The M-1 gas mask was issued to all military personnel and civilians from the late 1960s to late 1995. The mask was used during the entirety of the Yugoslav wars. It is a direct copy of the US M9A1, following a trend of that time along with the Finnish M/61 and Swedish Skyddsmask 51.
Mask overview[]
Like the M9, it uses a 60mm thread for the filter. The mask was produced in two models: the M-1, and the MC-1. The only known difference between the two is that the MC-1 lacks the oral-nasal cup. The M-1 gas mask has M-59 marked in raised rubber, while the MC-1 has a white stamp of MC-1 over this marking or, more commonly, black stamped letters MC-1 and the date of manufacture on the left cheek (over the model name and size of the mask). The mask is made of a light greenish blue rubber, and uses a light O.D metal for the lens rims. The filter is the same color as the lens rims. The mask also uses a very simple code along the cheek that shows the mask's production year, batch number, and number of masks produced in that batch. 78-002-007, for example, would mean that the mask was produced in 1978 in batch number 2, and that it is one of the seven masks were produced in that batch. The mask uses white fabric tape to help seal around the exhale and inhale ports, whereas the US M9A1 uses a black fabric tape.
Filter[]
The filters issued with the mask are also marked with date of manufacture and series number- 83-011 would be a series 11 filter made in 1983.
Bag and kit[]
There were 3 different kits for the military, civil defense and industry.
Military[]
The kit contained a M-1 mask, face form, filter, cleaning cloth, anti-fogging cloth, manual and a bag, which is similar to the American M11 carrier. The extended kit also contained a LPD-M1 decontamination kit.
Civilian[]
It contained MC-1 mask, filter and bag, personal plastic NBC protective cloak, bandage, radiation tester, one large cloth for cleaning along with one small anti-fog cloth, instruction manual and LPD-M1 decontamination kit. On the front of the bag KOMPLET ZA LIČNU ZAŠTITU GRAĐANA MC-1 (citizens personal protective kit MC-1) or LIČNI KOMPLET ZA ZAŠTITU GRAĐANA SA MASKOM MC.1 (personal kit for citizen protection with MC.1 mask) can be read.
Industrial[]
The M-1 was also used in the industry. The industrial kit could be bought for personal use. The kit was of poor quality. The variant of the M-1 used was the MC-1. The carrier was made of a cheap canvas material and the filter could be one of many industrial types.
Later the M65 was introduced (seen bellow). Not much about this mask is known. What we do know is that it was made for the industry. The facepiece seems to be identical to the M-1 besides the black lens frames. The carrier is also different.
There also exists a rebreather version, known as the M71 cevna maska. The face piece is almost identical to the M65, besides the fact that the M-71 has a smaller thread.
Users[]
Yugoslavia[]
Jugoslavenska narodna armija (Yugoslav People's Army)
Civil Defence
Civilians
Iraq[]
At some point M-1 gas masks were used by Saddam's Iraqi armed forces. Saddam's Iraq had a working relationship with Yugoslavia, and probably purchased gas masks and gas casualty kits from them, as M-1 gas masks evidently used by Iraq and LPD-M1 manufactured with Arabic markings and instructions, probably made in Yugoslavia to export to Iraq, have been found. Note that Yugoslavian M-1s found in Iraq may be misidentified as 'Iraqi M59' due to the M-59 marking on the side of the mask.
Former Yugoslavian states[]
Oružane snage Republike Hrvatske (Croatian Army)
Slovenska vojska (Slovenian Army)
Oružane snage Bosne i Hercegovine (Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Civil Defence
It is known that Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia-Herzegovina are still using the mask for training both in the army and civil defense. There is no concrete evidence but highly possible that others are using it too.
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Note: In the video the anti-fog cloth is misidentified as chemical detection paper, and the cleaning cloth is mistaken as a chemical bandage.
