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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Gas and flame in modern warfare, by S.
-J. M. Auld
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Gas and flame in modern warfare
-
-Author: S. J. M. Auld
-
-Illustrator: W. G. Thayer
-
-Release Date: December 17, 2022 [eBook #69562]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: deaurider, David E. Brown, and the Online Distributed
-             Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
-             produced from images generously made available by The
-             Internet Archive)
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GAS AND FLAME IN MODERN
-WARFARE ***
-
-
-
-
-
-GAS AND FLAME
-
-MAJOR S. J. M. AULD, M.C.
-
-
-[Illustration: Lieut. W. G. Thayer, of the Gas Defense Division, U. S.
-Army, is the artist of the drawing here reproduced which was designed
-for the purpose of bringing home the necessity of care in all that
-pertains to the use and manufacture of the gas mask.
-
-In order to impress upon the soldier in training the need of care and
-speed in adjusting the mask in case of gas attack, the poster was
-printed with this wording:
-
-  KEEP YOUR HEAD; HOLD YOUR BREATH,--
-  BE QUICK!!
-  AND THIS WON’T HAPPEN TO YOU
-
-That the workers engaged in the manufacture of gas masks might realize
-the importance of care and flawlessness in their work, the same poster
-was placed in the factories with a legend reading:
-
-  THE FINAL INSPECTOR]
-
-
-
-
-  GAS AND FLAME
-  IN MODERN WARFARE
-
-  BY
-  MAJOR S. J. M. AULD, M.C.
-  ROYAL BERKSHIRE REGIMENT
-  _Member of the British Military Mission
-  to the United States_
-
-  FRONTISPIECE BY
-  W. G. THAYER
-
-  [Illustration]
-
-  NEW YORK
-  GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
-
-
-
-
-  _Copyright, 1918,
-  By George H. Doran Company_
-
-  _Copyright, 1918,
-  By The Curtis Publishing Company_
-
-  _Copyright, 1918,
-  By Doubleday, Page & Company_
-
-  _Printed in the United States of America_
-
-
-
-
-PUBLISHER’S NOTE
-
-
-Need for the education of vast numbers of men in various branches
-of Gas Service and those in camps on the position of Gas Warfare at
-the front, has made imperative the publication of this book, as has
-also the need of educating the public, owing to the many misleading
-newspaper reports, sometimes merely misinformative, sometimes
-distinctly mischievous, appearing from time to time.
-
-Major Auld, chemist and teacher before the war, and as he modestly
-styled it, “amateur soldier,” volunteered for service at the front as a
-“Territorial,” at the very outset of the conflict.
-
-Some months after the first gas attack, he was taken into the Gas
-Service, owing to his training and ability as a chemist, and later
-became Chief Gas Officer to Sir Julian Byng’s Army. He was awarded
-the Military Cross after the Battle of the Somme, and was wounded in
-an expedition into No Man’s Land to observe the effect of a British
-Gas attack. He has therefore been in touch with gas warfare from the
-beginning and knows all phases.
-
-As the natural consequence of all this, the Government of the United
-States welcomed him as the representative of Great Britain in its
-counsel to America on all aspects of gas warfare. In this official
-capacity the Major has been engaged here assisting in organization and
-development of training, research and production aspects of Gas, and
-lecturing at camps, the War College, and West Point.
-
-The American Gas Service has, for all these reasons, deemed the
-publication of Major Auld’s experiences very desirable.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS
-
-
-  CHAPTER I
-                                                              PAGE
-  The first rumours of German gas attacks--Sceptically
-    received--First attack in 1915--Canadian
-    pluck under gas--Nernst and Haber the
-    inventors of German gas--The difficulties of
-    getting practicable gases--The technic of gas
-    attacks--A German prisoner’s account                         9
-
-  CHAPTER II
-
-  The first respirators--First-aid devices--The
-    smoke helmet--Anti-gas sprayers--Their use
-    and delicacy--The English chemists set to
-    work--The task of training the whole army                   26
-
-  CHAPTER III
-
-  Popular terror of gas--Necessity for drilling and
-    early personal experience--Sure defence from
-    gas possible--The first gas alarms--The prussic
-    acid scare a myth--The phosgene scare a
-    reality--The helmet made to combat it--Necessity
-    for renovating the helmet                                   42
-
-  CHAPTER IV
-
-  The attack of Dec. 1915--The Allies’ good training
-    tells--The casualties analysed--The new
-    element of surprise--Evidences of the use of
-    phosgene--The incident of the bulb--Improved
-    alarms--The Strombos sirens--Accidents
-    to the horns--The Tear Gas Shell--Its
-    chemical analysis--Combated by anti-gas
-    goggles--Tommies scoff at Tear Gas--The
-    Germans make it formidable                                  62
-
-  CHAPTER V
-
-  Summer of 1916 the highwater mark of the German
-    gas cloud--Their improved methods--The
-    need of speed and secrecy--Gas as a rat
-    exterminator--Causes of Allied casualties--Germans
-    killed with their own gas--Gas
-    masks for horses and mules--Reduced Allied
-    casualties--Humorous incidents                              88
-
-  CHAPTER VI
-
-  The last German gas cloud sent over August 1916--Its
-    intensity--“Delayed” cases of phosgene
-    gassing--Cigarettes as a test of gassing--Dangers
-    of carelessness--The sprayer abandoned
-    for Mrs. Ayrton’s fan--Responsibilities
-    of the divisional gas office--Russian gas victims--The
-    day of the gas cloud over                                  112
-
-  CHAPTER VII
-
-  The rising importance of the gas shell--The
-    variety of gases practicable with the shell--The
-    deadly Green Cross Shell--Risks of
-    transporting “duds” for chemical analysis--Reduced
-    Allied casualties--German blunders
-    in shelling tactics--Importance of universal
-    discipline                                                 127
-
-  CHAPTER VIII
-
-  The gas-proof dugout--First-aid methods of
-    alarm--Von Buelow improves German gas
-    tactics--Popular errors about gas--Effectiveness
-    of new British respirators--Vomiting gas--Germans
-    speed up their manufacture--Gas
-    as a neutraliser of artillery fire--As a neutraliser
-    of work behind the trenches--Raw recruits
-    ashamed to wear the mask--Casualties
-    resulting                                                  145
-
-  CHAPTER IX
-
-  Mustard or Yellow Cross gas--Not deadly but a
-    dangerous pest--Its troublesome persistence--Cleaning
-    it out by fires--Sneezing of Blue
-    Cross gas--Another pest--Its violent effect--The
-    limit of gas shell effectiveness--The need
-    for constant vigilance and disciplinary training           169
-
-  CHAPTER X
-
-  Liquid fire--First used by Germans in July 1915--A
-    great surprise and success--German hopes
-    from it--Construction of a flame projector--Flammenwerfer
-    companies--Their perilous
-    duties and incidents of desertion from them--Improved
-    types of projectors--Co-operation
-    of machine-gun fire--Failure of liquid fire--Its
-    short duration and short range--Ease of
-    escape from it                                             185
-
-
-
-
-GAS AND FLAME
-
-
-
-
-GAS AND FLAME
-
-CHAPTER I
-
-  The first rumours of German gas attacks--Sceptically received--First
-    attack in 1915--Canadian pluck under gas--Nernst and Haber the
-    inventors of German gas--The difficulties of getting practicable
-    gases--The technic of gas attacks--A German prisoner’s account.
-
-
-In the early part of April, 1915, we were in the trenches opposite
-Messines. We enjoyed the usual morning and evening “hate”; we sniped
-and were sniped at; we patrolled and wired and attempted to drain
-away the superfluous water, and there was much mud and humour and
-expectancy. It is true there were no Mills grenades or Stokes mortars
-or tin hats, but trench warfare was not so very different then from
-what it is now--with one great exception: There was no gas. And
-there were consequently no respirators to carry day and night. It is
-almost impossible now to remember the time when one did not carry a
-respirator in the trenches. Somehow it makes you feel quite naked to
-think of it--and yet there we were, imagining we knew what war really
-was like!
-
-The newspapers we got at that time were generally a good many days old,
-and censored at that, and our chief source of news about the war in
-other people’s parts of the line was a summary of so-called information
-issued from headquarters, which percolated down to the battalion and,
-like every other summary before and since, went by the name of “Comic
-Cuts.”
-
-Somewhere about the middle of the month we heard that in somebody
-else’s summary had appeared a paragraph to the effect that a deserter
-from the German lines up in the salient had told a cock-and-bull story
-of how they intended to poison us all with a cloud of gas, and that
-tanks full of the poison gas were already installed in their trenches.
-
-Of course nobody believed him. The statement was “passed for
-information for what it is worth.” And as nobody ever believed anything
-that appeared in Comic Cuts in any case, we were not disposed to get
-the wind up about it. And then, about a week later, on April 22, 1915,
-was launched the first gas attack; and another constant horror was
-added to an already somewhat unpleasant war. Details about the attack
-are still somewhat meagre, for the simple reason that the men who could
-have told much about it never came back.
-
-The place chosen for the first gas attack was in the northeast part of
-the Ypres salient at that part of the line where the French and British
-lines met, running down from where the trenches left the canal near
-Boesinghe. On the French right was the ---- Regiment of Turcos, and on
-the British left were the Canadians.
-
-Try to imagine the feelings and the condition of the coloured troops
-as they saw the vast cloud of greenish-yellow gas spring out of the
-ground and slowly move down wind toward them, the vapour clinging to
-the earth, seeking out every hole and hollow and filling the trenches
-and shell holes as it came. First wonder, then fear; then, as the first
-fringes of the cloud enveloped them and left them choking and agonised
-in the fight for breath--panic. Those who could move broke and ran,
-trying, generally in vain, to outstrip the cloud which followed
-inexorably after them.
-
-The majority of those in the front line were killed--some, let us
-hope, immediately, but most of them slowly and horribly. It is not my
-intention to try to play upon feelings, but those of us who have seen
-men badly gassed can only think with horror of a battlefield covered
-with such cases, over which the Germans subsequently advanced.
-
-The Canadians on the British left fared both better and worse than the
-French coloured troops. Only their left appears to have been in the
-main path of the poison cloud, but there is little doubt that in the
-thickest part those who did not escape either to a flank or to the rear
-were killed on the field. Thousands of those in the support trenches
-and reserve lines and in billets behind the line were suffocated--many
-to die later in the field ambulances and casualty clearing stations.
