Dutch M53 helmet

[OldSteel]

Hello to all,
I think it is a Dutch helmet M53, with a strange white plastic liner with a front decals with "eagle and crown" and a small round mark on the center bearing the No. 68, could be the year of production.
The cover does not indicate a stamp inside.
I'd like to know your opinions.

thank you in advance
Roberto

[Rik.S]

The decal on the white liner is from the Royal Dutch Air Force. That little band on the cover with the two reflecting squares is called 'cat eyes' and is still used by the Dutch forces.
Sorry but that's all the info I got for you.

[Rik.S]

I found a little more info on the liner.
Go to dutchhelmets.nl and look for the tab M53 binnenhelmen/liners.

Here you also have the link:

M53 binnenhelmen gebruikt door de Nederlandse Krijgsmacht | M53 liners used by the Netherlands Armed Forces

Regards, Rik

[OldSteel]

Great link Rik, full of information and is also the aviation liner like mine.

Thank you so much
Roberto

[James C]

Hi Roberto ,the cover is US ERDL pattern and the steel shell I'm not to certain of origin but discount it being from the Netherlands though as it has a US style T1 chinstrap catch

[OldSteel]

Thanks James, for this additional help, I have this helmet for a long time but do not know much of its history.

Regards
Roberto

[James C]

The shell has a nice exterior patina ,can i ask ,that is presuming it is US in origin if a Heat stamp number is visible on the inner shell at all

[OldSteel]

The shell was used a lot and the previous owner has it covered with a clear coat, perhaps to stop rust.
Tomorrow I dismount and then I'll let you know, I still noticed that the shell had a pair of horizontal cracks in the steel, one thing that I've seen on some M1.

[OldSteel]

The shell has a nice exterior patina ,can i ask ,that is presuming it is US in origin if a Heat stamp number is visible on the inner shell at all

Hello James,
as promised I removed his helmet, but as I was saying the widely used shell was covered with a clear coat and no type of mark remains visible, I'm not an expert M1 and its clones, if it can be help to identification I tried to compare our helmet with a pair of US T21 examples.
I also add a detail of the cover, the inside of which there is no stamp.

Regards
Roberto

To the two sides US examples.


To top two US examples.

[James C]

Thanks for the extra pictures Roberto US M1's are not my area of expertise but are aware they were prone to stress cracks in the early days ,Just to share here is a few examples from my collectionAttachment 1035077