Who were these masked kids?

zamboni — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 01:17:28 -0800

Can you provide context for a gas masked army of children? I'd like to know the who, where and when of this photo, a piece of internet flotsam that washed up via fffound₁. It's both creepy and intriguing. I've cursorily tried to identify the uniforms, and gas masks - probably Soviet WWII, but I'm quite open to being wrong. A flickr copy of it suggests that it was originally posted to vintagephoto.
1. possibly nsfw.

I know scrums don't always smell nice, but this was ridiculous.

synecdoche — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 15:15:21 -0800

I'm looking for a rather odd rugby-related photograph. A couple of years ago I saw a very striking photograph, from, I think, the 1940s. It was a black and white photograph of a rugby match, but the players were wearing gas masks. I was wondering if anybody knows anything about this photograph, where I could look at it (even just online), or, even better, if it would be possible to order a print of it from anywhere.

If it helps, I think I saw it in a book of photography (surprise!) that was at Costco. It was sort of a coffee table book type thing, that I foolishly did not purchase. Unfortunately, that is all I can remember.

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Who were these masked kids?

I know scrums don't always smell nice, but this was ridiculous.