-
-Of those on the fringe of the cloud many saved themselves by burying
-their faces in the earth. Others wrapped mufflers round their mouths
-and noses or stuffed handkerchiefs into their mouths. Many of these
-men were saved by their presence of mind, for though gassed at the time
-they recovered later, after treatment in the hospitals.
-
-It is on record that the Canadians, with handkerchiefs or mufflers tied
-over their mouths, continued to engage the Germans and that a number
-of them actually charged back through the gas cloud in an endeavour to
-reach the enemy. What became of them is not known.
-
-In this way a big gap was made in the Allied lines, through which the
-Germans advanced. But the Canadians quickly formed a flank on the left
-and stoutly engaged the enemy, with such success that they first slowed
-up and then brought to a halt the advance of the Germans. It was this
-prompt action and gallant resistance that probably saved the day.
-
-Whether the German high command had underestimated the probable effect
-of the gas and had arranged for only a limited objective past which
-the local commanders did not take the initiative to go, or whether
-the latter were unaware of the real weakness of the Canadian line is
-unknown. The fact remains that they did not press their advantage to
-the full. They had taken the Allied front line on a wide front, killed
-or captured thousands of men and taken sixty guns, and seemed to have
-a clear way through to Calais; but they were stopped by the pluck of a
-handful of Canadians. Reinforcements of men and guns were rushed up,
-and the immediate danger was over.
-
-It is a matter for surmise how long the Germans had been planning and
-preparing their use of gas. The idea may have been a pre-war one, but
-it is difficult to believe that a project deliberately planned for
-years would not have been developed so as to make it a sure winner--for
-it could easily have been that. If, for example, they had made the
-attack over a wider front with such strong gas clouds as are now used
-nothing could possibly have stood against them. Every living thing to a
-depth of fifteen miles or more could have been killed.
-
-On the other hand it is impossible to imagine the use of poison gas as
-having been decided on without better preparation having been made to
-meet retaliation, unless it was assumed either that the use of the gas
-would be decisive or that at any rate the war would be finished before
-the Allies could hit back with the same weapon.
-
-In any case the preparation must have been going on for months. All
-the production of material, organisation of personnel and so on takes
-a long time. This we realised ourselves later, for though the decision
-to retaliate with gas was made in May it was September before an attack
-could possibly be made. If we assume that a like interval of four
-months elapsed for the perfecting of the German arrangements it means
-that the decision to use gas was made about Christmas, 1914.
-
-The onus of urging the Kaiser’s advisers to adopt the use of poisonous
-gases had been laid at the door of Professor Nernst, professor of
-chemistry at the University of Berlin. Professor Nernst is a noted
-chemist, and even before the war was a notorious Pan-German and
-Anglophobe--one of the “professors” who carried too much weight in
-Germany and whose arrogance and shortsightedness helped to lure
-her to her downfall. Some time after the use of gas was started
-Professor Nernst was made a count by the Kaiser for his “notable
-services”--meaning presumably the use of gas in warfare.
-
-The actual carrying out of the gas operations was intrusted to another
-professor of chemistry, this being one Haber, of the Kaiser Wilhelm
-Physical Chemical Institute at Berlin. In 1914, long before the war
-started, Professor Haber and his assistants are known to have been
-working secretly with some intensely poisonous arsenic gases and
-liquids, and one of the assistants was killed and another is reported
-to have had his arm blown off during the researches.
-
-Haber’s particular job was to make all the scientific arrangements
-in the field; to decide on the gases to be used, and the quantity
-to employ; to study the wind directions and decide exactly when to
-make the attack. In the weeks preceding the twenty-second of April,
-Haber was continually at the Front receiving reports from the wind
-observation stations and in close touch with the men in charge of the
-cylinders in the trenches. On several occasions during this time the
-attack was fixed for a certain hour, but was postponed by Haber, owing
-to the wind’s being unsuitable.
-
-The actual arrangements that had to be made were much more complex
-than the carrying out of the attack itself. First of all, decision had
-to be come to as to the gas to be used in the fiendish attempt. Such
-a gas had of course to be highly poisonous. Then it must be cheaply
-and easily made in large quantities; it had to be compressible, so
-that it could be transported easily; it must be heavier than air, so
-that it should keep close to the ground when first liberated; and for
-preference it should not be unstable--that is, decompose easily and
-enter into nonpoisonous combinations with materials, other than man,
-that it should come across in its passage through the air.
-
-Any chemist to whom such a problem is put will inform you there are
-very few gases that fill the bill. The German choice rested on that
-gas well-known to students of chemistry--chlorine. Chlorine in large
-quantities was available from the alkali works in Germany, and it
-meets all the other requirements except that of not easily combining
-with other things. This deficiency was fortunate, for it meant that
-protective chemicals were easy to find when it became necessary to
-provide respirators to the Allied troops.
-
-Then there was the question of transport and emission. The gas was
-eventually put up in steel cylinders, about thirty inches long and
-eight inches across and stout enough to stand a pressure of about ten
-atmospheres, the gas being stored in them compressed to a liquid. On
-opening such a cylinder the liquid boils and gives off the gas again,
-but this would not do for field work, because of the intense cold which
-is produced by the sudden expansion. This would freeze up the pipes and
-slow down the discharge to such an extent that the gas attack would be
-too weak.
-
-To get over this difficulty the Germans fitted their cylinders with
-internal siphon tubes so that actually liquid chlorine was forced into
-the air, where it evaporated without affecting the gas remaining in the
-cylinder. By this means the whole of the gas in the cylinder, amounting
-to forty-five pounds, is emptied into the atmosphere in less than three
-minutes. The sudden expansion of the chlorine in the air also makes
-both it and the surrounding air cold and helps to keep the cloud close
-to the ground.
-
-The actual handing of the gas attacks was allotted to two regiments of
-pioneers--the 35th and 36th Pioneer Regiments, which were specially
-organised for this purpose. These regiments have the ordinary
-organisation of two battalions per regiment, with three companies and a
-park or transport company per battalion. The rank and file are ordinary
-pioneers, but the officers are specially picked and include chemists,
-mechanical experts, meteorologists, and other men with special
-scientific qualifications.
-
-The choice of country in which to make a gas attack was a serious
-matter to the enemy. The gas of course will go with the wind, but it
-depends largely on what the country is like where the wind will go. The
-Germans themselves say they prefer a flat country without any marked
-under features and sloping gently toward our lines, just as they had at
-Ypres. Indeed, they went the length of saying that a gas attack could
-not be carried out in hilly or very broken country; and they suffered
-in consequence later on, through being taken unawares by the French in
-just such country in the Vosges when retaliation was commenced. But
-taking it altogether the Germans were wise in their choice of position.
-
-Another thing that had to be considered was the outline of their own
-trench system, so that they would not let off the gas in such parts
-of the line that it would float back and gas their own troops in the
-neighbouring trenches. To do this they invented a “factor of safety,”
-which represented an angle between the direction of the wind and the
-line of the trenches. No attack was to be made if the wind direction
-came within forty degrees of any trench within gassing distance. This
-worked very well.
-
-Another consideration was the strength of the wind. The wind must not
-be too strong when the gusts disperse the gas cloud, or it will weaken
-it so that it loses a lot of its effect and will be blown over the
-enemy too quickly; nor must it be so weak that it will take a long time
-to reach the opposing trenches.
-
-Another great danger in winds of too low velocity is that these are
-just the winds which change their direction most frequently, and
-anything under two miles per hour is just as likely to blow the
-gas back to the place from which it came. It was disregarding this
-principle on one occasion later on that caused the Germans numerous
-casualties from one of their own gas clouds. In general, however, it
-may be laid down that the most favourable winds are those between four
-and twelve miles an hour, so that with a wind of eight miles an hour
-the cloud would move just twice as quickly as a man walking rapidly,
-and would take only twelve and a half seconds to cross No Man’s Land in
-places where the trenches are fifty yards apart.
-
-Let me try to give an account of the procedure of carrying out gas
-attacks as it was told me by a German prisoner taken not so very long
-ago. He said:
-
-“I am not one of the gas pioneers, but being an engineer by trade and
-having been in the trenches for many weeks with the 35th Regiment
-of Pioneers I have got to know their methods fairly well. Indeed I
-assisted on one occasion in carrying cylinders into the trenches for
-an attack against the British. Gas is not popular with us; we have had
-too many mishaps, and the cylinders are a nuisance to carry into the
-trenches. They weigh ninety pounds and they are always carried in by
-the infantry. A gas regiment does not do that for itself. It is a long
-carry and it is really more than a one-man load. At the most two men
-are allotted to carry in each cylinder, whatever the distance.
-
-“Several thousand of these cylinders must be taken into the trenches,
-and then we have the job of putting them in position. Deep holes are
-dug just underneath the parapet of the trench, and into these holes
-are placed the separate cylinders with the tops flush with the ground.
-As each cylinder is placed into position the hole is covered with a
-board, on top of which is placed a thing we call a ‘_Salzdecke_,’ which
-is really a kind of quilt stuffed with peat moss and soaked in potash
-solution so as to absorb any of the gases that may leak out.
-
-“On top of the _Salzdecke_ are built up three layers of sandbags, so
-that there is not much danger of the cylinders’ being hit by shell
-fragments. This also serves to hide the cylinders in case a raid is
-made, and the sandbags form an excellent firing step. In fact, you
-would never guess that the gas was ready in position to make an
-attack. All of this takes a long time to do, and then we have to wait
-for a wind that is favourable.
-
-“It may be weeks before the right time comes, but all the time the
-pioneer officers and _Unteroffiziere_ make observations of the wind and
-report back to somebody at headquarters. On the night fixed for the
-attack all the infantry are warned beforehand. If the wind continues
-favourable the sandbags are taken off, the domes removed from the
-cylinders, and to each cylinder is attached a lead pipe which is bent
-over the top of the parapet into No Man’s Land, with the end slightly
-bent up, so that if any liquid comes out it is not wasted in the ground
-but evaporates in the air. The end of the lead pipe is weighted with a
-sandbag, so that it will not kick when the gas is turned on and blow
-the gas back into our own trenches, as happened in one or two of the
-earlier attacks. It is this kind of thing that makes gas unpopular in
-the German Army.
-
-“Eventually the time really does arrive for the attack, and the
-pioneers stand by the cylinders, of which twenty form a battery; and
-to each battery there are two pioneers and one noncommissioned officer
-waiting to unscrew the taps. A signal is given by means of a rocket.
