FE37R cartridge

[French1944]

Hi !

I was wondering about the FE 37 R cartridge for german gasmasks during ww2.

I know that It’s basically a « fog enhanced » version of the FE37, but I’ve seen some example with the « Troppen » marking on it, and some without it.

Some websites told that it is a version initially made for Tropical climate, but why in that case do you find example with the Tp markings on it if it was designed for it ?

Best regards

[French1944]

Up ?

[JPhilip]

Hi !

I was wondering about the FE 37 R cartridge for german gasmasks during ww2.

I know that It’s basically a « fog enhanced » version of the FE37, but I’ve seen some example with the « Troppen » marking on it, and some without it.

Some websites told that it is a version initially made for Tropical climate, but why in that case do you find example with the Tp markings on it if it was designed for it ?

Best regards

Hello,
A long time ago, i tried to find, translate and research most of the army official texts related to gas warfare (there are hundreds of them) and if i remember well, the filter FE37R was indeed meant for areas with hot climate. All this work has been lost in a fire that destroyed the building of one of the companies i used to work for, so i can't check that right now and i would be surprised if i'm able to do so in the future as the quest for a specific text when starting from zero, with unknown date of adoption and related to gas warfare, has almost no chance to be completed. I'm sorry.

One thing i'm 100% sure is the fact that i've never seen or handled some potential FE41R or FE42R filters. I have not found any text related to some R version of the FE41 or FE42 filters. I reached the conclusion that they never existed. I've seen or handled many FE37R in the past as Gasmask and accessories have been one of my main focuses when i was younger. Yes there are examples marked with the Tp for Tropen and some that are not. A certain amount of gas related items meant for a tropical theather of operations received the Tp markings, while some did not receive it. I owned two almost identical Gasplane carrying pouches in sand/beige canvas cloth, from different makers, both with tan painted press studs, both unissued, one had the Tp markings, the other didn't.

Who knows ?
Honestly, i don't. Collectors hate a vacuum and love to build theories when there's nothing official to lay on. I like to start from official archives, both texts and photos, but as mine are gone forever to the paradise of official texts that costed hundreds of hours of now wasted work, i won't build any theory and just say two things :

1/ Almost everything can be seen or found in terms of WWII german equipment or uniform. When one believes for 25 years that something did not exist or has never been made, he finds two in a week.

2/one sentence often comes to my mind in that kind of cases. This could apply here, but as usual i could be mistaking. I shall give you an aseptized & LGBT(forgot the rest sorry) friendly english translation. it won't hurt anyone and the spirit of that sentence has a chance to be understood everywhere english is spoken : "But damn, it's war..."
Thanks

[Willmore]

Hi there.

I don't know if these links will be useful but hopefully you can glean some information from them.

Filter -
The mask was issued with many different filters varying on the users. The Civil Defence used it with S-Filter. The armed forces used various filters, mainly FE 37, FE 41 and FE 42. In general, all filters were round canister filters painted in green colors.

Markings:

FE: combat filter
Fe: ferrum (iron)
AL: aluminium
NM: not magnetic
R: Drinked Improved Ring-shaped Nebula Filter (In older filter-tops the R was stamped, in the newer ones) soaked = hexamethylenetetramine Refilled
HN: hexamethylenetetramine Refilled
Tp, Tr or Tropics: tropical filter

GM30 | Gas Mask and Respirator Wiki | Fandom


Gas Mask Filters and Accesories -

MP44.nl - German Uniforms and Equipment - Gasmaske


Kind regards,

Will

[JPhilip]

Markings:

FE: combat filter
Fe: ferrum (iron)
AL: aluminium
NM: not magnetic
R: Drinked Improved Ring-shaped Nebula Filter (In older filter-tops the R was stamped, in the newer ones) soaked = hexamethylenetetramine Refilled
HN: hexamethylenetetramine Refilled
Tp, Tr or Tropics: tropical filter

Hello,
Thanks for these infos Willmore.
I still have them somewhere but you saved my time looking for them.
Thanks

[French1944]

Hi.
Thank you both for your informations
In fact my example come from Italia and has a FE37R filter, so it is consistent with your informations