Mickey Mouse Gas Masks.

[Didiki]

I was watching an old British WWII war movie on TCM last night, and they showed a gas mask for babies.

Then I remembered that one of my first recollections of WWII was having to wear a Mickey Mouse Gas mask, which was issued to all 2-5 year olds.

It was supposed to be shaped like Mickey Mouse so toddlers like me wouldn't be scared of it.  It had an asbestos filter in the bottom for filtering out Mustard gas and other deadly fumes in case of a gas attack by the Germans.  Who knew the dangers of Asbestos in those days.

Take a look at one.



You breathed out through the rubber flapper nose.  What the manufacturers didn't realize that when you breathed out, it sounded like you were farting.  Our mothers, grandmothers and maiden aunts found it disgusting.  We kids thought it was hilarious.

I remember in Nursery school all of us toddlers walking around with these things on and "farting" at each other.



That little blond kid in the middle could have been me.   

Good memories.

___________
Dick

[ScooterTrash]

That, my friend, is a fabulous story.  I love to hear these kinds of first-hand accounts of things like this, as most of us have never even had to consider donning gas masks, or making sure our kids had one. The fact that they made farting sounds is just icing on the cake!

I love how the brain works... how something can jog your memory like that.  Thank you so much for sharing!

[msgtphil]

Good one, Dick! We never had gas masks but in the 50s we practiced A-bomb drills. One day when I was about 6 years old, I was walking home from the store and that siren went off. I ran all the way home expecting to be disintegrated at any second. Butt wipes, how'd they expect a 6 year old to know when there was going to be a test.

[ronnath]

How many of us remember the drill?

[Valalvax]

Duck! .... And cover!

[Leo38]

Those pic's sure bring back memories.
I can still remember walking to school in short pants with one of those cardboard boxes banging against my bare knobbly knees.
When the air raid siren sounded, we would all be herded into air raid shelters on the school grounds - long, narrow, skinny brick buildings with benches running along each inside wall. Dark, dank, dreary and damp. Shoulder to shoulder with knees almost touching the opposite row, mini Darth Vaders, with a teacher walking up and down slapping a ruler in her hand to keep order.
Could often hear the 'DoodleBugs" droning overhead - commonly referred to as "Bob Hopes' by our parents (Bob down and Hope for the best) which we kids thought was pretty funny at the time.
I can still conjure up the sound of those things - and the awful silence when the engine cut out, just waiting for the explosion.

[redeye]

Amazing... I haven't heard a reference to DoodleBugs in years. And that was always from books or other publications; never from someone to whom I've personally responded. Your post is very moving.

[Didiki]

Posted by: Leo38

Those pic's sure bring back memories.
I can still remember walking to school in short pants with one of those cardboard boxes banging against my bare knobbly knees.
When the air raid siren sounded, we would all be herded into air raid shelters on the school grounds - long, narrow, skinny brick buildings with benches running along each inside wall. Dark, dank, dreary and damp. Shoulder to shoulder with knees almost touching the opposite row, mini Darth Vaders, with a teacher walking up and down slapping a ruler in her hand to keep order.
Could often hear the 'DoodleBugs" droning overhead - commonly referred to as "Bob Hopes' by our parents (Bob down and Hope for the best) which we kids thought was pretty funny at the time.
I can still conjure up the sound of those things - and the awful silence when the engine cut out, just waiting for the explosion.

I lived in Staffordshire, during the war, about 120 miles North of London so we didn't get any "Doddlebugs" up our way.

I remember those air raid shelters on the school grounds.  Man, they were cold and dark especially in the winter with no heating, and we boys were in short pants and the girls in short dresses.

We kids used to listen to the German Luftwaffe bombers flying overhead, and got pretty good at identifying the type of aircraft from their engine sound.  The Stuka dive bomber had a distinct sound when diving and bombing  The Heinkel had a droning sound, and the Messerschmitts had their own sound.

I had my first sexual experience in one of those school yard bomb shelters with another 7 year old.  Her name was Brenda, and it was a kind of " you show me yours, and I'll show you mine". 

Great memories.  We all survived somehow.