-All the infantry have been eagerly waiting for this signal, which means
-that they have five minutes to clear out of the front-line trenches
-before the gas is turned on; and I can tell you they do not waste any
-time. Everybody makes a rush to the support trench and leaves the front
-line entirely to the pioneers.
-
-“We all keep our masks ready to put on at a moment’s notice, because
-in the earlier attack the wind on two occasions blew the gas back
-again into our own trenches and killed a lot of the infantry who were
-unprepared for its return. According to the length of time the attack
-is to last the cylinders are turned on, from one up to five at a time,
-in each battery.
-
-“As soon as the taps are turned on the pioneers make for cover, but
-they have a good many losses from bursting cylinders, from leaks, and
-from the shrapnel and high-explosive shells which invariably greet the
-start of an attack. The promptness with which this happened at the time
-I was in the line made us believe that your people had known all about
-our gas preparations for some time. The infantry are all very glad to
-be away from the front-line trench when the cloud is sent over.”
-
-This method has been practically unaltered throughout the time the
-Germans have made gas attacks. In the first attack they probably had
-one gas cylinder on every yard of front on which gas was installed, but
-the number was increased in subsequent attacks.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II
-
-  The first respirators--First-aid devices--the smoke helmet--Anti-gas
-    sprayers--Their use and delicacy--The English chemists set to
-    work--The task of training the whole army.
-
-
-There is no need to dwell on the execration with which the use of gas
-was met by the whole civilised world, and I will merely try to recount
-how it was taken by the men in the trenches.
-
-The British Tommy is a difficult man to terrify, and the moral effect
-on the men, though quite unprotected, was remarkably small considering
-the terrors of the game. For two or three days all we heard about were
-the things we should do in the event of being similarly attacked. It
-appeared that great chemists from England had immediately taken up the
-question of providing efficient respirators, and until they came out
-were advising people as to emergency measures. Some of these methods
-seemed to us very funny. We were told, for example, that a respirator
-could “easily” be made by knocking the bottom off a bottle, filling the
-bottle with earth, and then learning to breathe with the neck of the
-bottle stuck in the mouth. The breath was to be taken in through the
-bottle and let out through the nose; but as bottles were scarce and few
-of them survived the attempt to get the bottom broken off there was not
-much doing.
-
-However, we learned that handkerchiefs filled with earth and kept moist
-would keep some of the gas out, and by the time the first novelty had
-worn off we were receiving private respirators from England. These
-had all been made in response to an appeal by Lord Kitchener to the
-women of England to make respirators for the troops out of cotton wool
-wrapped up in muslin or veiling. The result of this was that the War
-Office was absolutely swamped with millions of these respirators within
-a few days, and most fellows in the trenches had one or two sent out by
-post straightaway.
-
-Besides these, arrangements were made by the various divisions for
-respirators to be made in towns behind the lines; and the government
-factories in England got to work to turn out a simple type of
-respirator which had been devised by the English chemists as the
-quickest to make and the simplest to use. The result was that within
-about one month we had four or five different kinds of respirators
-issued to us. Most of these were simple pads of either cotton wool or
-cotton waste. The earlier ones were soaked in washing-soda solution,
-and the later ones were moistened with a special solution consisting
-of ordinary photographic hypo and washing soda mixed with a little
-glycerin.
-
-One type that we had for a week or two in the trenches consisted of
-the usual pad of cotton waste together with a small wad of the same
-material which was kept separate. The respirators were stored in boxes
-let into the paradoses, or rear walls of the trenches. On the alarm
-being given each man in the trench made a dive for a respirator,
-stuffed the wad into his mouth as a first protection, and then bound
-the pad round his mouth and nose, the wad being afterward taken out of
-his mouth and stuffed round his nose so as to make a tight fit.
-
-These practices were popular for once or twice, but when it began to
-be realised that the wads were not always used by the same man the
-novelty waned. We thought we were getting pretty smart at it when we
-could get every man in the trench fully protected--that is, with the
-tapes tied--in forty seconds from the word “Go.”
-
-Later on we had the official “black-veiling respirator,” which was
-issued to all the British troops and which went through two or three of
-the earlier attacks as the chief protection.
-
-It was from one of these attacks delivered in the salient again, on the
-twenty-fourth of May, that the first benefits of good training in the
-use of the respirator were seen. One of the regiments which had been
-on the flank of the first attack and had seen the effects of the gas
-and what it really meant had taken the training very seriously, and
-the officers had insured that every man had a respirator, kept it in
-good condition, and knew how to use it in the quickest possible time
-should occasion rise. Other regiments were not so good, and it was just
-this training or lack of it that made all the difference between heavy
-casualties and light casualties in subsequent attacks.
-
-On the twenty-fourth of May the regiment mentioned above happened to
-be in the very thickest part of the cloud, and though the battalion
-on either side of it suffered serious losses they themselves came off
-almost scot-free. Instances of losses from insufficient education in
-the use of the respirator were numerous on this occasion. A lot of
-men took their respirators off in the middle of the attack in order
-to wet them with solution again; and as they did not wring them out
-sufficiently the respirators were difficult to breathe through and the
-men thought they were being gassed and repeated the dose--the result
-being that they could not draw air through the sodden cotton waste, and
-they were gassed either from pulling off the respirators altogether or
-from the air coming in at the side.
-
-One very bad instance was quoted by a medical officer at an advanced
-dressing station which was taking in gas cases as they came down from
-the line. Two or three men from one battalion came in pretty badly
-gassed, but still able to walk. The M. O. asked them if they had
-respirators issued to them. They said “Yes.”
-
-“Well, why didn’t you put them on?”
-
-They said: “We did put them on; we’ve got them on now.”
-
-And so they had--strapped across their chests!
-
-At that time respirators were generally carried by the men tied round
-their caps, and in some cases could not be removed in time; and the
-May twenty-fourth attack made it apparent that the respirators should
-be carried in a position ready for immediate use. For this purpose a
-waterproof cover was provided and the respirator kept in a small pocket
-inserted into the jacket, or else in a pouch slung over the shoulder.
-
-The other bad feature about the preparations was the arrangement for
-dipping the respirators in solution in the trenches, as referred to
-above. During the attack a lot of the men dipped their respirators in
-water; which of course washed the chemicals out of the respirators and
-made them ineffectual much sooner than they should have been. But all
-of these matters were remedied before another gas attack was made.
-
-After the first emergency respirator had been issued every effort was
-made to devise a more effective form of protection than that given by
-the cotton-wool pads, in expectation of a recurrence of German attacks.
-As a matter of fact there were no attacks between the beginning of June
-and December, 1915, because the wind was unfavourable to the Germans.
-This was another point that they had apparently overlooked, because on
-investigation we found that the prevailing winds in Flanders blew from
-west to east, and that about three-quarters of the total winds were in
-our favour and against the Germans.
-
-The long interval of the summer of 1915 gave us a splendid opportunity
-to develop the protection against gas which had been commenced in the
-spring while attacks were still being made. The most important of
-these developments were the invention of the celebrated “smoke helmet”
-and the use of sprayers for the removing of gas from the trenches. We
-also found out the exact value of certain other devices and methods
-which had been suggested for combating the gas clouds, and a lot of
-impossible ideas were consequently turned down.
-
-The latter might be discussed first of all. One suggestion which was
-made and believed in by most people at various times--including the
-Germans themselves--was that fires built in the trenches or on the
-parapet would cause such an upward draft as to lift up the gas cloud
-and carry it safely over our heads. Experiments showed, however, that
-this idea was absolutely false, because though an upward draft was
-certainly formed the incoming air carried with it just as much gas from
-the surrounding atmosphere, and nothing was gained by it. It was a long
-time before the Germans tumbled to this, and even many months later
-their own instructions on defence against gas included statements that
-showed their reliance on this procedure.
-
-One suggestion which actually reached the point of being acted on was
-that the gas cloud could be dispersed by an explosion, and for this
-purpose we were provided with wooden boxes filled with black powder and
-with fuses attached, which we were supposed to light at the crucial
-moment and throw into an advancing cloud. This heroic procedure was
-never actually made use of, however, because experiments in the
-meantime again showed that such explosions had very little effect on a
-cloud of gas.
-
-Two suggestions which really did turn out to be winners were those
-referred to previously--the smoke helmet and the Vermorel sprayer for
-clearing the trenches.
-
-The idea for a respirator in the form of a helmet to go right over
-the head is stated to have originated from an idea of a sergeant of
-the Canadians who was gassed at Ypres, who stated that he had seen
-some of the Germans through the gas cloud with things that looked like
-flour bags pulled over their heads. It was thought that something of
-this kind could actually be made use of, and experiments showed that
-it was really a practical idea, because breathing is done through a
-very big surface and not only through the chemicals directly in front
-of the mouth and nose, as in the case of the respirator. By having
-a big surface it is possible to have thinner material and there is,
-therefore, less resistance to breathing. All that is required is to
-tuck the helmet down inside the jacket and button the latter tightly
-round it at the neck, and if this is done there is little possibility
-of gas leaking in. As a matter of fact there is no evidence that the
-Germans ever did use anything of the kind.
-
-The first types of smoke helmet were made of flannel and had a window
-for seeing through which was made of mica or celluloid. The helmets
-were soaked in the same kind of solution--hypo, carbonate of soda
-and glycerin--that had been employed for the respirators. Helmets of
-this kind were capable of standing up against really considerable
-concentrations of chlorine, and they were quickly recognised both by
-the troops and by experts as being a very big improvement on the old
-respirator.
-
-These helmets were made and issued to the troops as quickly as
-possible and a few of them were actually used in the attack of May
-twenty-fourth. Men unpracticed in their use were apt to find them hot
-and stuffy, and, not realising that the feeling wears off, were often
-inclined to think that they were being suffocated or gassed. As a
-matter of fact well-drilled men could do almost anything while wearing
-the helmet, the chief difficulty being that of limited vision. After
-wearing the helmet for a short time the celluloid window got clouded
-over from the moisture in the breath, but this could easily be remedied
-by wiping it on the forehead. In many cases also the windows got
-cracked or broken from the rough treatment they were bound to meet in
-trenches, and this was a constant danger until men learned how to fold
-the helmet properly so as to protect the celluloid and to place a small
-sheet of cardboard or thin wood over the window before folding.
