M-1 Liner Suspension System “Neck Band III”

Big Red here with yet another question from "Mort Walker"...

So, TAKE FIVE!

This time Mort asks,

“Big Red, when Neck Bands switched from Rayon to (HBT) Herringbone Twill Cotton, were they made differently?

Another excellent question Mort,

Rayon was immediately identified with a multitude of deficiencies that made the webbing fabricated for use as the liner suspension not desirable. In early 1942 Rayon was replaced with cotton webbing made in a herringbone twill pattern.

By this stage in liner development, the Chicago Quartermaster Depot had assumed responsibility for the procurement of the liner and it’s assembly. Because the M-1 helmet was, in essence, useless without a liner system, the Army accepted the Hawley fiber liner due to urgent need not because it was desirable.

The liner assembly was in its formative stage and had been developed thus far without guidelines. In fact it was not until months after the acceptance of the first M-1 contract for 200 sample helmets that the first rudimentary specifications were documented.

When the QMC took over procurement, they had to go through an enormous learning curve to get up to speed on the current state of liner development which was impeded by the lack of documentation detailing it’s specification. In the early stages of liner development major communication issues between prime contractors and Government inspectors arose due to a lack of detailed drawings and specifications that reflected the Army’s current desire.

This is why one of the first actions taken by the Quartermaster was to generate a concise set of specifications detailing the manufacture of the liner and all of its components.

One of the details was the desired identification to be placed on Neck Bands that had previously only required a number to reference size. Moving forward, Neck Bands would be marked with the initials of the manufacturer and the contract number as well as the size.

CQD No. 65B, issued August 2, 1943, was the updated specification for the manufacture of the M-1 liner. This updated specification included all the changes, which had been incorporated by revision since the issue of the previous specification.

The revision in the Neck Band nomenclature, sizes being labeled small, medium and large, instead of 1, 3 and 5 appears here for the first time as a QMC specification.

Although the specification and drawings were not formalized until August of 1943, empirical evidence indicates that the QMC issued revision for Neck Band nomenclature change occurred between October of 1942 and May of 1943

Big Red Says!

FIVE'S OVER  -  MOVE OUT!