World War I was the first conflict to introduce chemical warfare on an international scale, and as a result, the gas mask became a regular tool for soldiers on the front lines.
Chemical weapons were ultimately made illegal under international humanitarian law by the 1925 Geneva Protocol, but their inhumane nature coupled with the eerie unnatural look of a gas mask is the stuff of horror movies.
The gas mask remains a useful tool through to the present day, but there is something about them that still doesn't feel right. They should never need to be used; they're just not quite human.
Here are 20 creepy historical photos of people in gas masks.
1
German cavalry soldier in WW1 with a lance and gas mask, 1915.
2
Australian soldiers wearing respirator gas masks, Ypres, September 27, 1917.
3
Germany vs England, Christmas Day 1914. Western Front.
4
An army of schoolgirls marching through Tokyo, their faces an anonymous sea of gas masks, 1936.
5
German soldier, on the Eastern Front, rides a motorcycle with a gas mask and heavy cold weather gear, 1943.
6
Leningrad Gas mask drill, 1939.
7
Zen monks at Asakusa Temple, in Tokyo, perform air raid drills with gas masks in 1936.
8
British WW2 soldier coming out of a gas cloud.
9
London mother in gas mask and with specially designed gas resistant stroller. 1938.
10
Cossack in a gas mask, 1938.
11
Turkish Officer in a gas mask during the air practice. WW2, Istanbul, Turkey, 1939.
12
Soldiers circa 1916-17 wearing M1915 Gummimask, gas masks.
13
WWI horses with their gas masks. 1918.
14
“Italian soldiers wearing gas masks. Shot by my great grandfather in Italy, 1916.”
15
Soldiers of the U.S. 44th Infantry Division at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in a gas mask drill, 1941.
16
German WW1 soldier with an MP-18 submachine gun and a "Lederschutzemaske," gas mask.
17
Statue of The Little Mermaid in a gas mask during protests against environmental pollution in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1971.
18
Mother and child wearing gas masks in a bombed France. January 1918.
19
“My late grandfather wearing a gas mask, Vietnam, 1968.”
20
British soldiers using their gas masks to peel onions, 1941, Tobruk.