-
-The sprayers previously mentioned were originally suggested for use
-against the gas cloud itself, the idea being that chemicals should be
-sprayed at the cloud so as to neutralise the poisonous gas and thereby
-purify the air. Nearly everybody with even a nodding acquaintance with
-chemistry wrote in suggesting ammonia for this purpose, oblivious of
-the fact that the chemical reaction between chlorine and ammonia in
-these circumstances produces a dense cloud which is most irritating to
-the eyes and throat, and that this together with the excess of ammonia
-would be almost as bad as the original gas.
-
-In any case it is impossible to deal with the gas cloud by spraying,
-because of the enormous amount of chemicals and apparatus that would
-be required to neutralise the attack. A cloud of chlorine from one
-thousand cylinders, for example, would require more than forty tons of
-the strongest ammonia solution obtainable to kill all the gas, even if
-none of the spray were lost in the ground. Besides this the spraying
-might have to be continued for hours, some of the attacks having lasted
-intermittently for more than three hours.
-
-It was quickly seen that this was an utter impossibility, but
-experiments showed that a spray of the hypo solution was quite capable
-of removing what remained of the gas cloud out of trenches and shell
-holes and from dugouts into which the gas had penetrated. This of
-course applied only to chlorine. Arrangements were therefore made for
-supplying a large number of these sprayers, which are exactly the same
-as those used for spraying fruit trees and potatoes with fungicides,
-and men were specially trained in their use so that they could be
-employed after an attack was over. These men were officially known as
-the “Vermorel sprayer men,” and were popularly supposed to preface all
-their operations with the words “Let us spray.”
-
-The solution to fill the sprayers was kept in all the trenches in
-corked rum jars, and there were many amusing incidents rising out
-of the dual purpose to which these revered vessels were put. It is
-stated that a certain battalion on going into the line for the first
-time saw these rum jars safely ensconced in niches in the parapet and
-immediately thought that they contained the rum ration concerning
-which they had heard so much before they came out. Some of the more
-adventurous ones surreptitiously tried out the supposed rum and drank a
-few mouthfuls of the nauseous liquid before discovering their mistake.
-The real joke lay in the fact that even after they realised that the
-liquid was not rum they continued to drink it, and by the time they
-finished their two days’ tour of instruction there was not a drop of
-Vermorel sprayer solution left in any of the trenches.
-
-The sprayers were somewhat delicate pieces of apparatus to keep in good
-condition in the trenches, and were apt to get crusted with mud and
-out of order unless they were well looked after. Like everything else
-connected with the defence against gas, their condition in the trenches
-varied with different regiments according as they were well trained and
-disciplined or otherwise, but as a rule the sprayers were well enough
-looked after, and proved extraordinarily useful on many occasions after
-their first appearance in the line.
-
-As stated before, the long interval of the summer and autumn of 1915
-gave the chemists and the army plenty of opportunity for thinking about
-the gas question, developing organisation and methods to meet attacks
-in the future, and making arrangements for the training of the troops
-so that they should be thoroughly prepared when the next attack should
-arrive.
-
-One of the most important things that was done was to start a big field
-laboratory for dealing with questions of gas warfare. And as it had
-already been realised that the whole basis of defence against gas was
-going to lie in the hands of the troops themselves by increasing their
-steadiness, developing their discipline, and generally accustoming
-them to the idea that gas was now an ordinary method of warfare,
-chemists and instructors were appointed for attachment to each of the
-British armies.
-
-These men were all chosen from the line. For the most part they were
-infantry officers who could realise the real needs and limitations of
-the troops, but they were picked in each instance because they had, at
-any rate, some chemical knowledge and could translate into practice
-for the benefit of the troops various chemical measures which had been
-adopted for the latter’s safety. Their first chief job was to see that
-respirators and smoke helmets were issued in sufficient number; to see
-that they were in good condition; and then to arrange for the training
-of all the troops in the army in their use. This was a heroic task, to
-be accomplished in as short a time as possible, but by dint of speaking
-to large bodies of officers and men at the same time it was so far
-completed that all ranks were given practical instruction in the use of
-the helmet.
-
-When it is realised that each of these officers had to deal with at
-least one hundred thousand troops it will be seen that it was no
-mean feat that was accomplished. What was started then has never been
-completely accomplished, partly because of the continual development of
-gas warfare and partly because it is a matter of education--which is
-always slow--but very largely also because of the continually changing
-personnel and the enormous numbers of men that have had to be trained.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III
-
-  Popular terror of gas--Necessity for drilling and early personal
-    experience--Sure defence from gas possible--The first gas
-    alarms--The prussic acid scare a myth--The phosgene scare a
-    reality--The helmet made to combat it--Necessity for renovating
-    the helmet.
-
-
-The final object in the training of men in defence against gas is
-that troops shall be able to protect themselves completely and as
-quickly as possible in all the multitudinous circumstances in which
-they may encounter the poisonous gas in the field. To attain this
-it is necessary to inspire confidence by letting them in as far as
-possible on the principles underlying the use of gas and the tactics
-which are adopted by the enemy; and, secondly, to bring their practical
-proficiency and discipline up to such a standard that they make the
-very best use of the apparatus that is given to them.
-
-It must be remembered that one of the greatest difficulties in talking
-to people about gas is the mystery of it. Even educated people hardly
-understand the word “gas” in connection with war and are apt to think
-of coal gas and dentists’ gas in consequence. The result is that the
-gas of the Germans was sometimes credited with all sorts of impossible
-qualities of movement and deadliness, and it can hardly be realised
-what alarm and distrust may exist in the raw recruit with regard to
-gas until he has been given some instruction. This is even as great a
-danger as the over-confidence of the veteran soldier, who may know just
-as little about it.
-
-Mere drilling and assertion are not sufficient to inspire confidence
-and acquire proportion, and it was realised very early that personal
-experience was needed. To gain this arrangements were made for every
-man to see and smell gas in concentrations that would at any rate
-produce severe discomfort if dwelt in for any length of time, and for
-each soldier subsequently to be exposed to gas while wearing a gas
-helmet in such a concentration that negligence in obeying orders or in
-using the smoke helmet correctly would lead to real danger to life. By
-this means confidence could be inspired in everybody, though there is
-always a certain danger due to recklessness among the more adventurous
-types.
-
-Besides this it was necessary to give as many men as possible some
-idea of the common sense of the operations in which the army was being
-drilled. This could only be done by giving a clear idea of how the
-gas is used; how gas travels; where it accumulates; how it can be
-removed, and so on; and under what conditions a respirator or smoke
-helmet protects or ceases to protect its wearer. It was on these lines
-that instruction was built up; and to do it thoroughly it was found
-that a large number of instructors were required in order to train the
-officers and noncommissioned officers and to get them to treat their
-respirators with as great respect as their rifles and to learn to carry
-them through a gas-defence drill in just as smart a manner as the
-ordinary arms.
-
-For this purpose special schools of instruction were started at each
-army headquarters, and as many regimental officers and noncommissioned
-officers as possible were given a four or five days’ course of gas
-training, so that they in their turn could go back to their regiments
-and spread the gospel, as the responsibility for getting things done
-must eventually fall upon them. Not only was it found impossible to
-provide specialist officers for each regiment or battalion, but it
-was recognised that such a procedure would have a bad effect on the
-gas-defence measures.
-
-Gas defence was a matter which affected everybody and was in no way
-to be regarded as a specialist’s job; battalions were already full
-of specialists. Indeed the colonels were apt to complain that they
-had nobody but specialists to command. There were bombers, snipers,
-signalers, machine gunners and sanitary men; and at that time the
-trench-mortar personnel was also a part of the infantry battalion. With
-all these things the feeling was that if a job could be looked on as
-being a specialty it should be put on the specialist officer concerned,
-and nobody else worried about it much. Now if gas defence was to become
-Lieutenant Snook’s job, it meant that it was going to be nobody else’s
-job, and it was essential that the idea should grow up in the army that
-gas defence was a purely military matter and affected everybody.
-
-What was said then is just as true to-day--that the defensive appliance
-is a certain protection if it is used properly and in time. Defence
-against gas is thus on an entirely different footing from defence
-against shells and bullets, where protection cannot be assured; and, to
-quote instructions on the subject: “For destructive effects gas must
-depend on surprise, on poor discipline or on defective appliances.
-Consequently gas casualties are preventable if the soldier is trained
-continually to exercise vigilance and is well drilled in the use and
-care of his respirator.”
-
-The basis of the whole thing, therefore, was that every officer
-should see that the men under his command were properly instructed in
-defensive measures against gas attacks, and that all orders on the
-subject were thoroughly understood. It was then up to the officers to
-see that their men could get their helmets on properly in the minimum
-time, and this involved considerable amount of drill practice. It was
-pointed out to the officers that since protection had been provided,
-those battalions which had been carefully instructed had come through
-practically unharmed, while those battalions in which instructions had
-been neglected suffered severely.
-
-It was also up to the officers to explain to their men as much as they
-themselves had learned about gas clouds, and to impress on them, for
-example, that by moving to the rear they would move with the gas, and
-that if they got flurried they would breathe more deeply and would run
-much more risk of being gassed.
-
-Besides these questions of instruction and drilling a lot of other
-arrangements had to be made, so that warning of German gas attacks
-should be spread in the quickest possible time. Arrangements were
-made to install alarms of various kinds in the trenches. Of course no
-reliance could be placed on any method of communication which involved
-the use of the lungs. A man cannot blow a bugle or a whistle while he
-has a helmet on, and if he waited to give a signal by such a method
-before protecting himself he would be almost certain to be gassed. What
-was done was to place bells and gongs made from shell cases up and
-down the trenches.
-
-At first these were rather futile things, the bells generally being
-much too small--some of them merely cow bells. The shell cases were a
-bit better and are still used for local alarms; but the arrangements
-for giving warning were not really very good at that time. The best
-devices were a number of motor horns, which were obtained locally, but
-the supply was insufficient and there was no general issue. Later on
-the alarm arrangements were tremendously improved. In some cases signal
-lights were used, but so many different kinds of rockets were already
-employed for signalling to the rear that there was great difficulty in
-finding a light sufficiently distinctive. There was also the danger
-that it could be quickly copied by the boche, who would thus amuse
-himself by giving us all kinds of shocks from false alarms.
