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.

m53, Steel shell stamps and details

M53 shell's are always stamped on the inside of the helmet. First series production by Verblifa was stamped with white ink on the inner crown. The same year Verblifa started stamping on the rim. At first at the rear, from 1955 on the front inner side. Somewhere in the 60's there was a batch that wasn't stamped at all.

Verblifa, ink stamp on the crown, KL 1953 VB(first production Year). There are also examples of 1953 Verblifa shell's that are stamped on the rim, rear side. These helmets are of a later production.

Verblifa, rear side on the rim, VB 1954

Verblifa, front side rim, VB 55 9S3

Linnemann-Schnetzer, front side rim, LS 20-63B

Linnemann-Schnetzer, front side rim(up side down), LS 7 73

Vereinigte Deutsche Nickelwerke, front side rim, VDN 1/88. This helmet is dark geen, but there are also VDN 1/88 helmets in bronsgreen.

Heinrich Ulbricht's Witwe, front side rim, Lot 8 91 U's

Controle stamps ICW 637(Intendance Centrale Werkplaats) used in the 60's. This was done to check if the shell wouldn't crack. There are always 4 stamps, all to the middle and mid-rear side of the helmet. These stamps can also be white.


"Goedgekeurd"(aproved) stamp used in the 50's. This stamp is on a air Force shell. These stamps kan also be found on liners and in white ink. They are also seen on the Dutch Verblifa mkII helmets.

Swivel bale(outside) and chinstrap atachment made of brass(both sides identical).

swivel bale(inside). m53 helmets always have a swivel bale identical to ww2 m1's.

Chinstrap buckel made of brass.

Chinstrap arrowhead quick release hook made of brass

Dutch quick release system.

Endkeeper(outside) made of brass

Endkeeper(inside) made of brass.

m53, Liner stamps and details

Verblifa, fibre, VB 1953 3

Shuberth, fibre 1960's(1)

Shuberth, fibre, 1960's(2)

Shuberth, thermoplastic, mis-stamped, SW 72

Shuberth, Thermoplastic, SH 88

Heinrich Ulbricht's Witwe, thermoplastic, U's 91

Heinrich Ulbricht's Witwe, thermoplastic, U's 93

Unknown(BEC), thermoplastic, BEC 87

Unknown(ECNL), thermoplastic, EC NL 78

Unknown(HL), thermoplastik, H.L. 80

3 different liners: left is a Fibre liner(these always have a vent hole), middle is a thermoplastic with venthole(until the mid 1970's) and right is a thermoplasticwithout the venthole.

Fibre liner with venthole and spannerbolt rivet. Fibre liners always have spannerbolt rivets.

Thermoplastic liner with venthole. Look at the different rivets between the fibre and thermoplastic liners.

Fibre liner neckband. A-washers are screwd.

Thermoplastic liner neckband with 2 steel fittings. A-washers cannot be removed.

m53, un-issued

This m53 helmet was never issued. It still has the original paper wrapping from the factory.

m53, bronsgreen, late 80's

This helmet is one from, what it seems, the last delivery by VDN to the Dutch army at the end of the 1980's. These helmets are painted in a light bronsgreen colour. This eventually became the standard colour for the m95 helmet, instead of the usual dark green colour.

Shuberth deliverd helmets up to 1991 in the typical dark green colour.

Why these VDN helmets were delivered in a bronsgreen colour is a mistery to me.

This helmet is marked: VDN 3/88

m53, woodland, 1990's

This helmet cover was used by the dutch army from the beginning of the 1990's until 1997 for the m53.
It was also used for the m95 when it was first introduced as an interim solution. These helmet covers were sometimes modified by their former users to fit the m95 better.
This type of camoflage pattern is called "woodland" by the dutch armed forces.
The liner is stamped SH 88 and the helmet is stamped VDN 1/88.
The helmet cover was made by H.v.Puijenbroek in 1990.

m53, jungle cover, 1990's

m53, dessert, 1990's

The dutch army were the first to use the 3-tone patern at the beginning of the 1990's.
Eventualy the dessert helmet cover was only issued to troops, mostly 11 air assault brigade, that went to Saragossa, Spain for dessert training.
This helmet cover was made by Lonneker Textiles in 1992.
The liner is stamped SH 88 and the helmet is stamped LS 82 5.

m53, forrest, late 1980's

m53, 1970/1980's with scrim camoflage

During the 1970's/1980's scrim camoflage was used by the dutch soldiers.
The scrim was kaki brown and spray painted with dark green and dark brown.
A net was also used for placing natural foilage.
The black rubber band ware made from old tire tubes.
This helmet is stamped LS 87 2 and the liner is stamped SW 81.

m53, UN helmet cover

m53, UNPROFOR

This helmet was used at the beginning of the Dutch UNPROFOR mission in Bosnia.
The m53 only saw service for a very short period in Bosnia, from 1992 until 1993.
It was quickly replaced by the m95 (shuberth) model that gave much more protection to the head.
Both liner and helmet are painted in UN blue and each have 3 UN stickers atached.
The liner is stamped Us 91 and the helmet is stamped VDN 89/3

m53, UNIFIL

A Dutch soldier wearing the m53 in Libanon.

During the UNIFIL mission, the dutch army issued the m53 helmet painted in blue.
Both liner and helmet had this blue colour and UN stickers to the front and side.
This helmet went to Libanon in 1982/1983 and was customized by it's former user.
He aded an extra UN sticker and wrote his name "ED" to the front of the helmet.
It once fell into a wadi leaving the dents on top as a reminder.
The liner is marked EC NL 77 and the helmet is marked LS 3 73.

m53, Verblifa, Firebrigade or Bescherming Bevolking(civil defence)