m53

Dutch troops wearing the m53 helmet during exercises. This picture was taken at the end of the 1970's.

The m53 went into service in 1953 as the official helmet for the Dutch army.
It is very simular to the US made m1 helmet.
It replaced the mkII, mkIII and m1's that were in general use in the Dutch armed forces. These helmets were left overs from WW2.
Some WW2 m1 liners were used at the beginning for the m53.
The m53 helmet is painted in a dark green colour. In 1988 a batch of VDN helmets were deliverd in a bronsgreen colour. This became the standard colour for the m95 helmet.
m53 helmets are always swivel bales and have a rear seam. The chinstrap fastener is of an arrowhead quick release model.
The Verblifa m53 was also sold to Luxembourg.

There are 2 types of liners:
- fiber, 1950's/1960's and leftovers from WW2. WW2 liners were sometimes redone with Dutch post-war webbing.
- thermoplastic, introduced in the beginning of the 1970's and from 1974 without the front venthole.

The helmets and liners were made by:
- VERBLIFA, marked VB (Dutch)
- Linnemann-Schnetzer, marked LS (German)
- Shuberth, marked SH, SW or a capital N in a circle (German)
- Vereinigte Deutsche Nickelwerke, marked VDN (German)
- Heinrich Ulbricht's Witwe, marked U's or U SCH (Austrian)
- and some unknown markings to me: HL, EC NL and BEC (has anyone got some information about these markings???)
There was also a delivery of m53 steel pots somewhere in the 1960's without any markings.

There are 4 types of helmet covers that went into service in 1991:
- woodland
- dessert
- jungle
- UN blue
During the 1970's/1980's scrim was used for camouflaging the helmets and from the mid 1980's a US woodland type cover was used in smal numbers. These covers are unmarked.

During the UNIFIL and first UNPROFOR mission the helmets and liners were painted UN blue, each with 3 stickers placed. The UN front sticker on the UNIFIL model are bigger that that on the UNPROFOR model.

This helmet is stamped VB 1954 and is a second year production of the dutch m53. The liner is stamped VB 1953 4 and is a first year production by VERBLIFA. VERBLIFA liners are very rare and difficult to get.