Bash Helmet was created in June 1941 by William 'Florrie' Mendelson while he was stationed at an army base in Brighton. Each night, the young Florrie liked to visit his fellow privates' bunks to raise their morale.

He would make up stories about the heroic Justin Nicely, an investigative hairdresser, who possessed a magical helmet. Whenever Justin rubbed the tip of his helmet, he would swell to twice his size and his muscles grew firm. Donning a tasteful purple costume and calling himself Bash Helmet, Justin took to the streets, coming down hard on criminals.

Far Left: William 'Florrie' Mendelson
Left: William 'Florrie' Mendelson

Word of Bash Helmet's exploits spread throughout the army base and Florrie soon found himself sitting in his officers' mess, giving oral recitations. Colonel Neville Felch, the camp commander, had connections to an American publishing house that was producing a comic called Tales to Excite.

The high ranking Felch radioed Bash's stories to the publishers which then employed artists to draw them. Early test sketches of Bash depicted him as aggressive, bulky and hairy but this made him look too much like a lesbian - so his appearance was refined.

Right: A rejected design sketch of
Bash Helmet

In October 1941, Bash Helmet was introduced to the world in Tales to Excite issue 27. The debut story explained how Justin first came across his helmet in Greece and then returned to the United States to fight crime. The following month’s issue showed Bash coming to blows with a gang of hoodlums in a park. The new hero proved a massive hit and copies of these comics were found under beds and in public toilets across the United States.

With the events at Pearl Harbour occurring in December, an editorial decision was taken to tell tales of Bash fighting the Nazis. As America's involvement in the war grew, so did the popularity of Bash Helmet - and so did the number of gay men enlisting into the army.

Keen to emulate their hero in his one man battle against the Axis of Evil, excitable young men up and down the country figuratively (and sometimes literally) burnt their bras and stood up to be counted for the War Effort. Soon there were whole squadrons comprised of homosexuals desperate to get their hands on a German Panzer. Some of Bash’s phrases from the comics were adopted as slogans by the squaddies, including “Watch your backs, Hunnies!” and “We’re out...to save the World!”

Above Right: Gay soldiers wanted to be just like their comic book hero.

The most popular enemy of Bash during the war-era comics was Diva Braun, a brutal lesbian Nazi agent who specialised in SS & M. She and Bash had a number of confrontations over the years until her eventual demise at the hands of Hitler himself when she attempted to overthrow the Fuhrer and rename their country ‘Hermany’.

Left: Diva Braun - dyke of the Third Reich.