Renaissance Of Armour

Southland Times, Issue 23989, 2 December 1939, Page 10

Renaissance Of Armour

FROM the Western Front have come reports of German soldiers fighting in armour — sheathed in metal in a fashion at least vaguely reminiscent of the knights of the . Middle Ages. French lines in the Moselle sector have been attacked by German troops said to be wearing steel vests and helmets. Armour is marching to war again. The disappearance of armour is generally attributed to the introduction of gunpowder into Europe. Armour did indeed disappear, but not because -it could not be made to withstand the fire of the early musket or pistol. Armour was made which bullets could not penetrate. It was so heavy, however, that it left the soldier—the infantryman in particular—too encumbered to attend to the business of fighting. Mindful of the discovery of new alloys, the belligerents in the world war spurred their metallurgists to turn out armour light enough for practical use. Before the armistice was signed some of their efforts could be seen on the battlefield. From a sixteenth-cen-tury design the French developed a metal lining to be pressed into the poilu’s cap. The “tin hat” of the British Tommy was constructed to protect the face and shoulders, as well as the head, from shrapnel. The German helmet was a still more thorough covering. In 1918 the French were at work on a protector for the stomach, easy towear and weighing only two pounds.

A MF,RIGA produced armour to protect the shoulders. Some 10 per

cent, of all fatal. or dangerous World War wounds were received in the shoulders, and the American guard, if invented earlier, might have caused a sizable reduction in the number of casualties.

At the war’s end metallurgists were working with manganese, beryllium, nickel and silicon alloys to produce plate that would be at once bulletproof and lightweight. Experiments with armour have continued since the world war, but in such secrecy that it is impossible to say what tomorrow’s styles for the well-armoured soldier will • be. * ♦ * * SIR Richard Cruise, eye specialist to Queen Mary, is now at work perfecting the visor he invented in 1917, when serving as a Captain in the R.A.M.C. Appalled by the fact that more than 30,000 men were being blinded in the war, Captain Cruise, an ophthalmic surgeon, produced a chain visor for attaching to the rim of the steel helmet. It was three inches deep, and could be drawn like a veil across the eyes; The inventor claimed that if it had been invented earlier, and used right through the war, it would have saved 65 per cent, of the cases of blindness.

With the new helmets in mind, Sir Richard, in co-operation with the War Office, is trying to make a visor on the “roll-top” desk principle from perforated steel, which is more simple to manufacture than fine steel mesh. It would fit between the inner band of the helmet and the top, and would be drawn down over the face when wanted. The steel visor does not impair the view in any way.