-
-Quite as important as the provision of signals was the making of
-observations to see when the wind was in a dangerous quarter. This was
-done partly at the meteorological stations at headquarters and partly
-on the front line itself. The latter was regarded at the time as the
-most important, and orders were given that each unit in the front
-line should rig up some kind of wind vane and learn to ascertain the
-strength of the wind, so that they should be immediately prepared for
-an attack whenever the wind was in a dangerous quarter.
-
-Wind vanes in the trenches were of the simplest types and a great deal
-of ingenuity was displayed in fitting up weathercocks that would be
-capable of turning in really low wind--say, one with a speed of only
-two miles an hour. The bearings for the central rod were the greatest
-difficulty, but it was found that by boring out a rifle bullet a sharp
-pointed stick or a thick piece of wire could be got to revolve in the
-hollow bullet quite easily, what remained of the lead core acting as a
-kind of lubrication.
-
-The greatest nuisance of these wind vanes at first was that they were
-made so generally obtrusive that they could be seen from the enemy’s
-lines, and they nearly always drew fire from snipers, and sometimes
-actually from the artillery. Presumably the enemy thought that where
-the wind vanes were installed company headquarters were probably
-situated. The position of the wind vanes consequently had to be chosen
-so that the direction and speed of the wind would be measured several
-feet above the ground without the apparatus being too obvious. One
-of the simplest types of vane adopted, and one which could hardly be
-seen from any distance, was a bit of a stick to the end of which was
-tied ten to twelve inches of thin thread with a tiny bit of cotton
-wool at the end. When the wind is blowing the direction taken by the
-thread shows the line of the wind fairly exactly, and the behaviour of
-the cotton wool in rising and falling indicates the strength of the
-wind. The latter, however, was supposed to be measured by reference
-to Beaufort’s scale, which depends on the movement in wind of natural
-objects. Beaufort’s scale, which was devised long ago by an English
-admiral of that name, is as follows:
-
-Smoke moves straight up, speed of wind is _nil_; smoke slants, speed
-is two miles an hour; the wind is felt on the face, speed is five
-miles; paper, etc., move about, speed is ten miles; bushes are seen to
-sway, speed is fifteen miles; tree tops sway and wavelets are formed
-on water, speed is twenty miles; tree tops sway and whistle, speed is
-thirty miles.
-
-All of these arrangements for training and equipment of the troops were
-hurried on as quickly as possible, but at the same time sight was not
-lost of the probability of the German’s using gases different from the
-chlorine which had originally formed their stand-by. It was felt that
-a good all-round protection should be capable of keeping out not only
-chlorine and similar gases but also others which were quite likely to
-come into use.
-
-During the whole of this time we were getting a lot of information from
-the intelligence branch as to materials which the Germans were making
-for use against us in their next gas attacks. Some of this information
-was really farcical, but on the other hand some of it was very good
-and helped to confirm the conclusions to which our own scientists were
-coming as to the likelihood or unlikelihood of particular gases. In the
-former category may be classed one story which came to us containing
-a very circumstantial description of some experiments which were
-stated to have been carried out in Berlin. These trials were stated
-to have been made in what we considered a very proper place, namely,
-Hagenbeck’s menagerie, where, in the presence of a large number of
-military representatives, a new gas was tried out.
-
-A noncommissioned officer appeared with a tank of the gas on his back,
-the spraying nozzle coming out under his arm. A camel and an elephant
-were brought out. The noncommissioned officer advanced toward them,
-and at twenty paces’ distance he pressed down the lever on the tank
-and out came some small black bubbles of gas, which floated down the
-wind toward the faded animals. The bubbles burst, giving off a yellow
-vapour, and the minute this vapour came in contact with the camel and
-the elephant the beasts dropped down dead!
-
-This sounded very terrible, but even in the conditions we were at the
-time it was not taken too seriously, and of course nothing of this kind
-has ever made its appearance.
-
-Another story which commenced to make its appearance at that time
-and which we have heard a great deal about ever since was that the
-Germans were busy making prussic acid in enormous quantities for a huge
-offensive which was to finish the war. It was stated that the Kaiser
-had at last been persuaded to use this terrible weapon in order by its
-use to finish the war at once and prevent needless suffering.
-
-When they first made their appearance stories with regard to prussic
-acid had to be taken a great deal more seriously than those like the
-“little black bubbles.” For one thing we were unprotected against
-prussic acid, and for another it was known of course to be an extremely
-deadly poison. Indeed before the war it was regarded as the most
-poisonous vapour known, so a great deal of weight was attached to these
-statements, and experiments were at once put on foot to find protection
-against prussic acid and to see exactly how poisonous it was compared
-with other gases.
-
-As a matter of fact prussic acid has not been used by the Germans
-simply because it is not poisonous enough. It is not so poisonous, for
-example, as phosgene, and a lot of captured German documents showing
-the relative toxicity of different vapours always put it on a rather
-low basis. It was this and not a desire to avoid utter barbarity which
-decided the Germans not to use it. The ordinary German soldiers, just
-like ourselves, still consider prussic acid as the most dangerous
-possible material, and whenever they have a story to tell of a new gas
-being invented or being got ready to use against us they will tell you
-in awestruck tones that it is prussic acid.
-
-The most valuable piece of information which we got was a complete
-set of notes of some very secret lectures given to specially selected
-senior officers at a conference in Germany. We gathered that this
-conference was held behind closed doors and triple lines of sentries,
-and all that kind of thing, and I cannot of course indicate how the
-information came into our hands, but there it was. It described a lot
-of new gases which had been considered, and stated among other things
-that they intended to make a big gas attack against either the French
-or ourselves in Flanders in December, 1915, some time before Christmas
-when the wind was favourable. For this purpose they were going to
-use a mixture of chlorine with another gas, phosgene--the amount of
-phosgene to be twenty per cent of the whole.
-
-Now phosgene had been realised by our own chemists as a very likely
-gas to be used. I cannot say that it is more poisonous than chlorine,
-but it is infinitely more deadly because it is much more difficult to
-protect against and is more insidious in its nature. For one thing,
-though it is an asphyxiant like chlorine it is possible for a man to be
-only slightly gassed and think he is all right, and then, especially if
-he takes any exercise in between, to fall dead several hours later from
-heart failure.
-
-The information was so complete that our arrangements to provide a
-helmet which would protect against phosgene were hastened as much as
-possible; and it was as well that they were, for the attack actually
-did come off just about the time and place mentioned, in the Ypres
-salient.
-
-It was realised of course that any change in protection would have
-to include both prussic acid and phosgene; and this is not nearly so
-easy as it sounds. Phosgene is peculiarly chemically inert for such an
-active poison, and it was some time before a reasonable protection
-was found which could be incorporated in a smoke helmet. The substance
-actually decided upon was a solution of sodium phenate--that is,
-carbolic acid dissolved in caustic soda, the mixture containing an
-excess of caustic. This solution is quite capable of dealing with
-reasonable concentrations of phosgene and would successfully protect
-against three parts of phosgene to ten thousand of the air, which in
-the circumstances was quite good enough. The French also altered their
-protection at the same time and used sodium sulphanilate as the basis
-of protection against phosgene. The objections against the sodium
-phenate were that it could not be absorbed into a flannel helmet owing
-to its destruction of the fabric, and on account of its being strongly
-caustic it would tend to burn the faces of the men it came in contact
-with. These difficulties were overcome by making the helmet of two
-layers of flannelette instead of one layer of flannel, and by mixing
-with the sodium phenate a large quantity of glycerin. This kept the
-fabric moist and prevented the caustic from exerting its corrosive
-action.
-
-It was realised from the start that a smoke helmet containing free
-alkali would deteriorate considerably on exposure to air, and it was
-found advantageous to provide a breathing tube in the mask so that
-a man would breathe in through the helmet and out through an outlet
-valve; in this way the breath, which contains a lot of carbonic acid,
-would have no bad effect on the chemicals. The use of an outlet valve
-was also found to have the advantage of keeping the air purer inside
-the helmet and preventing the stuffy feeling which accompanied the
-older types of helmet.
-
-This additional complication to the helmet was not looked upon
-favourably at first by the troops, but it was very quickly realised
-that only a little practice was required to make a man breathe quite
-normally in the way mentioned above, and that the advantages accruing
-from the alteration were very great indeed. We found that we could
-carry on for much longer stretches of time without being fagged
-out, and more exact trials by the scientists showed that a man’s
-temperature, pulse and rate of breathing did not increase nearly so
-rapidly if he used an outlet valve as when breathing out and in
-through the same material. This is largely due to what is called “dead
-space,” which means the volume of air in between the lungs and the
-atmosphere and in which the air is largely composed of breath exhaled
-from the lungs. The smaller this space the easier it is to breathe.
-
-This principle of using an outlet valve has been retained in all the
-British respirators which have been invented since and is regarded as
-one of the very highest importance.
-
-Another thing which had to be taken care of was that the new helmets,
-which were called “tube” or “P” helmets, would gradually deteriorate
-on exposure to air, and would consequently have to be withdrawn from
-the troops in the line from time to time in order to redip them in
-chemicals and make them as effective as before. For this purpose large
-repair factories were started at the bases and were placed in charge
-of Englishwomen who were brought over for the purpose. These factories
-were organised with local labour, helped out by a little military
-personnel, and were capable of washing the helmets returned from the
-line, redipping them in new solution, and sending them back in good
-condition again.
-
-This was no small job, as the smoke helmets which were sent in were
-generally filthy dirty, sometimes soaked in mud and sodden with water,
-and requiring very careful handling to be brought back into good
-condition. All sorts of things got back with these helmets to the
-repair stations, and it was not an uncommon thing for the satchels
-containing the helmets to be found to hold anything from a live hand
-grenade to the photograph of some girl, which had been stored there for
-safe keeping. Both then and later we always had considerable difficulty
-in preventing Tommy from using his helmet satchel, and later on his box
-respirator satchel, for these illicit purposes. He seemed to consider
-that if he had to carry another haversack he had a perfect right to put
-in it whatever he liked--rations, knives and forks, ammunition, private
-knickknacks of all kinds. This of course had to be stopped, owing to
-the damage these things might do to the respirator and the difficulty
-they might make in getting it out quickly.
-
-During September and October, 1915, there were several scares as to the
-imminence of gas attacks by the Germans, and on one or two occasions
-it was definitely stated that the cylinders were actually in position
-in their trenches. This helped to hasten things up, and the factories
-in England and the repair stations in France kept themselves busy in
-producing the new type of helmet. A large number of them were actually
-issued to the troops by the time the Battle of Loos was started, and
-were consequently employed by our men when the first gas attacks were
-made, in September of that year.
