Lobsters and Walking Steel Coffins - WW1 Armor

An Overview of WW1 Armor

Movies featured:

Many Wars Ago 1970
Ned Kelly 2003
Wonder Woman 2017
Ned Kelly 1970
Joyeux Noel 2005
A Very Long Engagement 2004
Passchendaele 2008
Sergeant York 1941
Battlefield I (Video Game)
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 2003
Futurama (TV Series)
Sucker Punch
Beneath Hill 60
All Quiet on the Western Front 1940
The King 2019
Anzacs 1985
A Fistful of Dollars 1964

#history #ww1

[Lord.Kiltridge]

Some Canadian troops were issued MRC Body Armour for the D-Day landings. While most took them off, opting for mobility & comfort over protection, there are a number of after action reports where it was noted that the armour saved Canadian lives. So we know that the armour saw some use and success in combat.

[ThommyofThenn]

I had no idea such heavy body armour was used as late as WW1, until I played BF1. Despite there being many historical inaccuracies in many games, Battlefield included, I was glad to learn this from the game

[FlyWithMe_]

“Many Wars Ago” looks like quite a disturbing movie, based on these few clips. Interesting.

[inductivegrunt]

The armor in WW1 either looks so cool like in BF1 or completely silly like in the first clip.

The armor may have been a bad design for various reasons, but it was a good concept. If Kevlar or ceramic trauma plates was a thing back then then maybe armor could have been seen in a better light. But those didn't exist until decades later so nothing could really be done for the case of WW1. Oh well, it was a good idea, just not good in practice.

[Daniel]

Another great clip contribution to wartime trivia. Mentioning Ned Kelly was also a bonus. Thanks, Johnny.

[fortis]

The Soviets actually had a type of steel chest armour called Stalnoi Nagrudnik which was used during ww2, issued mainly to combat engineers tasked with clearing holes through enemy fortifications.

[regularmoron]

Imagine being in the Brewster Body shields and seeing those in front of you die. That'd be terrifying. To think: "I'm wearing all this stuff, and it's doing nothing. I can't outrun their sights, I'm too slow. That's terrifying."

[andrewstravels]

That scene from Many Wars Ago looks so eerie. Looks more fitting for the surface of Mars or the depths of the ocean, rather then a World War I battlefield.

[bigblue]

Italian sappers had some very heavy armour to protect them against being hit while digging trenches which would have not looked too much out of place in the late medieval period. I believe this was more to do with the fact that much of their fighting was in the Alps rather then the flatter plains of France.

Not sure about the the helmet of the Australian officer climbing out of the tank. British tank crews wore a leather helmet rather than the 'Battle Bowler' as shown in the shot from Anzacs. The tankers helmet was designed to protect the crewman's head against hitting objects on the inside of the tank as it bounced around the battlefield. It also protected the wearer from spalling caused by bits of steel flying off the inside of the tank when bullet struck the tank. The lower part of the crewman's face was covered by a small rectangle of chainmail which was also there protect to protect from spalling but this was usually removed by the wearer. If the crew had to abandon their tank they were warned to remove the helmets as more than one crewman was wounded or even killed because their leather helmet closely resembled that worn by the Germans.

I seem to remember reading the Ned Kelly was the only one of the gang to wear a helmet but as there seems to be a fair number of variations regarding what did and did not happen with the gang this may not be the case. Not having armour on their legs was their Anciles heel. Pun intended.

[rolfagten]

1970's Ned Kelly was a cool movie because Mick Jagger (The Rolling Stones living legend) played the lead role. And In "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964), Clint Eastwood also used improvisation armor.

[McCluckles]

A cool costume detail I've only just picked up upon is, in "Solo" (Star Wars) there's some Stormtroopers covered in mud and dug into trenches. Those Stormtroopers use additional armour on their helmets in exactly the same way as the soldier in "Beneath Hill 60". It's the only time Stormtroopers in Star Wars are shown in trench warfare.

[ericwalstrand]

When I saw the topic, I immediately thought of "A fistful of Dollars.". I'm glad you didn't disappoint.

[mathewdean]

Awesome video dude i love videos about ww1 its often overlooked

[BadBomb]

Some plate armors were still in use even before WW1. Particularly by the heavy cavalry units, but cavalry could only do some much in WW1.

[smeqwack]

WW1 is such an interesting time. The change in tactics of war, the industrialization of weapons, the change in guns in general.

[hiltonian_]

There was a steel vest manufactured during the American Civil War that consisted of two overlapping spring steel plates in a cloth vest. It was actually effective at stopping the soft lead bullets of the time. The problem was that infantry had to walk everywhere and the added weight was intolerable. There were also endless jokes about “the man in the iron stove.” A few cavalrymen kept them but they fell out of use.

[ak]

My youngest son, now a marine, loves ww1 stuff. In 2016 he saw the German trench armor at a show and well you guessed it he wanted it. So I managed acquire it. It's heavy. Really hard to move in it. He tried it on since he was thin.

[luger_Mann]

The geman grabben/sappen panzer armor always fascinated me the most out of all ww1 armors that were made, and albeit rather specific but interesting thing to note (i believe at any rate) is i believe on the second pattern of the armor they made an distributed (albeit lower amounts) had hooks on the front as grenade mounts so they could easily be used

[twinpinesranch]

Brilliantly cut together with amazing information! Keep it up

[lunageek]

While the Brewster Body Shield would prove to be a failure, later American armor designs actually saw some level of success. Bashford Dean and his committee came up with several designs that showed some real promise. The heavy body armor was quite similar to the German design, and while it was ultimately rejected due to the high weight (something I can confirm as being too high for comfort) and a somewhat unwieldy design, the ballistics were quite nice and it would have worked well for roles such as sentries and machine gunners. They'd go on to make some fairly decent light body armor, alongside further protection such as full leg and arm armor, and if the war had gone on a few more years I imagine some fantastic designs would have come along (alongside designs in helmets, the Model 5 and Model 8 both showed promise, alongside the tank and aviation helmets they came up with)