"German Gas Mask Container" Topic

Straight thru WWII photographs of German troops kitted out almost always show them wearing the gas mask container. It is quite a bulky piece of kit and the mask inside was all but useless but yet they carried it right thru the war. My question is why? A matter of strict discipline or was it handy for other uses?

It is useful for carrying stuff around in, even if it didn't have a gas mask in it. German gear was deliberately designed to minimise the amount of kit a soldier could carry, so some extra load bearing capacity was always welcome…. this was later recognised with the inclusion of the virtually useless A Frame assault bag, and finally with the clip on rucksacks n 1944.

A big metal tin is also a very waterproof place to store your cigarettes.

WWI.

Dying from chemical, or biological weapons exposure is a horrible way to die.

I can see why they'd carry them.

In Italy, my German landlord said they had all thrown the gas masks away in his unit. He said one time they had stolen a pig from a farmer. By the time the farmer showed up with the German MP's, there was no sign of the pig, unless someone had looked inside of their gas mask containers which were all crammed with cooked pork.

In the book "The Forgotten Soldier" the author talks about an escape across a river from a Russian held side. He threw away his gas mask container (it had a gas mask in it at the time).

Upon arrival at the other side, he was questioned on where his equipment was, including what he had done with his gas mask canister. Seems they wanted you to carry it all through the war, but I'm sure it was used for items other than what it was intended.

I remember that Sajer had his gas mask container but had 'long since' thrown away the gas mask.

But I no longer have the book so cannot check.

It's a great read but not a reliable source of info about WW2 German infantry gear – or much else.

I'm not sure whether the final verdict was fact or fiction on Sajer's work, but it certainly contained some other errors.

On D-Day, June 6th, my Dad, along with the rest of the crew on LST 197, sat off shore loaded with about 90% chemical weapons, just in case the Germans used them. They off-loaded on June 7th then sailed back to England for more supplies to bring in, taking German prisoners with them. If Hitler used them first, we were ready, & the Germans who threw away their gas masks would have been extremely ed… and dead.
Peter

One of the chief reasons chemical weapons have fallen out of favour is because they don't – or didn't – work much better than more conventional weapons. Burning thousands of Germans to death in Hamburg is no more defensible morally than gassing them. Delivering enough gas to do so would probably be more difficult too.

The Germans would have replied in kind if they'd had the resources to fire-bomb London in 1943-45. (Or gas London for that matter.)

Gas was a very iffy weapon to employ effectively and with civilians equipped with gas masks not a knock out blow at all.

IMO – nuclear weapons made all other terror weapons obsolete [I dislike the term WMD since a B-52 bombing raid on a city is a pretty serious WMD].

Only non-state actors can employ terrorism with any effect because they are almost immune from retaliation [or indifferent to it].

The allies ditched their gas masks too – pdq. Heavy, cumbersome and useless dead weight. There was concern about a desperation attack using gas against the landings – but when it didn't materialize and POWs were found to have ditched their gas masks there was no more worry about it.

US GIs usually threw away their gas masks, but they often kept the canvas bag they came in to carry other stuff.

A matter of strict discipline or was it handy for other uses?

A little of both, actually.
As others have said they are a handy waterproof container that one could carry any number of items in. In addition the mask and can are one of those items that are listed and tracked in the German soldier's "Solbuch". If anyone bothered to check, he would be held responsible if he could not account for it.

I can tell you from personal experience they can be a pain in the butt…..literally if you fall down on it! It also makes sitting in a vehicle seat even more difficult. They also tend to be noisy if not secured well, banging into the canteen and/or mess kit if you have it attached to the breadbag. They are even noisier if you don't have the mask in the can. I've heard that one of the reasons you see the gas cape bag strapped to the can was to pad it a bit to reduce noise.

The Germans would have replied in kind if they'd had the resources to fire-bomb London in 1943-45

They did, using the V weapons: if they had stuffed them full of cluster munitions (including incendiaries) instead of a single HE payload, the carnage would potentially have been much worse.

The V-weapons were not on the scale of the allied bombing, nothing like.

They would have fired more if they'd had the resources but by that point they did not.

Firebombing was nowhere near as easy as it may seem. Berlin did not burn like Hamburg did for example. The buildings were not the right type and were more spread out. You needed a lot of tightly packed buildings with lots of wood inside to burn well. And it had to be warm dry weather for the 'best' results.

The Germans would have done worse to London if ever they'd had the means I'm sure. Thankfully they never did. The Blitz was terrible, but just a mild breeze that reaped the whirlwind – as Harris I believe said.