During the Second World War Finland supplied its military forces with a variety of helmets. The fighting troops wore a collection of First War German and Austrian helmets, as well as the 1930s made Hungarian, Italian, Czechoslovakian and Swedish and Polish helmets. Although a purchase of over 24,000 helmets was made with Germany, in 1943, it is unknown how many arrived in Finland, in 1944, or how many of them were the modern type (m/35 or m/42). Most photographs of Finnish troops wearing helmets in the Continuation War (1941-) do not show that there was any attempt to standardise the issue. Usually a group of four or five soldiers will show four or five different helmets.