ATS women parading in gas masks, 1942

Photograph, World War Two (1939-1945), 1942.

Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) women, like other military personnel and civilians, were issued with gas masks on the outbreak of war. Although the Germans had large stockpiles of nerve gas they never used them, believing that the Allies had also developed nerve agents and would respond in kind to their use.

From an album containing 118 photographs relating to the Auxiliary Territorial Service Training Centre and British Forces in the Middle East, 1942-1943.