-
-It was these helmets which appeared in so many of the picture papers
-showing the charge of some British Territorial infantry through the gas
-cloud at the beginning of the battle, and there is no question about
-it that the men had a very fearsome appearance. With the hood over
-the head and the two big goggle eyes, and the outlet valve sticking
-out where the nose should be, it is small wonder that the Germans
-described them as “devils,” and were so terrified as not to be able to
-put up much fight on the front where the particular charge was made.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV
-
-  The attack of December, 1915--The Allies’ good training tells--The
-    casualties analysed--The new element of surprise--Evidences of the
-    use of phosgene--The incident of the bulb--Improved alarms--The
-    Strombos sirens--Accidents to the horns--The Tear Gas Shell--Its
-    chemical analysis--Combated by anti-gas goggles--Tommies scoff at
-    Tear Gas--The Germans make it formidable.
-
-
-The expected German gas attack was actually made on December 19, 1915,
-at about 5:15 A. M., just before “Stand to” in the morning, the venue
-being the north of the Ypres salient, from the canal bank at Boesinghe
-down to Wieltje, a distance of three miles. It was preceded by the
-appearance of parachute lights of an unusual kind and by a number of
-red rocket flares. Almost immediately afterward gas was smelt in the
-front trenches. In some cases a hissing sound made by the gas’s leaving
-the cylinders was heard and was taken as a warning by the soldiers in
-the trenches. In other cases the noise seems to have been deadened
-by rifle fire. Taking it altogether, however, there was very little
-warning, as the wind was favourable and the gas traveled surprisingly
-quickly.
-
-There was absolutely no confusion, and the men put on their helmets at
-once and lined the parapets within a minute. Where the trenches were
-close together the men had some difficulty in getting on their helmets
-in time. This was particularly the case in listening posts where we
-had patrols out quite close to the German wire. In the support and
-reserve trenches the arrangements for spreading the warning were not
-so good as those in the front line, and a number of men were caught by
-the gas before they had their helmets on. Indeed in a number of cases,
-especially in batteries, the gas was smelt before the receipt of the
-warning.
-
-The actual gas wave lasted only about half or three-quarters of an
-hour, but in some places the helmets had to be kept on for four hours,
-as the gas hung about in hollows and dugouts for a long time. This was
-particularly noticeable in the neighbourhood of the canal. The cloud
-was felt as far back as Vlamertinghe, eighty-five hundred yards behind
-the line, and was still visible at this point. For at least three
-miles back behind the front-line helmets had to be put on everywhere,
-and for six miles behind the line the smoke helmets were generally
-worn, some men who did not put them on at this distance being gassed.
-
-The actual gas wave was accompanied by a heavy bombardment of the
-front line and of Ypres and the villages behind it, shrapnel and
-high-explosive shell and also tear shell being used, the latter shell
-being fired particularly against our artillery. This bombardment
-lasted throughout the day and most of the following night. Though our
-wire had been cut in many places by the artillery fire, the Germans
-made no serious infantry attack, and small patrols which left their
-trenches in a few places were immediately shot down, as our fellows
-were continually on the alert and had not suffered to any considerable
-degree.
-
-Altogether a large number of troops were exposed to the gas, but,
-compared with its extent, the cloud caused only a small number of
-casualties. This was very satisfactory after our experiences of the
-spring. Men who were gassed but not killed were all subsequently
-questioned as to the reason for their being gassed, and in each case a
-definite reason was forthcoming. In no single instance was the fault
-laid at the door of the smoke helmet, which apparently had been quite
-capable of standing up to the highest concentrations in any part of the
-cloud.
-
-Among the reasons given for the casualties were things like the
-following: Some men in the fire trenches did not get on their helmets
-quickly enough owing to the short distance between the trenches, lack
-of warning in the support line and insufficient practice. Some officers
-and men sleeping in dugouts did not have their helmets attached to them
-or they were caught away from their dugouts without helmets. Helmets
-in many cases were under the overcoats, which made it very difficult
-to get them and put them on quickly, as it was necessary to undo the
-overcoat, the top button of the jacket and the cardigan waistcoat
-before the helmet could be tucked in. One cause of casualties was that
-the “P” helmet smelt very strongly of carbolic, and a lot of men who
-had not had this explained to them thought that the peculiar smell
-was that of gas coming in and they took their helmets off with a
-view to replacing them with other helmets. This of course was fatal.
-One sergeant was gassed through his helmet’s being holed by a bullet,
-though he himself was not wounded. In some cases wounded men tried to
-remove their helmets and were gassed in this way, and it was found
-necessary to watch men who were hit to prevent this.
-
-In many ways this attack of the Germans was of the greatest importance,
-as it displayed all of the features on which the subsequent
-development of the gas cloud was based. These features were: Increased
-concentration; the use of new material; surprise. These three things
-are really the basis of all gas warfare, even at the present day,
-whether the attacks are made in the form of clouds or by the use of gas
-shells or other projectiles.
-
-The increased concentration was obtained chiefly by the reduction in
-the time occupied by the attack. The first attack of all lasted about
-one hour and a half. The next attack lasted about three hours. The one
-in question lasted only thirty minutes, so that if the same amount of
-gas was used the concentration of the cloud must obviously have been
-increased six times over that of May twenty-fourth, as there is little
-doubt that the cylinders had been installed in approximately the same
-numbers--that is, one to a meter of front.
-
-Probably the most important feature of the attack was the introduction
-of phosgene. Now there never was any actual chemical evidence of the
-poisons of phosgene in the German gas clouds until some of their
-cylinders were captured by us when they retreated on the Somme in the
-beginning of 1917. But unfortunately the peculiar effects of phosgene
-on our men who were gassed were only too apparent. There were a large
-number of “delayed” cases--men who thought they were only slightly
-gassed but who became ill or even died several hours or sometimes a day
-or so later from heart failure, especially if they had taken any heavy
-exercise in between.
-
-In these cases there was hardly any coughing. What was really wanted
-was rest, but this was not realised at the time, and many men walked
-to the dressing stations--sometimes a mile or more--through deep
-mud and became quite exhausted. One officer of the Durhams had been
-slightly gassed at the beginning of the attack but felt perfectly all
-right until about noon, when he became faint and exhausted, though
-not apparently seriously ill. After lying down he felt better, but in
-the evening got worse again, and in walking to the ambulance to go to
-the field dressing station he suddenly collapsed and died. This was
-fourteen hours after the attack.
-
-Another weighty piece of evidence as to the nature of the gas was given
-by the smell, which to trained observers was quite different from the
-typical chloride-of-lime smell of chlorine; and by the peculiar effects
-on the taste of tobacco to men who had smelt the gas. If you take a
-good smell of dilute phosgene and then smoke a cigarette the tobacco
-tastes like nothing on earth. Tommy’s nearest description of the taste
-and smell is “mouldy hay.” This peculiar effect is quite typical of
-phosgene and is known as the “tobacco reaction.”
-
-In the hope of getting samples of the German gas clouds for analysis
-a large number of gas vacuum bulbs were distributed up and down the
-line, and selected men were taught how to use them. This was supposed
-to be done by nipping off the drawn-out end of the gas bulb, whereby
-the contaminated air would rush in. The end was then to be closed with
-a hollow stopper containing wax.
-
-To get these samples was asking a great deal. Even when packed in
-special boxes glass bulbs are somewhat fragile things for trench life,
-and the wooden boxes made excellent kindling wood, which was always
-being sought for. The result is that when the cloud does come along
-the vacuum bulbs are often conspicuous only by their absence. Even
-if they are kept whole it is asking rather a lot of a man to take an
-accurate scientific sample during the excitement of a gas attack which
-is accompanied by a bombardment by explosive shells and gas shells.
-
-For a long time none of the bulbs found their way back to the field
-laboratory. Eventually one did come, carefully packed in shavings and
-wadding. I happened to be present when it was brought in, and there was
-a good deal of excitement at the little prodigal’s return. The bulb was
-taken out, but under it was found a leaf from a field-service note
-book, on which was written: “Danger. This bulb was found in a hedge.
-It seems to have been dropped from an aeroplane and probably contains
-cholera germs. Fortunately it has not been broken.”
-
-The “surprise effect,” which was mentioned above as being the third
-fresh feature of this new-era gas-cloud attack, took the form of making
-the attack in the dark and at a time when men were least prepared--that
-is, just before the morning “Stand to,” the hour before dawn, when all
-troops in the trenches stand to arms. By making the attack at night,
-or at any rate in the dark, the boche achieved two objects: First of
-all, there were better wind conditions for an attack, because the
-night winds tend to flow down toward the earth and keep the gas cloud
-low-lying and thick, whereas in the day the sun warms the ground and
-produces so many upward currents of air that the cloud gets lifted up
-and dissipated; in the second place it was impossible to see the cloud
-when it was first liberated, and this reduced the means of detecting
-the attack to only two--the hissing noise of the gas escaping from the
-cylinders and the smell of the advanced parts of the cloud.
-
-Later on it was known that the best hours for all gas attacks, both
-cloud and shell bombardment, are in the night; and as a matter of
-fact practically all gas warfare is now carried out at night, but at
-that time the significance of this was not grasped, and many of our
-casualties were due to lack of preparedness, numbers of men being
-caught “on the hop” and overwhelmed.
-
-Some most important steps in improving our protecting measures were
-taken as a result of the lessons learned from the attack; in fact, it
-may be taken that all measures in defence against gas have been learned
-from bitter experience, and to this extent the sufferings of the
-victims may be taken as having at any rate some compensating value. In
-such a new and strange and continually developing kind of warfare very
-little can be done by _a priori_ argument. This fact we have always
-tried to impress on the men--that the gas warfare orders, sometimes
-apparently trivial and frequently wearisome and annoying, have all been
-made as the result of lessons learned from actual attacks.
-
-Among the chief things that were done after the December nineteenth
-attack was the improvement of our system of alarms.
-
-The bells and horns in the front line had been found quite
-insufficient, especially for warning people in the rear; and the
-telephone could not be depended on for this purpose owing to the
-possibilities of the wires being cut by shell fire. To protect them
-from being cut, all wires would have to be buried at least six feet
-deep in the ground, and this is practically impossible owing to the
-work involved.
