I’ve heard about friends who have had their hearing impaired or even got tinnitus. And they got that from firing a rifle or being to close to one, without wearing any protection. From one day to another, their hearing had been impaired.

So that got me thinking. Maybe I haven’t researched enough, but it feels like you haven’t heard about all World War II veterans suffering from tinnitus, lost their hearing and so on. But I guess that they did and do?

One thing I know for sure, is that the regular private didn’t have any protection (or did they?). I’ve seen photos of artillerymen covering their ears. I guess that pilots had some sort of protection and maybe also tank crews. But there are still millions of soldiers who most likely never had any protection or chance to cover their ears.

How come that this isn’t talked about more? Or at least I haven’t heard about it. Is it just a common fact that firing a weapon without protection will worsen your hearing? Or were the weapons back then less powerful? The veterans who didn’t suffer from PTSD, panic attacks, and so forth, are rarely talking about how they’ve lived with tinnitus since the war, or how they cant hear anything. (And once again, I may be wrong, that is why I’am asking).

To summarize, how can it be that one can severly damage your hearing by firing a gun or a rifle a few times without protection. Whilst not hearing too much about damaged hearing from World War II veterans (also other wars, of course), when they obviously fired their own rifles, were close to others who fired their rifles, artillery barrages, airplanes, tanks, most likely on a daily basis. So, how many veterans have lost or damaged their hearing?