When Gas Masks Were an Inescapable Part of Everyday Life

“It may be a little irksome at first, but you’ll soon get used to it.”

"The vast majority of people watching this newsreel in Britain at the time would have had a gas mask. In 1938, before war had begun in Europe, the British government issued 35 million “General Civilian Respirators.” It had been 20 years since the end of World War I, when chlorine gas—and, later, mustard gas—had first been used.

“It may be a little irksome at first, but you’ll soon get used to it.”

"The vast majority of people watching this newsreel in Britain at the time would have had a gas mask. In 1938, before war had begun in Europe, the British government issued 35 million “General Civilian Respirators.” It had been 20 years since the end of World War I, when chlorine gas—and, later, mustard gas—had first been used.