noyes44 Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Sadly a gentleman near me recently passed away. His name was Commander (retd.) Geoffrey Burrows and he was an engineer with the navy during WWII. He served with Combined Ops during WWII and landed with the Americans on Utah Beach on D-Day. Does anyone know what his role would have been and why he landed with the Americans? His family very kindly gave me all his WWII equipment including two gasmasks. The rubber is mostly ok but some has gone very hard. Is there any way I can reverse this or is there something I can put on the rubber to prevent it from hardening in the other areas? 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAF635SQ Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 The only good way to stop rubber going hard or dark in colour I have found is to simply put the gas-mask in its case away from the Cold, light and damp conditions, these can really ruin the rubber. There is also a lot of methods that can be used to help preserve gas masks such as talcum powder and chalk power but i dont use these on German ones as i fear it wont do them much good, But if its British I would give it a shot Just remember its not the powders or chalk its the conditions that its stored in that matter most I also believe that German ones had a kind of protective oil or something that soldier put on them to protect them against rain. I don't know about US or British though. I am fortunate to have a dark room so I can safely leave my German ones on display 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Posted October 30, 2010 Share Posted October 30, 2010 Once rubber starts to degrade it is very difficult to stop it. I would not do anything other than keep it in a dark dry place away from light. Placing any oil based product on it could only speed up the degradation of the rubber. Without a unit specified it is difficult to say what your neighbor was doing on Utah Beach. It would also have been useful to know at what point in the day he landed on the beach. My assumed guess would be he was an engineer probably responsible for coordinating shore landing for beach craft, assessing cleared landing paths or assessing suitable places to bring in LSTs and other type craft. That is a big assumption though. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritz Posted October 11, 2019 Share Posted October 11, 2019 I have have heard that talcum powder does help, also a wipe with glycerine (from a chemists) can help to preserve the rubber. There are also some products in the motor accessories trade for treating rubber fittings on cars, may be worth a try. For eventual repairs, a rubber cement, used for mending cycle tyres might also be useful. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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