Brewster Body Armor - The Armored Infantryman That Wasn't

[Metternich]

Looking for all the world like a Steam Punk Infantryman, an American- Doctor Brewster- during WW1 proposed and built prototypes for Brewster Body Armor to allow infantrymen to advance while under machine gun fire.  Although it was tested by the US Army and actually was proof to Lewis Gun fire, it was never adopted or used in combat due to its excessive weight and the inflexibility of the suit.

 https://peashooter85.tumblr.com/post/103601531737/the-brewster-body-shield-world-war-i-today

 https://icm.com.ua/figure/brewster-body-shield-us-infantry/ 

[fred]

Thats a new one to me!

It kind of takes the whole Ned Kelly approach to another level. Not sure what the expectation was for the solider to do, other than stand their and be shot at.

[Easy E]

Heavy Infantry was based on these designs in All Quiet on the Martian Front.

[Metternich]

Found another picture of the Brewster Body Armor being demonstrated (must have been a beast to maintain that kneeling, firing position under all that weight):

 https://www.ammoland.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Brewster.jpg

And here is a lesser known Austro-Hungarian body shield being demonstrated.  Such shields were used, but typically as trench defenses/sniper loopholes in static positions:

  https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6r_8k0W4AAEgc9.jpg

https://hips.hearstapps.com/pop.h-cdn.co/assets/16/35/1472586630-armor1.jpeg

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D6r_8lUXkAATuWC.jpg