Eyeshields - Anti-gas - 1942

[Brian Wolfe]

Helo Everyone,

A friend of mine gave this interesting item to me after his mother passed away and they were getting her home ready for sale and found it in a drawer. It is a cardboard packet with two eyeshields that were to be used in case of a gas attack. The packet is dated 1942 as is one of the shield's head bands. One of the things I liked about this item is the instructions and I hope these show up well in the last photo of this post.

So remember kiddies, as the packet's instructions suggest, "When gas, other than spray, is detected the alarm given will be the GAS BATTLE or the shout of "GAS", on hearing either, STOP BREATHING AND ADJUST FACEPIECE."

I would have thought that the whole point of the gas attack in the first place, at least from the enemy's point of view,

was to get you to stop breathing!

I hope you like this artifact, it had been stored away in a drawer since the war.

I wonder how many survived, considering the disposable nature of the kit. Can anyone add more information on these?

Cheers

Brian

[Brian Wolfe]

Here is a shot of the headband. I hope you can see the date, 1942.

[Brian Wolfe]

The packet's front

[Brian Wolfe]

Here's the back.

[Brian Wolfe]

Here's a closeup of my favourite part of the instructions.

Wouldn't it have been great if they had added "CONTINUE BREATHING" to instruction #2.

I hope you like this little item from my collection.

Cheers

Brian

[Guest Rick Research]

Think of the "product liability" lawsuits, these days!

"Remove contents from packet before use...."

[leigh kitchen]

I have some that came in the pocket of a WWII Royal Norfolk Regt / RASC tunic.

In 1978, 1980 I saw loats of these in surplus shops in Tel Aviv.

During the 1980's magazines like "Military Modeling" carried adverts (Moragi?) showing an ink drawing of Rommel wearing a pair up on the band of his cap (as period photos show that he indeed did) & selling them as "Rommel goggles".

[Dave Alexander]

In the 50's & '60s we had 4 pairs of these in the side pocket of our gas masks. Two pair clear and two pair tinted. We wore them while manning AFVs in Radfan, Trucial Oman etc.

[leigh kitchen]

I've seen untinted, green & red ones, are their others tints such as yellow?