I’ve been Thatcher videoing, and came upon this recapof the sinking of HMS Sheffield. The archival footage shows the rescue teams–every one, even if not from one unit–have long neck and face shrouds. Reasons?
Skip to the back of the tape for the scenes.
So the casualties have been moved to some other ship.
The staff doing first aid and triage have these face and neck shrouds, that only exposes their eyes.
The injured people were coming from a warship that had been hit by a missle, and was on fire. The staff were worried that the injured people would bring injurious materials with them. Even just fragments of metal, but also fuels, explosives, caustic substances..
The Sheffield was made of aluminium. The burning aluminium creates a dust of aluminium oxide.. I would have thought that would be worst in the eyes, but the medico staff were not wearing goggles ?
Oh well by that time the casualities were wet and being washed, so the dust wouldn’t fly, around, so the danger was the messy stuff on the victims being transferred onto the neck or face.
Anti-flash gearto protect against burns from an explosion? Pretty much standard attire for sailors in action since at least World War One.