-
-It would consequently be fatal to depend on telephonic communication,
-especially as a gas attack is nearly always accompanied by a pretty
-heavy bombardment of rear lines. In one case I knew, during just such
-a bombardment, the staff captain at a brigade headquarters was talking
-to one of the battalions when the whole telephone instrument seemed
-to burst into a sheet of flame in his hands, owing to a cut wire. The
-battalion concerned was isolated for more than an hour as a result,
-and anything might have happened in the meantime.
-
-For these reasons it was decided to adopt for gas alarms sirens worked
-by compressed air, which would make a noise sufficiently loud and
-distinctive to be heard long distances away. The type of siren which
-was used has been kept in use ever since in continually increasing
-numbers and has proved extraordinarily useful. It is known as the
-Strombos horn, and consists of the horn proper and two iron cylinders
-of compressed air charged to a pressure of one hundred and fifty
-atmospheres. Only one cylinder at a time is connected to the horn, the
-other being kept as a reserve.
-
-The Strombos horns are mounted in the trenches in such a way as to
-protect them from shell splinters as far as possible. This is generally
-done by packing them round carefully with sandbags, only the mouth of
-the horn being displayed and pointing toward the rear. Every sentry
-must know how and when to sound the horn. All he has to do when he
-realises that a gas attack is being made, or on receiving instructions
-from an officer to do so, is to loosen the tap on the cylinder one
-complete turn, when the horn will sound continuously for more than a
-minute. The noise is terrific and in an enclosed space or in a quiet
-region it is absolutely deafening. In the trenches, however, it is none
-too loud, and the distances between the horns in the front system of
-trenches are never more than four or five hundred yards. Farther back
-in the chain, toward the rear, the distances can be increased. Horns
-are now installed at battalion, brigade and divisional headquarters.
-By turning them on when the noise of those in front is heard it is
-possible to pass the alarm in an incredibly short space of time and
-thus forestall the cloud of gas to such an extent that every man in the
-support trenches or in rest billets or the villages behind the firing
-line is aware that an attack is in progress and gets ready to protect
-himself.
-
-Naturally, things don’t always work out exactly according to schedule.
-The horns are frequently damaged. In one place I was at, just this
-side of the canal, near Boesinghe, a heavy German trench mortar
-wrecked three of our Strombos horns within a week, and another and
-less suitable position had to be found for the alarm. Then there are
-occasional false alarms. These sometimes arise from individual men
-“getting the wind up” from a bombardment by gas shell and thinking that
-a cloud attack is being made. Others I am afraid have been more in the
-nature of experiments “to see how it works.” After all, it must be a
-great temptation to a sentry to be in charge of a Strombos horn and
-never have the pleasure of turning it on.
-
-False alarms are a great nuisance, however, and good arrangements have
-now been made to prevent their spreading. It is possible to avoid
-all the unnecessary disturbance to which troops are subjected by a
-false gas alarm. This disturbance is particularly objectionable in
-back areas where regiments returned from the trenches are in billets.
-When the alarm goes everybody has to turn out--probably in the middle
-of the night. Sentries wake the officers and men in all the billets;
-messengers have to be sent post-haste to outlying villages or farms
-with which there is no telephonic communications; respirators are
-hurriedly inspected and placed in the alert position; the gas-proof
-curtains of cellars and dugouts are adjusted; the officers move about
-in the darkness to see that all their men are accounted for and ready;
-every one is in a state of expectancy--and then the word comes through
-that it is a false alarm, and the men go back, cursing, to their
-billets. Not only is an occurrence of this kind wearying to tired
-troops, but it has the old disadvantage of crying “Wolf, wolf!” when
-there is no wolf--the consequent determination on the part of the men
-not to take the next alarm so seriously.
-
-Though it was not realised at the time, it is almost certain that the
-Germans started to use gas in shell almost simultaneously, and probably
-actually in the first attack, with the use of the poisonous gas clouds
-in the attacks of April and May, 1915. Many instances came to notice of
-men’s eyes being strongly affected to such an extent that they could
-not keep them open. There seemed to be something in the air which made
-an unprotected man weep copiously if he tried to keep his eyes open,
-and of course if he closed them he could not see what he was doing.
-
-These effects, and a peculiar smell which was noticed both during and
-after the gas-cloud attacks, gave rise to the belief that something
-like formaldehyde was being used by the Germans mixed with some
-chlorine gas. Others described the smell as being that of chloroform
-or ether, but nobody could say definitely what the material actually
-was. It was only after a number of blind shell had been obtained and
-examined that it was realised that the Germans were firing shell filled
-with liquid which had a powerful lachrymatory effect.
-
-It does not appear certain whether the use of lachrymatory liquids
-for putting men out of action by making their eyes water is in itself
-contrary to The Hague Convention, as the vapours need not actually be
-poisonous. This was the case with the first German gas shell, as it
-was found that the liquid contained consisted only of a material known
-chemically as “xylyl bromide.” The vapour of this liquid and of many
-similar substances has a most powerful effect on the eyes, like that of
-onions but much stronger. Except in very high concentrations it cannot
-be regarded as poisonous--at any rate not in the sense that chlorine is
-poisonous.
-
-Examination of the German lachrymatory shells showed that the liquid
-was contained inside the shell in a sealed lead vessel so that the
-material should not come in contact with the steel of the shell, which
-it destroys gradually. Shell of this kind, though termed gas shell, are
-not really such, as the liquid has to be broken up into fine droplets
-by the explosive charge of the shell before the vapour can produce its
-effect. The liquid has no pressure of its own inside the shell and
-depends entirely on the bursting charge to get it distributed into the
-atmosphere.
-
-The xylyl bromide used by the Germans was not pure, but contained a
-big proportion of benzyl bromide, showing that it had been made by the
-action of bromide on coal-tar light oil from which most of the toluene
-had been removed for the manufacture of the well-known high explosive,
-trinitrotoluene.
-
-The effect of xylyl bromide on an unprotected man is instantaneous
-and remarkable. Even such small proportions as one volume of vapour
-diluted with one million volumes of air will at once make a man weep so
-copiously that he cannot possible keep his eyes open.
-
-Obviously a material of this kind has great military value, for though
-it does not put men out of action permanently by killing them it
-neutralises their effectiveness to such an extent that for the time
-being they may be regarded as of no military importance. In strong
-concentrations the effect on the eyes is most powerful. I have walked
-into an area which was being bombarded with lachrymatory shells
-and suddenly got the effect just as if I had been hit in the face.
-Fortunately the lachrymation has no lasting effect on the eyes, and a
-man on getting into pure air very quickly recovers.
-
-Throughout the spring and summer of 1915 these lachrymatory shells
-were used in considerable numbers, especially in the vicinity of
-Ypres, and at times the ramparts of that much bombarded town reeked
-of lachrymatory vapour and nobody could stay in certain spots for
-any length of time without having his eyes protected by specially
-constructed goggles or by wearing a gas helmet right over his head.
-
-Taking it altogether we were not troubled nearly so much by this new
-type of gas as were the French, in the southern part of the line. In
-much the same way that the gas cloud was developed by the Germans
-against the English the gas shell were developed chiefly against the
-French, and very much larger numbers were employed against the French
-positions than we had to contend with during the first six months or
-so. Later on things were more equallised in this direction. Captured
-German documents and statements by prisoners showed us that the
-Germans were counting very considerably on the effect produced by the
-lachrymatory shell, and detailed instructions for their use in various
-circumstances were carefully laid down. The lachrymatory shell was
-known by the Germans as “T-Shell,” and the xylyl bromide as “T-Stoff,”
-and instructions were laid down for the use of this material. Another
-kind of shell was known as “K-Shell,” which up to that time had not
-been used against us, or at any rate had not been recognised.
-
-The T-Shell was particularly to be used against positions which it
-was not intended to occupy immediately, the reason for this being
-that T-Stoff hangs about for a long time. Some of the liquid is apt
-to be spread about the ground and gives off enough vapour to make the
-neighbourhood of the shell hole uninhabitable for many hours, and in
-favourable condition--for the enemy--for several days. The K-Shell, on
-the other hand, was intended to be used against infantry positions and
-strong-points which it was hoped to assault and capture within an hour
-or two of the bombardment or on areas which it was hoped to traverse
-during a big attack.
-
-The advent of the lachrymatory T-Shell incommoded us considerably, but,
-as it was quickly realised that the gas was not poisonous, the Tommies
-were not much taken back, and the “tear shell,” as they were quickly
-called, were not considered by the rank and file to have importance,
-which as a matter of fact they have; but at the same time we heard
-rather alarming stories of the effects of gas shell as used against
-the French.
-
-It was rumoured, for example, that in the Crown Prince’s big advance in
-the Argonne, in the late spring of 1915, that such enormous numbers of
-gas shell had been used against the French positions that the infantry
-occupying them were not only put out of action by the effect on their
-eyes but that the amount of gas used was so large that the French
-soldiers were actually anæsthetised and were taken prisoners by the
-Germans while in an unconscious condition.
-
-Whether this was true or whether it was exaggerated is not certain,
-though it is certainly true that the Crown Prince’s advance was
-prefaced by a hurricane bombardment of gas shell, the tactical effect
-of which was considerable.
-
-Stories of this kind, however, combined with the effects which we
-ourselves were experiencing, made us realise that protection against
-tear gas was essential, and for this purpose arrangements were made to
-supply every officer and man in the front line with a pair of anti-gas
-goggles. The earliest types of these goggles were very simple in
-construction, and we are told were copied from a French pattern. They
-consisted of a waterproof fabric lined with flannel containing a wire
-spring for the nose and fitted with celluloid eyepieces. By bending the
-wire to the shape of the nose it was possible to close the nostrils and
-at the same time give a reasonably good fit to the flannel on the face.
-
-In some cases the flannel was anointed with some kind of grease so as
-to make a still closer fit, in order to keep out small traces of gas
-which are quite sufficient to produce lachrymation. Later on we had a
-much better type of goggle backed with rubber sponge to make a tight
-fit to the face.
-
-With the small numbers of gas shell used against us we had no
-experience of any effect on the lungs, and it was found also that the
-helmet form of respirator was enough to keep out, at any rate, low
-concentrations of the lachrymator; but we got a rude awakening when
-the boche began to use his tear shells in larger numbers. Such a case
-happened to us in the beginning of 1916, at the celebrated village
-of Vermelles, a little ruined town just behind the lines near Loos.
