Hi guys, this is my first post on this forum so go easy on me! I'm on a few other various forums on the web, and some of you may recognise the username. For those that don't, my name is Danny, I am from Scotland and I am primarily a collector of gas masks and chemical protection equipment. A friend recommended that I join this forum since I am now slowly branching out into the realms of German gas masks, as up until recently I have only really focused on all things British. I also come seeking a bit of help with something that I recently obtained, which so far has puzzled quite a few collectors of gas masks, and German militaria.
I took delivery of this unusual WW2 German GM-38 a few months back, It is yet another mystery piece in my collection which I am hoping someone out there might be able to help me solve. German items as I already mentioned are far from my area of expertise, so I guess this is where the learning starts. There are a few ideas floating around on the internet as to why these unusual masks have the additional filter port on the side of the facepiece. These include that it was for use by the Luftwaffe, with the intention of allowing for the attachment of an oxygen supply as well as the standard filter or even for attachment of some form of microphone which I think would be very unlikely as such a mask already existed as well as the fact there is a one way valve in place, which wouldn't really make any sense. Another idea, which I personally think might be the most plausible is that these masks were for evaluating having a filter fitted to the side of the facepiece like the British Lightweight Respirator and the American M5 Assault Gas Mask, which also were to a degree essentially modifications of an existing design. The reason I am siding with this idea at the moment is because another example of this mask, which can be seen on the late Johannes Möller's website (gasmasklexikon) has a blanking plug screwed into the original filter port. This to me says that the intention may have been to make the original filter port redundant and instead attach the filter to the side of the facepiece, this is purely speculation though and I hope that somebody reading will have a definite answer as to why these masks existed. It's probably also worth mentioning that GM-30's also exist with this same modification, but instead having the additional port on the opposite side of the facepiece in all cases that I have come across, one of these can also be seen on gasmasklexikon.
Shown below are two photographs of the mask in question, with and without the filter.
Regards,
Danny
I took delivery of this unusual WW2 German GM-38 a few months back, It is yet another mystery piece in my collection which I am hoping someone out there might be able to help me solve. German items as I already mentioned are far from my area of expertise, so I guess this is where the learning starts. There are a few ideas floating around on the internet as to why these unusual masks have the additional filter port on the side of the facepiece. These include that it was for use by the Luftwaffe, with the intention of allowing for the attachment of an oxygen supply as well as the standard filter or even for attachment of some form of microphone which I think would be very unlikely as such a mask already existed as well as the fact there is a one way valve in place, which wouldn't really make any sense. Another idea, which I personally think might be the most plausible is that these masks were for evaluating having a filter fitted to the side of the facepiece like the British Lightweight Respirator and the American M5 Assault Gas Mask, which also were to a degree essentially modifications of an existing design. The reason I am siding with this idea at the moment is because another example of this mask, which can be seen on the late Johannes Möller's website (gasmasklexikon) has a blanking plug screwed into the original filter port. This to me says that the intention may have been to make the original filter port redundant and instead attach the filter to the side of the facepiece, this is purely speculation though and I hope that somebody reading will have a definite answer as to why these masks existed. It's probably also worth mentioning that GM-30's also exist with this same modification, but instead having the additional port on the opposite side of the facepiece in all cases that I have come across, one of these can also be seen on gasmasklexikon.
Shown below are two photographs of the mask in question, with and without the filter.
Regards,
Danny
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