Belgian M18 gas mask

M1918 gas mask which was composed by the French in England of captured German "Lederschutzmaske" and French ASR parts.

At the end of 1917 the French army captured almost 18,000 German made gas masks at several fronts.
Due to the lack of of these kind of masks for the allies the idea arose to reuse them with new parts and to give them the Belgians.
In Porton Down, England the masks were assembled with French filters.
Also includes ASR gas mask canisters with a bilingual label!
Known is the fact that not all masks arrived to the front and only arrived after the truce.
As a result, a large part of these masks remained virtually unused.
These were probably stored in the 1920s, and later the text on the cover was added, m.a.m. refers to '25 (1925).

Complete with all straps to mask and cannister!

Very rare and extraordinary piece of history!