Every surrendering soldier instinctively knows that the first thing he should do is drop his weapon, but if he is smart he will also ditch his helmet. Holmes notes that “Brigadier Peter Young, in the second world war, had no more regret about shooting a helmeted German than he would about ‘banging a nail on the head.’ But somehow he could never bring himself to hit a bareheaded man.” It is because of this response to helmets that United Nations peacekeeping forces prefer to wear their traditional beret rather than a helmet, which might very well stop a bullet or save their lives in an
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