PHOTOS FROM WWI: BREWSTER BODY SHIELD

U.S. soldier wearing a Brewster Body Shield, 1917.

Brewster Body Armor was the first full body shield to really be useful developed by and for the United States Army during World War I. it basically consisted of a breastplate and an attached headpiece— both thick enough to stop machine gun bullets at an average speed of 1800 mph, roughly. weighing nearly 65 lbs, it proved somewhat inconvenient and uncomfortable. an adapted version developed years later that weighed only 12 lbs was developed and became the new standard in armor.