Description
Physical description
Front, back & abdomen plates.
A three-piece set of body armour comprising metal plates sandwiched between tan coloured canvas with leather straps and buckles that permit the front and rear plates to be secured to upper body. To the reverse of the front plate is buckled a single lower abdomen protective plate.
History note
At the outset of the First World War no army was prepared for the challenges that were to unfold where thousands of men died as a result of wounds that they might otherwise have survived if they had have worn better protective personal equipment. Such high dependence on high explosive artillery shells throwing splinters, shrapnel and other fragments on the Western Front inflicted horrendous wounds on those clothed in soft uniforms with little head protection. Protective headwear in the form of steel helmets was adopted by most combatant armies by 1916 and that precaution enabled many to survive wounds caused by low-velocity and secondary impact missiles that earlier would have claimed one in four as fatal. Of all wounds 60% were to the extremities with 20% to the head and neck, and 20% to the torso, therefore other protection in the form of body armour was given consideration. In Britain no fewer than eighteen designs were commercially produced, made for sale and often purchased by anxious relatives for sons serving overseas. First tried in battle in 1915 body armour was, as far as British usage were concerned, used mainly on an individual basis as it never became a universal issue (it is understood that only enough body armour was available to equip 2% of the army).
Of the types used by British personnel, there were three main categories: Rigid 'hard' armour (often comprising of metal plates sandwiched between fabric and worn as a vest or waistcoat); Intermediate armour (various forms of small square plates of metal attached to a canvas support to form a protective waistcoat); Soft armour (made of layers of silk/cotton/tissue & linen scraps sandwiched in fabric waistcoat). All three general types had inherent problems: Rigid armour was heavy and thus uncomfortable and not practical to wear in the assault, whilst the separate metal links of the intermediate if hit with sufficient energy could embed in to the man's body with the projectile, and the latter although sufficient to absorb the impact of low-velocity strikes (as intended), was rendered useless in wet weather when saturated.
This item is of the 'hard' variety, made in large numbers and issued from 1917. The 'EOB' armour was designed by the Munitions Inventions Board, and was to be worn with a protective collar (see EQU 196), made of layers of compressed silk, padded within canvas, and worn over the shoulders and protecting the neck and sides of the head. Weighing in at 9 ½ pounds, the system would stop pistol rounds, shrapnel and grenades.
Applied by hand in red paint to the reverse of the front plate.
7549