The helmet became the basic type of combat headgear for Polish military formations in the 1930s and during the early stages of World War II.

[1] After the end of World War I Poland seized large quantities of helmets from other countries formerly occupying its territory.

The initial work on a new helmet was directed by the IBMU institute in Warsaw, with the chief engineer being Leonard Krauze.

In the end the Polish ministry of military affairs decided to buy a license for Swedish helmet suspension and liners, and to design a custom outer shell.

The most notable modification included liquidation of the horn-like ventilator lugs, similar to the ones found on early German helmets.

300 copies of the modernised design were ordered for testing and were then extensively modified by the Pokój steel mill, the Warsaw-based Arms Factory No.

Simultaneously, the Warsaw-based "W. Karpiński and M. Leppert" factory designed a new type of grainy non-glossy paint to eliminate light reflection.

[2] The tests of the modernised 1930 design were successful and by September 1932 the first 120 copies were made by the Bismarck and Silesia steel mills, the latter equipped with a complete production line of German World War I Stahlhelm helmets.

Due to project's secrecy it was officially referred to in military purchase orders as "kettle production".

Initially issued to infantry and artillery, in time it was also provided to the Polish Navy and Border Protection Corps.

[4] The Border Guards and State Police were provided with a variant of the wz.31 helmet with a large (10 centimetres in diameter) White Eagle adorning the forehead.

31 helmet was unsuitable for tank troops and motorized units; while offering decent protection, it was too large and heavy.

[5] After World War II, due to the shortage of Soviet SSch-40 helmets in the Polish People's Army, it was decided to include surviving pre-war wz.

31 examples or unfinished shells found in significant quantities in the storage field of the "Ludwików" Steelworks.

While the production of the wz.31 ended with the German and Soviet occupation of Poland in 1939, the Kielce-based Huta Ludwików retained large numbers of original helmet shells in its warehouses.