What do the numbers painter on to gas masks correspond to?

[Jean-Loup]

Hi Ian

So if I understand properly, you are saying that soldiers were issued a gas mask with a random number painted on it, just like they were issued with a riffle with a random number on it; and this number was written down in the soldbuch, and has nothing to do with a dog tag number.
That sounds like a very good explanation to me. It is just surprising a serial number wasnt put on the masks in the factory.

JL

[Admiraal]

As far as i know they had a pile of gasmasks and cannisters and just handed them out to soldiers, painting the number on it of the soldier in line.
with that i mean, the first soldier that gets a mask and cannister get number 1, second soldier number 2, the 100th soldier number 100 and the 122th soldier number 122.

Ofcourse they took a mask that fits, and with the number you quickly can see what cannister is yours since you do not always wear it if you are not in combat.

I could be wrong but i thought it was like this, i've seen pictures of gasmask piles and a guy handing them out.

[JPhilip]

Hi Ian

So if I understand properly, you are saying that soldiers were issued a gas mask with a random number painted on it, just like they were issued with a riffle with a random number on it; and this number was written down in the soldbuch, and has nothing to do with a dog tag number.
That sounds like a very good explanation to me. It is just surprising a serial number wasnt put on the masks in the factory.

JL

Hello Jean-Loup,
Yes, the gasmask number written down in the Soldbuch and in the Gasschutze NCO files has nothing to do with the dog tag number.
No, the soldiers weren't issued a gasmask set with a random number painted on it. They were issued a gasmask set and it was up to them to paint the number on it to recognize it among all the others gasmask sets. The gasmask was the property of the unit in which served the soldier, that's why you can find sometimes canisters with a legible number, and one or two erased numbers, showing that the same gasmask set was issued and reissued to differents soldiers within the same unit.

[Jean-Loup]

Thanks for all the additional info guys. All is now clear.

JL

[Glenn Barbaritz]

Thanks for all the additional info guys. All is now clear.

JL

I second that. thanks Guys. lots of input on this topic with good results. I like when they end in this manner. Glenn

[JPhilip]

and on Ian's picture, we can even see that the soldier who this document belonged to has not been issued his gasmask and his gasplane/tasche at the same time. Gasmask nummer 486 (the second one) was issued one month before the gas sheet and its carrying bag...interesting

[michiel01]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for this input, makes a lot clear to me. I showed this thread to the man who teached me about the numbers on the canisters and he was astonished...

I Learned a lot from this topic, thanks! And, JL sorry for informing you wrongly!

With kindest regards,

Michiel

[Admiraal]

I just recieved a cannister that i resently bought, it has number "3" on it, only one number!

[zeugmeister]

Some Luftwaffe Units had their Fieldpostnumber on the Gasmaskcontainers.

Regards

Dirk