Body armour is not new to the modern battlefield. This is a French-British attempt during the First World War to provide protection with steel plates, hinged together with wire loops. While proof against secondary projectiles, it was no match for direct small arms fire.
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By Mike Cecil
Head of Military Heraldry and Technology
Australian War Memorial
Ever since humans first tried to kill each other, man has invented ways to counter the weapons of his enemies. The Romans used tough leather with metal fittings, while in the Middle Ages it was suits of steel armour, often of dubious quality. Occasionally even outlaws would come up with a suit of armour, the most famous Australian example being Ned Kelly.
Even with the advent of more effective small arms, armour of some sort was nevertheless considered effective against shrapnel and the debris flung about on a modern battlefield. During the First World War, both sides experimented with body armour which could provide a degree of protection to the wearer from shrapnel. The Germans opted for a set of thick steel plates, molded to the general shape of the body, and hinged together with leather straps. The helmet had a thick brow piece that clipped on to special lugs at the sides, and provided additional protection to the front of the head. The British and French experimented with suit armour made up of many smaller overlapping plates, joined together with steel wire loops. The eyes were partially protected by goggles made with narrow slits to see through. While the suit was a little more flexible than the German body armour it was, like the German version, heavy, cumbersome and largely ineffective against small arms ammunition at close quarters.
A somewhat more specialised use was the face mask worn by British tank crews. Made in Sheffield, it was a thin steel plate shaped to fit the upper part of the face and forehead, with a soft liner of deer hide on the inside. The outer face was lined with brown leather, and there was a leather harness to keep the mask in place. The lower half of the face was shielded by a chain mail curtain. It was specifically designed to protect the wearer from splinters and shards of metal that resulted from small arms and shrapnel strikes on the exterior of the tank. They were not designed, or were capable, of withstanding the direct impact of a bullet or shrapnel ball.
Withstanding secondary impacts from projectiles was generally the pattern during the ensuing 60 years: there was nothing man portable that could withstand the direct impact of bullets. US bomber crews, particularly waist gunners, had the M1 steel lined jacket available with the M4 steel lined apron to protect the lower frontal area. A special helmet, the M5, with protective ‘flaps’ that closed over the headphones, could also be worn. Here again, the ensemble was heavy, restrictive and was incapable of withstanding much of the shrapnel being thrown at the aircraft. It also impeded the wearer’s ability to exit the aircraft quickly in the event of being hit, a highly likely event in the skies over Europe!
As a result, there are few combat images showing the suits being worn, although the M5 helmet was a reasonably popular item. The Vietnam period of the 1960s saw the widespread use of the ‘flak vest’ but here again, the vest was designed to protect against secondary impacts rather than direct bullet strike.
Modern ceramics such as Kevlar and layered composite materials have changed that, however. These days, the latest in Enhanced Combat Body Armour (ECBA) available to the Australian Defence Force does protect the wearer, to a greater degree than ever before, from the effects of direct small arms fire. The composite plates held tightly within the layered vest provide proof against direct strikes by 7.62mm ammunition, and the layered cloth parts of the ECBA are proof against shrapnel and glancing bullet strikes. While perhaps no more comfortable than the Flak vest of the Vietnam period or the German body armour of the First World War, there are numerous instances where the wearing of modern body armour has prevented what would otherwise have been a fatal bullet strike from even breaking the wearer’s skin. Body armour has again become a standard feature of the battlefield.
The modern body armour is made from composite materials that can withstand the direct impact of 7.62mm small arms. The author, seen here hard at work in Baghdad while wearing the 'must haves' in battlefield fashion accessories: body armour and helmet! |
