And how better to test your newly fitted mask and be reassured of its effectiveness than to be immersed in tear gas? To work effectively, a gas mask must be carefully fitted and worn correctly. Most notably, the masks offered a rich repertoire of fart noises. Masks in their cardboard cases were swung on their strings like conkers, kicked about like footballs, played like drums or whipped about like medieval flails. They made surprisingly effective catapults, provided disguises for shoplifting and muggings, and made peeling onions or using the outhouse more bearable. The children of wartime Britain soon discovered many different uses for their gas masks. Teachers found themselves facing classrooms of distraught and unidentifiable children. Many younger children cried hysterically, and some had to be physically restrained. A few described overwhelming feelings of panic and claustrophobia. In wartime propaganda photographs, British schoolchildren in gas masks played on swings, practised gymnastics and lined up patiently outside classrooms and air-raid shelters. You cannot eat or drink, speech is muffled, and there is an overwhelming smell of sweat and rubber. The rubber face-piece clings to the skin, the filter gives a sensation of laboured breathing, the eye-piece quickly fogs over. One problem with gas masks is that they are incredibly unpleasant to wear. Providing an entire population with military-style protective equipment was unprecedented, and problems inevitably arose. Classrooms full of distraught and unidentifiable children The British government stockpiled tens of millions of general civilian respirators in adult and child sizes, as well as infant anti-gas helmets, and the colourful Mickey Mouse masks for toddlers. In the science fiction of the time, the future war was an apocalypse of poison gas, with few survivors.Īgainst these terrors, how much protection could a two-shilling respirator really offer? Enough, the scientists suggested, to allow wearers to make their way to a gas-proof air-raid shelter with an airlock and filtration system. The imagined terrors of gas warfare in the 1930s were more akin to Cold War nuclear paranoia than the very real impact of Covid-19.īut the wheezing, coughing survivors of Great War gas attacks were living reminders of the horrors of chlorine and phosgene, while in Abyssinia Italian aircraft dropped gas bombs on African troops and civilians. What lessons can Home Front Britain offer to schools facing the challenges of a coronavirus pandemic? Face masks in schools? In the shadow of the poison-gas threat, one challenge remained: to convince children as young as 4 to carry and wear the masks that could save their lives.Īs we mark the 75th anniversary of the Second World War, the issue of masks and personal protection in schools is making headlines again. In preparation for war, the Air Raid Precautions authorities distributed tens of millions of respirators. With the new year, came new school rules: gas masks must be carried at all times. The start of the 1939 school year was overshadowed by the outbreak of the Second World War.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |