Gas mask goggles

Today's respirator glasses the US Navy , matching the mask MCU-2 / P designed

A US Navy wearer of glasses puts on the MCU-2 / P mask .

A respirator glasses (also: mask glasses ) is a Korrektionsbrille under a gas mask can be worn.

Description and use

Unlike normal temple glasses, gas mask glasses are held on the head by a loop made of elastic material instead of temples. As a result, the gas mask goggles under the gas mask are not as bulky, which the hood of the gas mask could possibly lift off, so that the tightness at the edge is endangered. In addition, the gas mask can be slipped on without moving or losing the glasses.

The gas mask goggles have no protective function, but only serve to correct vision. Outside of use, it can be kept in a case. German gas mask goggles from World War II were tied together with a loop made of leather or fabric at the back of the head. The cases were made of sheet steel and could be attached to the belt.

history

Gas mask goggles were introduced into the Wehrmacht in 1934. Even in the Red Army it was part of the equipment used by soldiers before the Second World War . Originally invented as a protective measure against a repetition of the devastating poison gas attacks of World War I , it was not used for its intended purpose in World War II, as poison gas was not used deliberately in combat in the European theater of war. Unlike glasses made of metal, a material that conducts heat well, gas mask glasses were more comfortable to wear in the low temperatures that were omnipresent on the Eastern Front . In addition, there was a secure hold when walking, which is why many soldiers with poor eyesight preferred gas mask glasses over temple glasses.

Wolfgang Borchert's play Outside in Front of the Door is about a war returnees with gas mask goggles who comes back to Germany from the Eastern Front . In the post-war period, due to the lack of alternatives, such glasses were also worn civilly.

In the Eastern Bloc countries , gas mask goggles with metal frames were still to be found sporadically. In the GDR it lasted until 1980, when it was finally considered obsolete by the leading military. The inventions of rubber and hard plastic , which can be used to make much lighter, yet robust glasses that can be worn under a gas mask, contributed to its end .

In the Bundeswehr , NBC protective mask goggles consist of two parts. A glasses frame can hold the plastic lens holder, which holds the corrective lenses. This lens holder can be removed so that it can be "clicked" into the protective mask.

literature

• Fritz Bangert: Chemical comment on the German people's gas mask. In: Angewandte Chemie . Vol. 51, No. 15, 1938, pp. 209-220, here p. 212. doi : 10.1002 / ange.19380511502
• Wolfgang Borchert : Outside the door and selected stories . Rowohlt, Hamburg 1956 (With an afterword by Heinrich Böll. Current edition: ISBN 978-3-499-10170-0 ).
• Peter Gosztony : The Red Army. History and structure of the Soviet armed forces since 1917. Molden, Vienna et al. 1980, ISBN 3-217-00666-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Fritz Bangert: Chemical comment on the German people's gas mask. In: Angewandte Chemie. Vol. 51, No. 15, 1938, pp. 209-220, here p. 212.