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Overview
Enemy souvenir
This German military gas respirator was collected by a New Zealand soldier during the First World War as a souvenir.
The respirator features a leather face mask with celluloid eye lenses, elasticised straps and metal air filter with fibre pad. Leather masks, as opposed to the usual rubber design, were introduced into the German Army Service in late 1917 as a result of a shortage in raw materials, especially rubber, in Europe.
Gas use in WWI
A range of disabling poisons - including chlorine, the severe blistering agent mustard gas, and rapidly lethal gases such as phosgene - were used by both sides during the war. Early experiments by the French and German armies with tear gases were unsuccessful; gas warfare began in earnest in April 1915, when Germany released salient cylinders containing 168 tons of chlorine gas into the Ypres.
While chemical weapons killed proportionally few soldiers, the psychological effects of 'gas fright', and exposure to chemicals by large numbers of soldiers, munitions workers and civilians posed a new and significant challenge to public health.