Item:
ONJR24NM029

Original U.S. WWI Excellent Named & Painted 27th Division Corrected English Type Box Respirator Gas Mask - 107th Infantry Regiment - Sergeant Charles D. Engle

Item Description

Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. Following the declaration of war on the Central Powers by the United States, the 27th Division was called into federal service on 15 July 1917, and hastily recruited New Yorkers to increase its numbers. From the arrival of the first troops to the Western Front until 24 July, the division spent its time undertaking its final stages of training under British mentors in Picardy and Flanders. On 25 July, the 27th Division, excluding its artillery brigade and ammunition train, occupied the Dickebusch Lake and Scherpenberg sectors in Flanders. In just over a month, this operation merged into the Ypres-Lys action, and then, from 19 August to 3 September, the 27th was on its own.

This is a gorgeous WWI U.S. gas mask named & identified to Sergeant Charles D. Engle, Company K, 107th Infantry Regiment . The bag is painted on one side with the 27th Division shoulder sleeve insignia. The red stars depict the Orion constellation, punning on the surname of the division's World War I commander John F. O'Ryan. The Red circle on the outside is an "O", also for "O'Ryan". The letters inside form the monogram "NYD", for "New York Division". The bag is then marked with the following name and unit information:

1211636 C.D. ENGLE.
SERG.

The mask is in great shape with a yellow filter, and the mask is stiff as most of these were. The set will display great from the painted side. 

Charles Durand Engle was born on January 2nd, 1891, in Haverstraw, New York. He enlisted in the New York National Guard on July 9th, 1917. He was assigned to Company K, 7th New York Infantry, which was federalized and became Company K, 107th Infantry Regiment, 27th Division. Engle went overseas on May 10th, 1918 and saw heavy combat in the Ypres-Lys Offensive, the Somme Offensive, the Battle of Dickebusche Lake, and the Battle of Vierstraat Ridge. He was field-promoted to Sergeant on November 1st, 1918. He returned stateside on March 9th, 1919, and was discharged on April 2nd, 1919. He passed away in March 1970, at the age of 79.

This is a truly phenomenal painted mask, and will look great in any U.S. WWI Collection. 

Of the 5,250,000 gas masks of all types produced by the U.S. during the war, 1.6 million of them were the improved version of the British SBR. This mask was officially known as the U.S. Corrected English Small Box Respirator or the U.S. Corrected English Model (CEM). Produced in six sizes (1 through 6) from January to March 1918, the CEM was one of the two most commonly worn American made gas masks used by the AEF. This example is Size 3. 

Despite complaints from France regarding the British SBRs uncomfortable mouthpiece and its despised hated nose-clip, American gas experts determined that this type of respirator provided the best protection. Ever since the failure of the ASBR, American gasmask designers toiled to modify, improve, and ultimately make the American version of the SBR more comfortable, more reliable and stronger than the English mask that it mirrored. After numerous revisions, by October of 1917, the design had been perfected. Upon passing a comprehensive battery of field tests, the CEM respirator went into full scale production in January of 1918. It would be the very first U.S. made gasmask to see service in the gas soaked trenches of the Western Front.

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