This reminds me of one of the rhymes that were taught during the war about some of the gases:
“Phosgene smells like musty hay,
Chlorine smells like washing day.”
More may come if I remember what the old man said.
Not particularly useful these days, but it is on your specialist topic Fuchs, have you heard anything similar ?
Here is some WW2 British Army equipment from my collection as issued to the normal soldier:
First, an early war respirator, the carrying bag (usually worn in front of the chest), two boxes of decontamination ointment, an envelope of face shields (cheap disposable safety shields made of cellophane to protect the eyes while decontaminating), a wad of cotton waste for cleaning and a anti-dimmimg kit (the green cylinder, to prevent fogging of the lenses of the mask).
The next one shows the light weight respirator issued post 1943, the carrying bag was either worn over the shoulder or attached to the P37 web belt.
The soldiers were also issued a gas cape made of linseed oil treated canvas, but these are very hard to find today and usually quite expensive. The gas cape was often used as a rain cape (though strictly forbidden), because the normal groundsheet/ cape made out of rubberised canvas issued to the soldiers was too small and only protected the upper body.
Jan
Hi Walther, interesting pics, if you have any swaps in your collection we have a small private collection here at work of old (and not so old) material related to NBC. I’m sure my colleague could be persuaded to part with a couple of Sheckles for anything interesting. As I live in Bonn (when I’m not slaving away in the Lab) there should be no problem with picking stuff up.
Well, if you are interested in an East German NBC suit, I still have a few of them in my garage.
Jan
Thanks but no thanks. We’ve got more than enough of those, I used to work 8 hour shifts wearing them (chemical munitions disposal) and my colleague is an ex Captain of the NVA (Chemical troops) and later Bundeswehr