The soldiers who stepped off landing craft and onto the shores of Normandy in France on D-Day 80 years ago today during World War II faced down machine guns and harsh conditions. Among their limited options for defense were steel helmets, cover fire from Allied ships and an early version of flexible plastic placed on guns to protect the firing systems from sea water and sand.
Pliofilm came out of the rubber industry, invented by Harold J. Osterhof at Goodyear Tire & Rubber in the 1930s with natural rubber as its base material. It was initially used as a food wrap, then went into use as a protective covering for industrial aprons and sleeves and to protect cargo. Roy Weikert, the founder of United Films, used Pliofilm as a protective liner for hats in the 1930s.
The U.S. military adopted it to cover rifles and pistols, with soldiers adding rope to make the guns easier to carry. Director Steven Spielberg even included some rifles in Pliofilm bags in the film Saving Private Ryan.
Osterhof received the Charles Goodyear Medal from the American Chemistry Council in 1971.
"The creative mind must, of course, have imagination, as well as enthusiasm," Osterhof said in accepting the Goodyear Medal. "Its results may range from discovering a whole new world of knowledge to merely inventing an easier way of doing an old job."