German GM38 Gas Mask

I thought a lot of people might be interested in this mask, so I'll do a video on it. It's damaged, that's why I've not really done many videos on it before, and it's what I believe is a GM38, which is one of the German World War II gas masks. So I have both this and a GM30, or at least what I believe to be a GM30, because there's a couple of masks that are made to be really similar. I also have the Hungarian M76 or M71, whatever it's called, which is like the Hungarian one made in the Cold War that's similar to these masks. Now the GM38 was probably the best of the bunch because it was actually made properly of rubber. A lot of the other ones, kind of like the GM30 and the Hungarian one, basically had this kind of canvas-y material that I think was meant to be impregnable. But you know, obviously if you're having a gas mask, rubber is the best material to use. So what we have here, and I'll hold it open, hopefully you can see the inside, is sort of probably the best design of the German World War II gas masks. Although I'd actually say some of the Volks masks, or the people's gas masks, were actually probably better made than this. Now as I said, this one's damaged. I use it as a wall hanger because it won't function as a gas mask, and it's interesting to look at. I got some of my silicone lube out, and I cleaned it all up. So as you can see, it looks a lot newer and shiny than it did sort of when it was on my wall. So basically, the Germans in World War II had a lot of chemical weapons programs being developed. They invented the nerve gases before anybody else did, or discovered them, whichever way it worked, sort of chemical weapons. So they had massive sort of economy sort of money put into their weapons research, chemical weapons research, or things like that. But their gas masks kind of lagged behind a bit. Now you'd assume that with Germany putting so much emphasis into chemical weapons they'd also put more into protective gear, but they kind of didn't. And another important thing to note when I talk about German World War II stuff is that Germany had lots of logistical problems all throughout World War II, and one example of this is rubber production. I don't know if Germany had met many synthetic rubbers by this point, but they certainly, you know, didn't have enough rubber to go around, which is an important thing to consider when we're talking about some of this stuff. So the GM38 was kind of good because it was actually fully made out of rubber, rather than being a material coated in rubber that's going to fail fairly quickly. So you have your screw-in filter intake there, so that's one of the very good things about this mask. It actually takes screw-in filters, something most other nations weren't doing at that point. A few were, but a lot of nations were doing what Britain and America did, where you'd have a hose attached to a sort of mask that you'd crimp on, tie a wire around, you know, tie it to the mask, and then you'd do the same process to a big filter. So the filters could be changed, but it wasn't an easy process, and you wouldn't really issue spare filters. But Germany actually had the idea of having relatively small filters attached to the mask, which is obviously a big step forward. Now the strap system for this mask is atrocious. It's the problem that the Hungarian mask had later on. The idea is that you'd have a few straps around your head, then you had this kind of chin section, and you'd do another strap up behind the chin. Not comfortable, doesn't make a good seal. At least this mask does have kind of the inner rim going around it, which does secure a better seal. You know, I won't really be able to get it on, but I'm wondering just... Yeah, you can't get, um, you know, unless the thickness is a bit too small for me, and the rubber's all sort of crumpled up and everything. But yeah, in terms of Germany's development, these are both good and bad masks, in my opinion. As I said, the Germans, for some reason, although they put a lot of emphasis into chemical weapons, they hadn't done much into protective gear. And as I said, because Germany had rubber problems, you can sort of understand that. But for example, with these, you've got... The good factors is you've got a mask that's entirely made of rubber, at least for this model. You've got a proper intake, outtake valve, which accepts screw-in filters. Obviously, that's good. But you also have this really stupid strap system. Now, another thing with German's gas masks was they were normally carried in a metal canister. I'll get one out to show you in a minute. And they were, um, you know, that's both a good and bad thing. They're good because they protect the mask from being knocked around and, you know, hit. But they're also bad because they rely kind of on a weird spring system to keep the lid down that can kind of fail, especially as they get a bit older. So I think, to be honest, sort of canvas carry satchels for gas masks were cheaper to make and probably a lot more efficient for carrying masks. But if you're interested in the German WWII masks, this is what I at least believe to be a GM 38. Ah, that's funny. BMW made this, Bavarian Motor Works, because they also made planes at that point, or at least they made the metal part on it. And it's 1942 dated there, which makes me pretty certain it's, um, you know, a GM 30. It says BYD on the inside there. I don't know if that's another manufacturer of rubber or something at the top. But yeah, as I said, this is kind of a poorly designed mask, but it has some features that are ahead of its time, like the German civil mask taking screw-in filters much better than other people attaching big filters to a tube. But as I said, it's an interesting mask, but I don't think they're all they're made out to be. But what I'll show you now is the sort of tins they came in. So normally they have the sort of more corrugated iron look to them, but a lot of the tins were sort of like this, where you, they look almost like big thermos flasks, where you had to pull down a sort of spring-assisted lid opening, and it would flip open, and you'd have your mask sitting in there like that. So the bad thing about that, and I think this is why so many of these end up looking quite crumpled when you get them for the surplus, is that if they sat in these tins too long, they actually did sort of, they did negatively bend the rubber, where in a canvas satchel it doesn't really squash the mask too much. But yeah, this was the process that you would keep the masks in, in one of these tins. As I was saying, it's not the greatest design because of how it seals and everything. It's both good and bad, it has advantages and disadvantages. They're really nice solid metal things. I think France and Belgium also sort of did these kind of gas mask carriers at the time. But as I said, you end up crumpling the mask in it, it's probably more expensive to make, and as I said, Germany was very bad in terms of, they had lots of logistics problems in World War II, yet they still kept making things that were ruining their economy, and obviously war industry. Tanks are a really good example of that, but I don't want to get into the whole sort of Tiger versus Panzer IV rant in this video. But that's kind of the good example, where lots of nations basically lowered their quality control and set up industry for mass manufacturing of stuff that's quite cost efficient, easy to make, unskilled labour can make it. The Germans were still very keen on all the stuff being of very good quality, which is good in itself, but not when you're fighting a war where you're horribly outnumbered like Germany was in World War II. As you obviously know, the Nazi party bit off more they could chew with the wars against pretty much everyone, and then they reaped the whirlwind by, you know, all this sort of stuff of logistics that they, you know, they weren't geared up to fighting a big war and it obviously cost them. But yeah, to get back on the subject of the GM 38, yeah it's quite lightweight, it had some good features and some very bad features. I think in general something like the light anti-gas respirator that Britain used was much better than this in terms of general design, and from what I understand is after World War II, West Germany made some similar masks to this for a while still, either with the rubber or with the canvas type material, and then eventually obviously they designed the M65, which was a big improvement later on, but that still had sort of facial seal issues that I'm assuming the M2000 addressed, but I don't have one of those, so check it out. But there you go, for all of you who keep asking me about my GM 38 and why haven't I done really a proper talking video about it, here it is.