Invisible man

Pierre Grande Guerre said:
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The Draeger gas mask was quite complex; top a cartridge with Calium (?), centre a container with compressed oxygen and an air tight sack below. It was a closed circuit, and could work for an half hour. It was mainly handed to medics, sappers, and sentries in observation posts. Perhaps because it was so difficult to handle?
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Hi Pierre:

This is detail from a portrait I photographed at the Wehrgeschichtliches Museum in Rastaat:

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Chas
 
A medic with a contraption that looks like another Draeger model, but I can not explain this early gas mask precisely. Perhaps one of you here can tell us more? :)
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b.loree said:
Drake...I wonder if your pic is of a recently captured French trench? From accounts I have read the germans were quite neat in their trenches while the french did not place too much influence on that, just elan! Can anyone ID some of the equipment lying there? Looks like a Brit canteen in the foreground??
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Sorry for the belated response Brian, I've been on a sort of imposed hiatus from the internet (moved house) and have been mucked about by my ISP for nearly two weeks.

The trench in question looks like it's been abandoned in great haste and in the first instance I immediately thought it was French, until you pointed out the water bottle - similar to the standard Brit type, except for the rings on each side, presumably to accomodate a carrier-strap.

The clincher for me though lies on the log in the foreground. A British officer's tunic with 'pips' visible on the cuff.
 
Just a question, or an option, and if the googles and tampons were French or British, both in the first pic as in the other one showing a German officer in a recently stormed trench ? The propaganda pic would show the device used by French or Brits, and the second one would be a humoristic pic taken with a mask picked up among the left behind soldier"s kits? What leads me to this option is the strange impression given by the first pic, the googles do not fit properly on the face and I even wonder if it would be good for propaganda to publish this pic, especially in 1917 when German had long ago adopted the gummimask. The tampons were in use in the French army rather late, until 1916 (I forgot the date, I must check my drafts)... The tampon could be a French P2 but it could be perhaps a German type as well, In the book about French army uniforms in WW1, I drafted the chapter on gas protection and we photographied a number of googles this kind, it could be interesting to compare the pic and these samples. On the second pic, the kits on the floor look both English for camp stuff and French for rucksacks. The tampon has been wrongly placed and the situation is relaxed and none of the other soldiers wear his gas protection, it's obviously a « post-action » pic, a card to be sent home with some joke on strange French devices :) I have seen some German masks but never the googles, they had probably some, but honestly I don't know how they look like. I just have a pic with 2 soldiers wearing the pouch. Anyway, quite interesting discussion and very scarce and nice pic, bravo !
 
Great picture! Nice detail but some in masks and some without reminds me of an old event-long ago– I was rating this company on its response in a chemical environment. Wandering back through the trains I found the cooks in gas masks and chemical suits– cooking eggs!
 
joerookery said:
Great picture! Nice detail but some in masks and some without reminds me of an old event-long ago– I was rating this company on its response in a chemical environment. Wandering back through the trains I found the cooks in gas masks and chemical suits– cooking eggs!
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Spicy!!!
 
joerookery said:
Great picture! Nice detail but some in masks and some without reminds me of an old event-long ago– I was rating this company on its response in a chemical environment. Wandering back through the trains I found the cooks in gas masks and chemical suits– cooking eggs!
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I'd love to see a picture of that.

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This reminds me of a picture I received recently. It was a group photo of one man and about five women. All of the women were in full burqa. Even though he listed the names you could not tell anyone from each other! :crybaby: :sunny:
 
joerookery said:
This reminds me of a picture I received recently. It was a group photo of one man and about five women. All of the women were in full burqa. Even though he listed the names you could not tell anyone from each other! :crybaby: :sunny:
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Perhaps, Joe, these women were really ugly under their burqas :D , so be happy you did not have to see it! :D
 
drakegoodman said:
Great pic, and certainly unusual. Pity help the wearer in a gas attack though, the improvised cloth and glass (?) goggles don't seem to make seal. Good luck Joe.

While we're on the subject, I have this one ...

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- Brett
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Hey Brett,
I missed this photo, I can not see the pips, I think this is likely a French trench, the Knapsacks are French, and the waterbottle is also French, but I do not recognize the tunic the soldier is wearing in the middle, it looks British to me
Gus
 
Looking closer, there is P08 webbing too, the entrenching tool carrier is visable in the left foreground.
 
Definately a captured CEF or BEF trench. I count 4 canteens issued to our troops in this pic. It would be interesting to know what those buckled containers/boxes were used for in this photo.
 
b.loree said:
Definately a captured CEF or BEF trench. I count 4 canteens issued to our troops in this pic. It would be interesting to know what those buckled containers/boxes were used for in this photo.
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Those buckel containers are French backpacks, There is also a French mess kit with out the lid in front of them.
Best
Gus

I just noticed that the wire cutters are French too, Was this a trench that was jointly occupied by the British and French, or is it at the junction of the two armies?
 
Hey Brian,
I found the enlarge button, and on closer look, I can not see any British canteens, the one in the fore ground with the laced cover looks to be a French simplified model, with a large and small opening on the top (all British canteens I have seen have only one opening in the center) at the base of this water bottle is an ersatz tin drinking cup like the type used by the French. The two bottoms of canteens visible above and to the left look like M1877 2 leter waterbottles, you can see the cloth name tag on the one on the left, and the one on the right looks lik it has had either the cover torn off the bottom or the bottom blown out, and just above that is the M1865 drinking cup. The metal container by the knapsacks looks like a French individual cooking pot, but it seems to have a spout on top, but not in the center, the strap loops are rivited right to the container.
And on closer look, I do not think that is a P08 entrenchig tool carrier. To be honest, I can not see anything that would lead me to think this could be a British trench.
Best
Gus
 
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