British Anti gas items

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Guys, the respirator was the main peice of anti gas equipment issued but other items were also a very important part of the kit issue.

War gases come in various forms. A lot of gases were designed to react on the skin and cause blisters. Here we have some items which were designed to protect the wearer.

First we have an anti gas hood. This particular one is Canadian issue. It is a treated camo cloth hood impregnated with linseed oil. Care needs to be taken with the storage of these kind of items as they will easily stick together

[Adrian Stevenson]

Men who wore glasses had to be issued with a special set of smaller framed specs in order to allow them to wear the respirator and still be able to have good vision. These are not too common to find.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Here we have the contents of a tin of "Anti gas ointment, No2", which is nicely dated 1940.

The paper instruction leaflet is often missing.

There were different ointments for use with different war gases.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Rare harder to find pot of Ointment anti gas No.2. The jar is made of white glass like pot.

I have a couple of these. Both have the contents, but the ointment has now turned to dust with age.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Tin of "Ointment anti gas No.3". Note the different colour tin to the other one shown. Each type came in a different coloured tin to make recognition easier.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Tin of "Ointment anti gas No.5".

Note the smaller half sized tin also shown.

[Adrian Stevenson]

A couple of tins of Tropical issue "Ointment anti gas No.6" One used and the other in almost mint condition. These date from 1945.

Like many different British tins, they were made by the "Metal Box Co", note the makers letters "MB" and factory code number of 12.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Next we have a rare peice of kit. The Anti Gas armband. These were a impregnated paper brassard worn on the upper arm with the loop slipped under the Battledress blouse or Denison smock shoulder strap to keep it in place. In the presence of gas, the paper changed colour altering the troops of the danger.

Nice early war dated item of 3/40.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Packet of "Eyeshields, anti gas". These can still be found in quantity and unissued.

Packets vary in design, later war examples can be found in a green print as seen here. An early set can be seen in the larger pic of a respirator and bag.

The goggles themselves also vary in design too and can be found in tinted or clear form. Thankfully these were never used for the intended purpose. The troops used them as anti dust goggles. The most famous wearer of these in that fashion was, of course, General Feldmarschal Rommel, made these his trademark, wearing them upon his cap. He picked up a captured set of these in North Africa.

[GasMasksUK]

very nice, I have a lot of anti gas items in my collection too, but yours seems to be a lot more complete.