Gas masks
During the First World War, gas warfare emerged as a terrifying new threat, prompting rapid development of protective equipment such as gas masks. The 48th Highlanders of Canada, serving overseas as the 15th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, were at the very apex of the first large-scale gas attack against the British line.
On April 22, 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans released a dense green-yellow cloud of chlorine gas . Two days later they repeated this atrocity near Gravenstafel Ridge. The 15th Battalion was holding part of the front line and, being ordered by higher command to hold to the end, suffered heavily, losing 664 Highlanders, killed, wounded or missing in action. With no effective issued protection, the men were forced to improvise by pressing urine-soaked cloths over their mouths and noses, as the ammonia helped neutralize the chlorine.
In response to this unprecedented horror, the British quickly developed rudimentary protective equipment. The first of these, the Hypo Helmet, appeared within weeks. It was a chemically treated flannel bag pulled over the head, offering minimal protection and making it hard to see or breathe. The P Helmet followed by mid-1915, offering some improvement, and then the PH Helmet, treated to resist both chlorine and phosgene gases.
By early 1916, the more effective Small Box Respirator entered service. This featured a mouthpiece connected by hose to a filter canister worn in a haversack on the chest and separate goggles for vision. It became the standard issue mask until the end of the war.
For the 15th Battalion, whose first experience of gas had been so deadly, the arrival of proper respirators and systematic gas training was crucial. Gas discipline became second nature, as even a moment’s delay in donning the respirator could be fatal in the shifting clouds of industrial warfare.
