#German ww1 gas mask soldier v2 full

However, this time, General Major Tanaka had received instructions from the Ministry to politely decline the kind offer. Japan had long been a prime customer for the British, since 80% of Japan’s naval fleet that fought the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War was bought from the UK, including Admiral Togo’s flagship,” Mikasa” built by Vickers. The British were quick to offer to sell Japan helmets and gas masks along with other weapons to join this crusade for Capitalism in style. And because of such company, the Army felt the need to hastily issue its troops steel helmets and gas masks. This so-called Siberian Intervention made Japan join the USA, Canada, Britain, China, Italy and the Czechs in sending troops there. In truth, it was an allied intervention to try and hinder the Bolsheviks from winning the Revolution. Her main foes were the Germans in China, who had cheekily settled there after bullying Japan into giving up territories she had won in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894/95.Īs a matter of fact, Japan’s main battle of WW1 for the German fortress in Tsingtao already ended in November 1914, before the Germans got their M16 helmets or their use of gas as a breakthrough weapon for the stalemate in the European trenches.īut in summer of 1918, Japan was asked by the USA to join the allied expedition into Siberia under the pretence of rescuing the Czech Legion of 50 thousand trapped there. Thus unlike the Western nations engaged in WW1, Japan did not really experience war in the trenches that gave birth to the steel helmet and gas mask. The Japanese were part of WW1 on the Allied side, but as its ambitions were strictly limited to Asia, she refused to be drawn into the “War in Europe (欧州戦争)” as WW1 was known in Japan at the time. However, unlike in European countries, all this happened only after WW1 for Japan. So it was that together they made the wear of visor caps in battle impractical and gave rise to the development of the field cap. Such new developments often have further knock-on effects on other items as well. They were both byproducts of WW1 and had to be worn together therefore they were developed together to be compatible. That is because gas masks and helmets were inseparable in its early development. I mentioned that I wrote this initially together with the helmet story. But let’s keep that 78-year old secret for another 20 minutes or so and begin our story. Why? There is a secret behind this paradox, which I will be revealing for the first time in the history of Japanese militaria collecting. Yet Ramon’s Type 87 masks are all in better shape than the typical WW2 examples. But trying to open the hardened cookies unfortunately only brings bad fortune, which is how that kind of cookie always crumbles. Japanese gas masks are notorious for deteriorating into something that looks more like a Chinese fortune cookie than a mask. Ramon gets the history behind the rare masks in his collection and I get the pictures I needed, but the readers get both for free, making it a Win-Win-Win situation.

So this is my first collaboration article. Ramon Padilla in Spain is a collector of Japanese gas masks and I was excited to see that his collection featured some of the early gas masks that I needed to complete what I set out to do 6 years ago. But after 6 years, someone did finally fish that morsel out and used the article on his gas mask site.

#German ww1 gas mask soldier v2 full

So I only published a small section of it in a forum just for the sake of getting something out and shelved the rest.Īs expected, the article published really didn’t receive attention and just sank to the bottom of the pit full of the usual questions “What is it that I bought?” or “How much is it worth?”. Without any visuals to bring things to life, reading about gas masks can be quite boring. This story was originally started 6 years ago at the same time I wrote my helmet story, but midway in the writing I stopped, because I realized I was badly missing photos and illustrations for the various types of early model gas masks I was writing about. It is now time to release several best kept wartime secrets, so please don't interrupt until I say 'The End'. I needed concentration to finish this work. I have been absent for the last few days from the forum with good reason.

The Evolution of the Japanese Army Gas Mask (1918-1945)