Gas Cape

Finally found one! It is used and has a tear as shown, but comes with a hood as a bonus.

Great find! These are rarely seen for sale but are an important piece for anyone who wants to put together an example of infantryman's/combat soldier's gear.

Nice.....

Very rare and very fragile, so be careful how you store it as the material will rip if you look at it the wrong way.

ED

Yeah, it is fragile, and stinks like hell, but overall the seams and stitching are good. I already have two helmet covers with the neck cape...there use to be three but my cat decided to completely shred one. My fault for leaving the war room door ajar. I did keep the material from it though.

Great find, who is the maker and is it dated?

I managed to find a mint unissued Canadian cape still with the tag a couple years ago.

1943 Kaufman Rubber. The hood is Aristo

I think buddy has a few more of these left. He is asking a lot, but I traded some goodies for this one. It had the least holes, and one has "stretcher bearer" painted on it. Apparently these belonged to his father. No gas wallets though.

nice piece of camo, the stretcher bearer painted one sounds interesting too, I am not overly familiar with these, but when you mention hood I presume you mean the close fitting one as opposed to the helmet cover type

Sorry, I meant the helmet cover with the neck cape. Forgot about that other style hood.

It is possible to build a pretty comprehensive collection of wartime antigas clothing as all three services had unique pieces.   Unfortunately many of the pieces have become quite scarce and as has been stated before they are now quite fragile.   The Army and Air Force items come in both camouflage and green which adds to the fun and expense.   Here are a couple of images of some of the common pieces starting with both the green and camouflaged Gas Wallets.



These are images of the camouflaged and green version of the No. 2 Helmet Curtain.

mk1rceme wrote:Sorry, I meant the helmet cover with the neck cape. Forgot about that other style hood.

no problem, I had just seen the "hood type" a year or so ago, a friend of mine dug a camo cape up in Normandy years ago, he told me then they were pretty scarce

thanks too for the extra photos Ed, another nice piece is the British camo rain cape, I kick myself for not buying the one once

What is the story on those helmet covers that just covered the rim of the helmet? Were they anti-gas or another material? I see them in Italian campaign photos from time to time.

Nice wallets there Ed!

The ones seen in Italy were Helmet Curtain No. 1, a rare item these days.

There was a fair number of anti-gas equipment produced during WWII. I will attempt to list all of the items that come to mind below. My intent is to cover mostly the items that were worn oir made out of the anti-gas oil skin material. Please feel free to add any that I might forget.

Anti-gas cape
Anti-gas hood
Anti-gas curtin #1 and #2, #1 curtin covered only the brim of the helmet and #2 covered the complete helemt.
Anti-gas over boots
Anti-gas gloves
Anti-gas respirator, early war general service respirator and later the light respirator
Anti-gas wallet
Sleeve Gas detector arm band
Anti-gas rifle cover
Anti-gas eye shields

As well as a medly of other items like decontamination cream, boot dubbin, anti-fogging compound and many other smaller items.
As a question to any one out there what Anti-gas item do you view as the rarest or most difficult to find?
For me I am going to say the rife cover and the #1 early war gas curtin as I have been able to find the rest of the items.

When collecting this material you have to realize that the average soldier was only issued the Gas Cape and Respirator with the associated accessories in the Respirator Haversack. There were several models of service respirator and haversack used during the war without going into the specialized versions.

To add to your list:

Anti-Gas Trousers
Anti-Gas Curtain for Wolseley Helmet
Anti-Gas Curtain for Field Service Cap
Cotton Duct protectors for the Anti-Gas Gloves

There are also Naval items that you have not listed.

Anti-Gas Hood
Anti-Gas Jacket
Anti-Gas Boots

Since I don't have the Helmet Curtain No. 1 nor the Rifle Cover, I guess they may be difficult to obtain.

The Army wartime list for anti-gas stores is quite extensive with all manner of interesting items.

Hi Ed,

Thanks for adding to the list. I did not know that a Anti-Gas Curtin for the Field service cap and Wolseley helmet. I have never even seen a picture of either of them.

I can also add to the list the special eye glasses that were developed with thin arms to accomadate the gas mask.

I did not add the Navy items as I was just sticking to the army/land forces.