The first gas masks were simple filters of damp cotton (moistened in extremis with human urine), and were soon superseded by cloth bags soaked in chemicals. The first gas masks for use in warfare were developed during the First World War, when the German military pioneered the use of chlorine as a weapon – the original WMD. First development Gas masks first became standard military equipment after the Germans pioneered chemical warfare on the Western Front of the First World War at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. There were gas masks for adults, children, babies, horses … and even dogs. This ubiquitous mass-produced object has come to symbolise life in Home Front Britain, even though it was never used in action: the much-feared poison gas bomb attacks never materialised. My particular object of interest is the ‘General Civilian Respirator’ issued to the British people in the lead up to the Second World War. This protected the entire head from exposure.UCL’s Gabe Moshenska muses on the extraordinary iconic significance of the gas mask. Many of these early masks simply restitched the goggles and respirator from the human mask and fitted the apparatus to a canvas bag or sock that wrapped around the dog’s neck. As a result, exposure to the more dangerous gases left horses blinded alongside their human comrades.ĭogs had their own gas masks, too.
Some cavalry horses had their own goggles to protect their eyes during chlorine gas attacks, but issues with fogging limited the use of goggles.
WW1 GAS MASK PICTURES SKIN
They were still vulnerable to skin blistering during mustard gas attacks and irritation from eating contaminated feed. Horses often chewed through the canvas bags after mistaking them for feed. Both the Germans and British armies developed a five-inch by 14-inch flannelette and cheesecloth bag soaked in filtering chemicals fitted around a horse’s nose. So the Army found inspiration from existing technology - the equine feedbag attached to the horses’ heads. For horses, mules and donkeys, the distance between their eyes and nose left some blinded during poison gas attacks. The shallow covering of the human mask could not protect a dog’s sensitive ears. Troops wrapped straps around the noses of pack animals, or squeezed dogs’ faces into the soft baggy masks they used for themselves. Cats also performed well in this role.īefore animals received customized gas masks, many soldiers simply attached human masks. In a less formal way, dogs improved morale within the trenches by hunting rats and acting as companions to troops in miserable conditions. Their small size helped them slip over and between trenches to deliver messages, shuttle medical supplies or lay down communication wires. Some dogs pulled heavy machine guns on trolleys, others used their keen sense of smell and hearing for sentry and scout work. The Germans used some 30,000 dogs on the Western Front, and the Entente kept around 20,000. (The German army would remain majority horse-drawn through World War II.)īetween 19, gas hospitalized 2,200 horses and killed 211, mostly because logistical uses limiting their exposure to the more dangerous areas at the front. The railways that carried the millions of tons of food and ammunition to the rear were frequently several miles away, so horses, mules and donkeys bridged the gap even after engineers set up light railway and automobile supply lines. Pack animals carried supplies and weapons on the front and rear lines. Animals were important companions and workers to the soldiers at the front, and like their human compatriots they needed protection from the perils of chemical warfare. Everyone knows the enormous human cost of the conflict, but it is easy to forget the fates of the million of animals that supported the war on all sides. More than eight million horses, mules and donkeys and a million dogs died in World War I.
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