Respirator, Light Anti-Gas

[BrodieBartfast]

Presenting something I scrounged off eBay a while back. I held off on purchasing one of these for a while, purely because I wanted one without the Danish postwar markings. After finding what was advertised as an untouched wartime mask, I did a little bit of research and took the plunge. It's an Avon mask, small size, and can confirm having gone over it thoroughly that all parts are wartime dated, down to the buckles on the straps.
I can find nothing that I would ascertain as being postwar markings, although honestly I wouldn't recognize any besides the obvious 'CF' ones. Also attached is a dog tag, which I can't help but find a tiny bit dubious. Was the attachment of a tag to a particular mask a common practice?
Have also noticed the cutout on the nose, which looks to me like a holdover from the Civilian Duty model. Is this a particularly early one, or just one using a reworked face piece?
A nice one regardless, though it is suffering a bit from perishing, which something of its age is wont to do. Any further info/corrections appreciated, as always.

Regards, B.B.

[Adrian Stevenson]

An ID disk to the mask is correct practise.

Cheers, Ade.

[NCA]

The face piece is wartime but the exhale valve is postwar..early 50's up until the introduction of the S6.

Wartime exhale valves don't have the projection with the screw thread which i'm told is for a microphone.

*edit* It would appear this pattern of exhale valve was a late war introduction.

[BrodieBartfast]

Was going to say, I was sure I heard or read somewhere that these exhale valves are wartime. To my understanding, the projection was made for a microphone which itself was never made or used.

B.B.

[baroque4days]

They are wartime, this is Respirator, Anti-Gas, Light Mk. III, likely issued alongside the much more common variant, the Mk. IIIA. These two respirators were introduced in 1943 to be issued with some specific regiments and specific men who required either A) improved speech or B) would frequently be using comms equipment. So, the Royal Signals were one of the few regiments to be prioritised. The L3 Valve Holder is what makes the III and IIIA separate from the earlier Mks. IA and IIA but, just like the IA and IIA, the difference between the III and IIIA is the faceblank, the rubber mask. The III uses the L1 Faceblank, based on the CDR faceblank (note the triangle between the eyepieces) and came in three sizes whilst the L2 Faceblank comes in only one size and appears more like the Mk. V GS Respirator Faceblank. Both of these masks were succeeded by the Mk. V, which didn't seem to see service until late 1944. The Mk. V retained the L3 Valve Holder but again improved the Faceblank to Type L3, even thinner than the L2 but now in 3 sizes, DERM variants and left handed variants. The Mk. IA and IIA were succeeded by Mk. IV, which also used the L3 Faceblank with the older L2 Valve Holder.

Of course, the Mk. V was then overhauled in 1951 to make the Mk. 6 which served with the army until about 1970. The Mk. 7 was developed in 1956 but didn't really replace the Mk. 6. Mk. 7 was used until the 1990s in limited use. Here, I've made a quick collage showing each of the types excluding Mk. I because nobody has a photo of one yet (wait until Wednesday, then we will). I've used your example to show the Mk. III. Note that Mks. I, IA and III have the CDR-like faceblanks with triangle noses.