Plausiblity of Horse Gas Masks?

Delta Force

Banned
One of the reasons why Germany was hesitant to use chemical weapons in World War II is that they were never able to develop gas masks for horses, which were key to German logistics. Why couldn't they make it work? Could the issues be overcome?
 
One of the reasons why Germany was hesitant to use chemical weapons in World War II is that they were never able to develop gas masks for horses, which were key to German logistics. Why couldn't they make it work? Could the issues be overcome?

For one things masks need a good seal to be effective, which is problematic on a horse which is covered in hair. For another, many of the gases involved are not purely respiratory agents. Mustard gas and lewisite, for example, are both blister agents as well. Horses have a good deal of surface area to be affected by these, and you need protective clothing for the best defence against them. Creating and fitting anti-gas protective clothing to horses in the field while under gas attack is left as an exercise for the reader.
 
I think the British tried, and did deploy some in WWI, but part of it is that horses just can't be told what's going on and they just panicked when having to breathe through something weird.
 
In LeFebure's book Riddle of the Rhine: Chemical Stategy in Peace and War, the author explains one reason why this might be so.

By the end of the war, the chemical environment had become so difficult that the mask filter canisters had to be pretty thick. But thick filters meant impracticably heavy masks, and increased the difficulty of breathing (unless the surface area could be increased). The British solved these issues by migrating the respirator to the soldier's chest, connected to the mask by a rubber hose.

Germany could not duplicate this method -- they lacked enough rubber!

LeFebure claimed that the Germans only barely managed to squeak by using masks with enlarged canisters of various filtration materials, but had the war continued much longer, with the British introducing new agents or increasing the typical tactical concentrations of existing agents, the Germans would've found this insufficient.

And without enough rubber for hoses, thus being unable to use chest respirators, they'd have been up shite creek.

Now, normal masks required at least a little rubber. With sharply-limited supplies, I suspect this had to be reserved for the soldiers' masks. Masks for large numbers of horses probably just weren't in the cards.

Edit: I misread the OP, and thought we were discussing WW1. I leave my post as-is, because for all I know it might have some bearing on WW2, as well. My understanding is that natural rubber (of which Germany had little in WW2 also) makes a much better flexible, airtight material...
 
World war one
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World war two
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But as Gunnarz said you also need protective clothing when dealing with blister agents. Not such a problem if you're a human wearing a nice thick military uniform pretty much all you need cover is your face and hands. Bit more of an issue with horses. Also the Germans had nerve agents and assumed their opponents did as well meaning you basically need full MOPP suits which they couldn't provide for humans never mind animals.
 
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Well they did have gas masks for horses (not that the horse seems to like it) to protect the horses bodies they could have taken a leaf out of the Klans book of dressage.

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