________
Dick

[Leo38]

The V1 DoodleBug, or Buzz Bomb, had a very distinctive drone.
Over 9,000 were launched at London.
The RAF and anti aircraft guns did shoot some down but most managed to get through.
There was no sophisticated guidance system, and the range was calculated by fuel consumption.
When the fuel ran out, the bomb dropped.
It was relatively slow, around the 200 mph mark I believe, so you could hear it coming as well as going.

The V2 came along towards the end of the war.This was a true ballistic missile - straight up and straight down. No defence against that.
Over 3,000 were launched - most of them against London.

Werner von Braun was the designer - later of NASA fame.

[redeye]

Some of the fascinating stories were on the measures the RAF took to stop the V-1. Shooting at a flying bomb from directly behind was a dangerous proposition for any WWII era pilot. Disrupting the V-1's flight path, wingtip to wingtip, was another method. Less dangerous? I'm not sure, but some brave souls did exactly that.



RAF Spitfire, the larger aircraft, "tips" the smaller V-1 'DoodleBug' to make it crash on the ground rather than explode immediately. As you posted, the V-2 was unstoppable once clear of the launch pad. Probably mid to late 1944 on the picture.

[ScooterTrash]

Thank you guys for sharing.  Awesome discussion!

I'm 45, so the only thing I remember from my youth is seeing some of the shelter signs around town with the nuclear symbol on them.  At the time, I didn't know what that symbol was, or what those shelters were for.  I guess by the late 60's they were from a bygone era, so to speak... by then I suppose they had decided to 'fess up that ducking and covering wasn't really going to help much.  Never had any drills or anything that I can remember.

[Buffalo]

Only gas mask I every had on was in Navy boot camp training.  I do remember the duck and cover drills from my elementary school days though. 

[paul]

School desk must have really been built well. As we "ducked" under them there was no doubt they could protect us from a nuclear blast.

About the time all this was happening, we moved to a different state. There was a quarry near by that I was unaware of. One day while walking home from school the siren went off followed by a muffled blast (a nuclear explosion hundreds of miles away?). I threw down my lunch box and books and ran all the way home! My dad kidded me about that for 45 years!

[TechGuy]

I remember climbing under the desks.  As I got older, they called them "Earthquake drills".  i guess that makes more sense in California.  An earthquake was much more likely.

[davew]

There was no defence from the V 1 that I am aware of but I was too young and priveleged to be raised where immediate harm was only in one's imagination.
Did "duck & cover" during the 50's and early '60's.
Remember the discussion of passenger lists for buses to take us out of the city during the Cuban missile crisis.
We continue to live in interesting times.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/suspect+arrested+Canadian+terror+plot+Video/3445826/story.html

[Leo38]

By coincidence - the History Channel had a "Great Battles" segment on this afternoon.
Focused on the London Blitz and the V1/V2.
I stand corrected on the speed of the V1. It reached a speed of 400 mph. and would not fly below 150 mph. I guess the memory plays tricks - they sure looked like they were going slower than that.
It was catapult launched with engine wide open.
The rudimentary jet was a "pulse" type engine. Fuel was injected in pulses into the combustion chamber and then ignited. This gave the V1 it's unique and very scary sound.

[Robin]

In Fort Worth, Tx, they told us children the duck'n'cover drill was for tornadoes, they never mentioned bombs.  And, they had us go to the hallway, not just duck under the desk, so maybe they really were for tornadoes.

[johnp]

My father in law still has one.

[davew]

that's more than I knew before
what other scooter site gives this info?

[Maggie]

I can still conjure up the sound of those things - and the awful silence when the engine cut out, just waiting for the explosion.

Wow Leo,thanks for sharing.  I can't imagine living under such conditions especially as a child.  I am sure the scene you described by played out all through Europe :(

[Maggie]

We take so much for granted here in the US...  never an attack per se on our shores until 911.  I can not image the horror Londoners  went through during the The Blitz... At one point 76 consecutive nights...911 every night.  I hate war.......seriously.

When I went to school at Oxford, I was struck by how the buildings there were not effected by the Blitz. I later  learned that Hitler did not want Oxford bombed as his plans were to make Oxford some sort of capital of his new kingdom.

