Body armor

[Ralph J. Whitehead]

I have come across an account from the Germans on the Somme that on the night of 14/15 May 1916 an attempted raid failed against the German lines near Fricourt. On the next nigth the body of an officer was brought in, he was wearing breast and back armor but was still killed by rifle fire.

I know this is a long shot but would anyone have any clue who this might be? I am assuming the armor was a private purchase item, does anyone know of any other examples of it being used at this point of the war and on the Somme? Any help or ideas would be appreciated.

Ralph

[Robert Dunlop]

Ralph

My guess is that it was a private purchase item. I have seen a reference to family sending out such items unsolicited. I think that some companies were advertising armour as a way to protect your loved one.

In the sniping school, there were constant attempts to capture German shields and armour. At one point, German snipers starting using armoured face masks. They looked so good that one of the snipers offered to wear it while being shot at. Thankfully he didn't. The first shot went clean through.

Robert

[Guest 00fxd]

And the litte "tits" on the front of the German helmets were to mount a protective armour plate for snipers foreheads. Apparantly they were quite heavy and did not work too well. Were they easily "perforated" as well?

[Max Poilu]

Ralph,

There is a huge amount on the subject of British body armour in Saunders 'Dominating The Enemy' - pages and pages of info and pictures. The British seemed to excel in production of these items and the government was involved in trialling various types.

Most of the private purchase types were fashioned as a heavy duty fabric waistcoat layered with steel plates or rods. They were designed to protect against lower velocity shell fragments and other projectiles - a rifle bullet would go through virtually anything.

Interestingly the mask Robert mentioned was in a thread last week.

[mcderms]

I think it was the Sheffield City or Barnsley battn that was issued with body armour thanks to public donations. I recall that the public raised enough money to buy each officer body armour and a steel backed bible for each man. I've seen one of the bibles - bullets went straight through them.

There's also a set of German armour up for sale on ebay.co.uk at the moment.

[curranl]

Hello Ralph,

I have come across one story of the use of body armour. Tom Kettle, an Irish poet and Lieutenant in the 9th Dublin Fusiliers, wore a "steel waistcoat". However, when he went over the top on the morning of the 9th of September, 1916, he bent over and a bullet went over the top of the waistcoat, entered his heart and killed him.

Regards,

Liam.

[David Filsell]

Ralph

My good fried Simon Dunstan has written a book about body armour, I think it was published by Osprey. It covers - from memory - the whole of the 20th century but has some detail on WWI

Hope this helps

David

[Ralph J. Whitehead]

A good friend from the forum was on the chat room last night and he was able to identify the officer in question. He was 2nd Lt. Roger Vernon, 8th Somerset Light Infantry, killed in action 14 May 1916. He is buried in Cabaret Rouge Cemetery, one noted to have burials of British soldiers who had once been buried in German cemeteries.

He has my gratitude for being able to solve my question, thank you. To everyone else who posted, thank you for the interesting details, I did not know the use of such armor was so common, or so useless.

Ralph