Daniel Bremner Lunt of American Field Service SSU 27 and AAAS in Italy

[Croix de Guerre]

Yes it is,,they should be screwbacks. You see a lot of AFS pins on ebay that have the English cotter pin style attachment; to my understanding these are WWII vintage. The other thing is the WWI pins have the motto, "Service Aux Armee", not "American Field Service".

Here is a 1916 era model,,the "droop wing" AFS Badge appeared in 1917.

[oradour]

Once again, a most impresive grouping! Thanks for sharing it with us all. Cheers, Ade.

Croix de Guerre,... I must agree with Ade , most impressive grouping and its condition is stunning, with regards to the gasmask. The Austro-Hungarians began to experiment with gasmasks in 1915, but found them inadequete and resorted to obtaining supplies from Germany, their partners in the Central powers alliance, the Germans supplied over 800.000 of their model 1915 'Gummimaske'(also known as Gasshutzemaske 1915, Linienmaske, Bandmaske or Rahmenmaske !), a rubberized fabric mask, to the KuK army. Later in the war they tried to emulate the German model 'Ledershutzemaske' gas mask (these used leather instead of rubbrized fabric), but using silk, again this was a failure, which resulted in a further 140,000 units of the German 1917 model leather masks (Ledermaske 17) being obtained from Germany. On the plus side the Austrians did make their own cannisters !...1st model being the 'Stepped' model, smaller at the bottom than at the top, the next, a near identical copy of the German tin (Bereitschaftsbuchsen), mostly used with the leather mask. Your gasmask is the German manufactured and supplied M15 Gummi maske type with later Austrian tin, complete with what looks to be the KuK (Austro-Hungarian army) acceptance and issue markings, the '3' marking on the front of the mask is the size, they came in three sizes. These masks are rarer and therefore worth more than their 'leather' cousins. It is in amazing condition, great items !

[Croix de Guerre]

Croix de Guerre,... I must agree with Ade , most impressive grouping and its condition is stunning, with regards to the gasmask. The Austro-Hungarians began to experiment with gasmasks in 1915, but found them inadequete and resorted to obtaining supplies from Germany, their partners in the Central powers alliance, the Germans supplied over 800.000 of their model 1915 'Gummimaske'(also known as Gasshutzemaske 1915, Linienmaske, Bandmaske or Rahmenmaske !), a rubberized fabric mask, to the KuK army. Later in the war they tried to emulate the German model 'Ledershutzemaske' gas mask (these used leather instead of rubbrized fabric), but using silk, again this was a failure, which resulted in a further 140,000 units of the German 1917 model leather masks (Ledermaske 17) being obtained from Germany. On the plus side the Austrians did make their own cannisters !...1st model being the 'Stepped' model, smaller at the bottom than at the top, the next, a near identical copy of the German tin (Bereitschaftsbuchsen), mostly used with the leather mask. Your gasmask is the German manufactured and supplied M15 Gummi maske type with later Austrian tin, complete with what looks to be the KuK (Austro-Hungarian army) acceptance and issue markings, the '3' marking on the front of the mask is the size, they came in three sizes. These masks are rarer and therefore worth more than their 'leather' cousins. It is in amazing condition, great items !

Thanks for the information and the kind words! I have to admit I tend to find myself looking more and more at WWI German items,,much of it your fault Oradour! As far as Brem's gas mask is concerned I imagine he came across a fair amount of Austrian gear while operating in northern Italy. Thanks again!!

[WWII collector]

your gas mask is not austrian, its a german GM15 gas mask.

[Croix de Guerre]

your gas mask is not austrian, its a german GM15 gas mask.

Thanks dude, I think Oradour had pretty well cleared that up.

[militarymania]

pic of my ambulance driver hat badge...enjoy!

[Croix de Guerre]

pic of my ambulance driver hat badge...enjoy!

Very cool and very nice example! Notice how the wire attachments are broken off at the tips of the wings? This tended to happen a lot. I will be posting a drivers hat that has this same problem. Thank you for taking the time to take the pictures and shareing them with us.

Tom