[Didiki]

Posted by: Maggie

We take so much for granted here in the US...  never an attack per se on our shores until 911.  I can not image the horror Londoners  went through during the The Blitz... At one point 76 consecutive nights...911 every night.  I hate war.......seriously.

A very good friend of mine, who is also my age, was born in Berlin Germany and spent his boyhood years in Berlin during the war.

He and I were talking about our childhood experiences during WWII.  Even though I spent time in air raid shelters both at home and at school, my experiences were nothing compared to what my friend went through.

I lived with my grandparents all during WWII as my Dad was in the RAF, and my mother went into an ammunitions factory.  My grandparents had a small corrugated tin bomb shelter in the garden, measuring about 8' x 10' which was covered by a couple feet of dirt.  My first recollections were of my grandparents, my three aunts and myself, the toddler, crammed into this bomb shelter whenever the air raid siren sounded.  We lived next door to an airfield, they called them airdromes, which was classed as a secondary target by the Luftwaffe.

However, my friend Eugen (Gene) had it really bad in Berlin.  They were continually bombed night and day by the allies.  Food was scarce, and he said, that after an air raid, he and his mother would go out onto the streets to see if any animals had been killed in the air raid.  If a horse had been killed it was quickly cut up and the meat taken home to be eaten.  Ornamental trees lining the avenues and boulevards were cut down for fire wood. He said that many people died of starvation and cold.  Something the Nazi propaganda machine didn't say anything about.

My play area was some bombed out buildings in our village, and his play area was also bombed out buildings in his Berlin neighbourhood.

We both mentioned that we were always hungry, and always looking for food.  Everything was rationed, and as so much went into the war effort, civilians were reduced to an almost starvation diet.

Both of us laughed at the fact that we had never eaten an orange or a banana until the war was over.

He said that his family had it a bit better than most as his father was a Major in the Wehrmacht (Army) and was able to send them some food stuffs.  He didn't see his father until 1955, as his father had been captured by the Russians in May 1945, and sentenced to 10 years in jail on war crimes.  His father had hanged several Russians who were caught sabotaged German military equipment.   Their large family home was confiscated by the Russians as it became a part of east Berlin.  The Russians kicked he, his mother and brother out onto the street to fend for themselves.

As in any war, its the civilians who suffer the most.  Thankfully I was too young to really understand what was going on, but both my friend Gene and I still have our boyhood memories.

__________
Dick

[Maggie]

Thanks for relating that story... most of us see the bad as the Germans.  It is easy to forget (or care) that their people suffered as much. Thanks for making me think about this....

Hilter sure was a wack job.....you think he went and ate animals from the street or without an orange or banana??  

[davew]

I use to go ice fishing with a Dutch guy.
He had massive scars on his forearms and chest.
As a 7 year old in 1945 Holland he got them trying to strangle a cat so he could take it home to eat.
The Germans had blockaded areas and were letting the civilian population starve.
I worked with a Polish fellow in Etobicoke.
As a 14 year old he joined the resistance to fight the Germans and Russians.  He was captured by the Russians and sent to Siberia to work in a labour camp.
In a deal struck by the British with the Russians the Poles were marched from Siberia to Iraq were they were given new kit and renamed the free Polish Army.  They fought alongside Canadians for the rest of the war.
He married an English girl and chose to come to Canada after the war ended.
By 21 he was a 6 years combat vet.
We are very lucky to live on this continent.

[redeye]

One high ranking RAF officer referred to them as "malignant robots" as the V-1s (or Fieseler Fi 103), the world's first effective cruise missiles, began to rain on London in June 1944. The RAF had the answer to that threat in the form of the Hawker Tempest. Thanks to its performance 632 V-1s failed to reach their primary target.  That's a third of all shot down by the RAF, and roughly one-sixth of all those destroyed.

Nice post about the Tempest and other topics. The Royal Air Force (RAF) also used the Gloster Meteor, Britain's first jet fighter, to intercept the V-1. However, very few of the jets were in service when the Allies captured the last launch sites in Europe, so the numbers aren't comparable to the Tempest's success rate. Meteors destroyed (depending on the source cited) probably less than 20 DoodleBugs.

[davew]

thanks for the post about the Tempest, I didn't know about it at all, a very heavily armed aircraft from the site I went to