Children's gas masks were often made in bright colours to make them less frightening. This baby's mask would have totally enclosed the baby and air would have been pumped into the mask with a hand pump.
Sixty years ago Swansea city centre was destroyed by German bombers. The Blitz happened over the 19th, 20th and 21st of February 1941, in a total of 44 attacks on the town, with huge loss of life and property. The Luftwaffe brought hell on earth to quiet streets, fires raged around the town. The final raid lasted five hours, the town centre engulfed in flames. The devastation brought the King and Queen, who saw the destruction inflicted by the enemy, and later Prime Minister Winston Churchill came to Swansea on one of his wartime fact-finding missions. Almost 400 people were injured and 230 killed in this the biggest of the many attacks on Swansea.
Baby's WWII gas mask
Contributed by Swansea Museum
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- H:
- 55cm
- W:
- 35cm
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- 30cm
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Comments
I was born during the war.
As a child I had endless fun playing 'divers' with one.
We were so far removed from bombing risk areas so I do not believe I was ever put into it as a war-baby.
It gave me the interest to eventually become a scuba sports diver.