Did soldiers use ear protection?

Its pretty obvious that a gun is loud. So one could Hypothesize that a battle with Rifles going off everywhere in every direction, planes dog fighting in the air, shells ricocheting off of tanks armor, people screaming orders, buildings collapsing, and machine guns suppressing fire would be pretty loud. So did Soldiers use ear protection? I haven't seen any ear protectors in World War 2 photos so maybe its ear protectors that go deep into the ear or maybe they went without anything to cover their ears.

 

I doubt they did. I know a couple Finnish soldiers who are proud they cannot hear because they never covered their ears during artillery shooting in peace time.

 

No. some put rags in the ears. That is why so many have a touch of "gunner-ear."..

 

I remember soldiers sticking fingers in their ears when the gun is fired.
Tank crews used ear protecting "hats".

 

The most common disability claim for service related disability is hearing lose.So I've heard or maybe I didn't hear it.

 

My mother inlaw who served in the RCAF during the war as a photographer had a claim for hearing loss and hence hearing aids. Veteran;s Affairs would not allow it until we showed them pictures of her in the service at that time without hearing protection. She said that some times they would stick their heads out of the window and take pictures.

So I am happy to say that both her and my uncle who was a navigator in Lancasters have their hearing aids paid for, as they should.

KTK

 

I do not think it was a common concern in the military or civilian life. I have seen tankers helmets but believe they were more to keep one's head from hitting the interior. Gunners on ships wore flash gear that covered the ears but no to protect them. artillery crew must have suffered terribly but I do not think it was something on everyone's mind. I was born on a farm in 1940 and shoot constantly, up to 30-06 and 12 gauge and ear protection was unheard of It appeared in catalogs when I was a late teen but not emphasized. To day I am very hard of hearing and my ENT says much of it was probably from shooting and my exposure was minuscule compared to combat.

What do soldiers do today ?

 

They wear hearing protection at the range but not in combat. We used to use cigarette filters as field expedient ear plugs.

 

Would this be for tactical reasons?

 

Rifles going off aren't very noisy. The battlefield was so quiet any German could clearly hear an M1 clip being ejected from 100 yards away.

 

The transition from quiet to ear drum splitting noisy might be sudden and violent.

 

Explosive decompression?

 

Or even "staff sleeps" at Corps HQ. Nothing like an attic full of hundred middle aged reservists sleeping off mess beer.

 

It's nice to meet you Sir, your son tells me you were a Marine with the artillery during the war.

Eh? That boy is always saying something crazy about my time with the Marines! There were no distilleries or whores on those islands and if there were, we didn't get enough liberty to make use of either. We just dragged those 105's through the mud until they told us where to shoot, and then ate dirt when the snipers shot at us. Whores and distilleries were a Navy thing.

 

I've got some fairly serious hearing loss from rifles. Mostly from hunting - you can't wear hearing protection when you're hunting unless you're in one of these hunting stands they use in some areas (not my idea of "hunting). If you're actually stalking and spotting into the wind, you need all your senses. I suspect the same is true in combat. I wouldn't want to walk around without one of my most important senses where people are trying to kill me.

Typically, it's your left ear (if you're right handed) that gets the worst abuse. Your right ear is protected a bit by the stock and your shoulder as you shoot - or vice-versa if you're a lefty. The worst damage was when I was hunting with a novice on an otherwise wonderful fly-in caribou hunt in the remote Alaska Mulchatna country. He was over-gunned (as novices tend to do) with a .338 and we had been seeing nothing but herds of cows and young bulls all day. This was an August hunt and at that time of year before the rut, caribou herd up by sex and age. Cows with other cows and last years calves, then young 2 or 3 year bulls, then the big mature "white necks," the old bulls, the ones that will fight and collect a harem in another couple of months.
Well, I spotted a herd 25 or 30 really big bulls meandering our way, a mile or so out. We were on our bellies on a low rise looking through glass. I pushed back to leave as little profile showing as I could, and I motioned him back even further saying I'd gesture him up when they got closer. I'd let him take the first one, and then I'd try to get another if they stopped running while they were still in sight. It worked just like that, except when he crawled forward again he was still behind me and I thought he was just waiting for them to get closer before he exposed himself more - the smart thing to do. No. He set off that .338 at extreme range and took down the biggest bull in sight, a perfect shot, but his muzzle was about three feet from my ear and still slightly behind me. My ears rang for weeks and on my next physical I had marked hearing loss in that ear. I had ringing (tinnitus) off and on for several years. That eventually went away, but I still have poor hearing. It was already degrading before that, but that was the last straw that turned me into one of those guys that are in the eh? what?, huh? club.