-The enemy tried out an attack on us over about a mile front for the
-purpose of bagging some of our trenches, and he attempted to keep
-reinforcements from coming up to counter attack him by putting down a
-tear-shell barrage through Vermelles and north and south of it over the
-roads on which our fellows would have to advance. He used thousands
-of his tear shells and the neighbourhood absolutely stank of them.
-Fortunately, it was almost impossible to put down an effective standing
-barrage with gas, and our reserves got through on two roads that had
-not been blocked effectively. The boche attack was a fizzle, but
-Vermelles was a little private hell of its own for that day and most of
-the next forty-eight hours as well.
-
-During and immediately after the bombardment, troops passing through
-the village wore both goggles and gas helmets, but the concentration
-of lachrymator was so great that many of our fellows were sick and
-actually vomited inside their helmets. If you can imagine men going
-up to a battle with these flannelette bags over their heads and
-then being sick inside them, you can realise that the boche was not
-particularly popular with us at the time.
-
-Besides this, Vermelles was much used by troops in reserve and was full
-of cellars and dugouts occupied by the waiting infantry and also by
-signallers, headquarters of various kinds, and so on. The vapours--and
-some of the shells themselves, for that matter--got down into these
-cellars and made them almost uninhabitable for days, except in those
-cases where they had been properly protected by double lines of
-blankets hung at the entrances.
-
-About the same time in 1916 the enemy began making surprise
-bombardments with a new lachrymator and with the K-Shell mentioned
-previously, for the purpose of assisting in raids. Both of these gases
-rejoice in long names, the lachrymator being bromethylmethylketone, and
-the K-Shell gas monochlormethylchloroformate. These gases are much more
-poisonous and do not hang about as long as the old “T” tear gas.
-
-One such raid in which they were used was carried out at a place
-called La Boiselle--afterward famous as a jumping-off point in the
-Somme Battle.
-
-I was not in at the raid, but heard details of it afterward. The boche
-rained his gas shells into the selected area and at the same time
-prevented reinforcements from getting up by putting down a so-called
-box barrage with explosive shells round the trenches to be attacked.
-
-Our men were taken completely by surprise. Many of them were badly
-gassed, all were temporarily blinded; and then after a short interval
-the boche came in. He timed his arrival so that most of the gas had
-disappeared. Then there was some very fierce fighting--so fierce that a
-number of our men died afterward because of the exertion following on
-the breathing of the K-gas.
-
-But gassed and blinded men, however brave, cannot fight successfully
-against others fresh and unaffected, and the enemy captured a number of
-prisoners and two Lewis guns.
-
-Curiously enough, during the Somme Battle a few months later we did
-in properly the regiment which had carried out the raid and captured
-the official report of the commander of the raiding party. In this
-report he said: “... the men of the Royal Irish Rifles created a fine
-impression both as regards their physique and their mode of repelling
-an assault. Had it not been for the use of the gas shells it would have
-been impossible to clear the section of trench attacked.”
-
-Rather a fine tribute--and one thoroughly deserved!
-
-Of course surprises of this kind cannot be pulled off twice, but
-occurrences like this and the bombardment at Vermelles let us see that
-the enemy intended to develop his gas-shell industry much more than
-we had anticipated, and our protective measures were taken in hand so
-as to meet future eventualities. In fact it was about this time that
-the box respirator was being hurriedly developed so as to protect us
-against any further devilment that Fritz might send along.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V
-
-  Summer of 1916 the highwater mark of the German gas cloud--Their
-    improved methods--The need of speed and secrecy--Gas as a rat
-    exterminator--Causes of Allied casualties--Germans killed with
-    their own gas--Gas masks for horses and mules--Reduced Allied
-    casualties--Humorous incidents.
-
-
-The great time for the German gas troops was undoubtedly 1916, and
-from April to August of that year they carried out five big cloud gas
-attacks on the British alone, not counting several on the French Front
-and a number against the Russians.
-
-During the interval from the December attack of the previous year
-they had obviously been thinking hard and preparing lots of gas, for
-the new attacks showed several fresh features both as regards extent
-and tactics. Along the lines of making the gas more poisonous, using
-greater quantities and higher concentration and the springing of
-surprises, everything was done to make the gas cloud an even more
-deadly affair than it had been in previous shows. That our own
-casualties were much less than before, and that the boche in at least
-one case had a lot more killed by his own gas than we had, were very
-satisfactory results of all the labour and research as far as we were
-concerned.
-
-For the same reason that the December attack had been reduced in
-duration to half an hour, the new clouds lasted only ten to fifteen
-minutes; thus once more multiplying the concentration by two or three.
-On top of this the amount of phosgene was increased up to at least
-twenty-five per cent and probably to about fifty per cent, so that in
-this way also the cloud became much more deadly than before. It is
-interesting to note that pure phosgene cannot be used, otherwise the
-Germans would undoubtedly have employed it. Straight phosgene does not
-come out of the cylinders satisfactorily--it must have a big proportion
-of something like chlorine mixed with it to force it out and get it
-into the air as quickly as may be.
-
-All of this made the gas cloud a nasty thing to face. As it became
-progressively more deadly it required less and less to kill. A couple
-of breaths of the poisoned air became enough to kill a man; but as
-our protection was good enough, it meant that the most important thing
-for the enemy to do was to take us unawares by getting his gas over so
-quickly or deceiving us in some other way that we should be down and
-out almost before we knew it. This is where his surprise tactics came
-in.
-
-These tactics consisted in attempting a great secrecy in the
-preparations, in the use of smoke clouds to put us off the real track
-of the gas, and the putting over of a number of different waves of gas
-at varying intervals. The value of the last two will be more apparent
-from the accounts of the individual attacks, but the importance of the
-first-mentioned method must be emphasised a bit.
-
-It must be remembered that the carrying in of the gas cylinders is the
-work of the infantry and, as we discovered ourselves when we started
-retaliation, is a very unpopular job owing to the difficulties of the
-carry. Any carelessness in allowing the cylinders to clank by bumping
-against each, other or against any other metal objects in the trenches,
-or metallic sounds made by rather bored pioneers in unscrewing the
-domes or attacking the pipes, are going to give away the fact to the
-opposing side that something unusual is going on. And something unusual
-going on or suspected generally spells g-a-s in the trenches.
-
-In some cases, too, the opposing trenches can be seen from observation
-posts--O. P.’s or O. Pips, as they are called in British Army
-parlance--and in such cases if the carrying is started or the
-installation of the cylinders is continued during the day there is a
-good chance of the whole show being blown on by some watchful observer
-with a telescope to his eye a mile or so away. All this the boche
-realised and made his arrangements accordingly. But in at least one
-case, in April, in his anxiety to get the cloud over without diminution
-of strength and so that we should have little time for protecting
-ourselves and spreading the alarm, he chose as his venue for the
-attack a big portion of the line where the trenches were very close
-together--seldom, in fact, more than fifty yards apart. Of course
-it is just in such circumstances that secrecy of preparation is of
-the greatest importance--but at the same time it is of the greatest
-difficulty to maintain. As a matter of fact the Germans overreached
-themselves by this choice of position, and little indications spotted
-by our watchful sentries and patrols made us pretty certain that a
-gas attack was impending, and our watchfulness and preparedness were
-correspondingly increased and a constant state of “Gas Alert” kept up.
-
-The first two attacks of the year were made against the 16th--the
-Irish Division. This was the division in which Willie Redmond was a
-captain, and it was composed of some of the best fighting material in
-the world--all Nationalist Irishmen and anxious to get one over at
-Fritz. Whether the Irishmen were chosen as a target with the foolish
-idea of “putting the wind up,” or whether it was out of revenge for
-their appearance in the British ranks after all the labour that had
-been expended in trying to spread sedition in Ireland, we do not know.
-Whatever the idea was it terminated in most abject failure, for the
-Irishmen came through both attacks wonderfully well and absolutely
-smashed up the German infantry advances which were attempted after the
-passage of the cloud. Both attacks were made on that part of the line
-near Hulluch running for about two miles south from Cité St. Elie.
-
-The Germans opened the ball by letting our support and reserve lines
-have a heavy bombardment of tear shells. Almost immediately after, in
-the dim light of the early dawn, the first gas cloud floated over. It
-was very thick and had been largely mixed with smoke in the hope of
-leading our fellows to believe that it was terribly strong. It was not.
-But the cloud was so dense that even at brigade headquarters, three
-miles behind the front line, it was impossible to see across the road.
-There was enough gas in this mixed cloud to make it very dangerous and
-uncomfortable to unprotected men, but there were very few casualties.
-The alarm was quickly spread, the men remained cool, and an attempted
-attack by the enemy infantry to follow up the cloud was smashed up
-without being able to get closer than our barbed wire.
-
-After this first wave there was a tendency among the men to regard
-the danger as over and to congratulate themselves on the apparent
-and obvious boche failure. As they were prepared to go through with
-anything the boche could put over, there was a natural tendency to
-underrate the effects of gas, seeing it had caused them no losses.
-It is undoubtedly true that a number of helmets were discarded
-entirely--some of the soldiers thought they were useless after being
-through an attack, and threw them away, depending entirely on their
-reserve helmets. These they omitted to place in the “Alert” position,
-pinned up on their chests ready for immediate use. In one or two cases
-which came to my notice officers and men went off to the latrines or to
-headquarters without helmets at all. This of course, was not general,
-but it shows how some of our men fell for the boche ruse, which
-consisted of putting over a second wave two hours later on exactly the
-same Front.
-
-The second cloud was a frightfully strong one, composed entirely of
-gas in the highest possible concentration. It was this wave which
-caused all our losses on April twenty-seventh, as it took a number of
-men completely by surprise. But even so, the Irishmen were not a bit
-dismayed, and when the Germans again attempted to advance--parties
-of their bombers in some cases appearing immediately behind the gas
-cloud--they were met by such a stout resistance that those who were not
-shot down retired in disorder to their own trenches.
-
-The intensity of the second wave can be gathered from the fact that
-buttons and ammunition were quickly corroded and turned a villainous
-green colour. In a few cases rifles stuck and Lewis guns jammed, owing
-to the effects of the gas on the ammunition and the breach mechanism.
-One good thing about the attack was that most of the rats in the
-trenches were killed. In some parts of the line the trench rats are an
-absolute plague. They eat any food or candles left lying about or kept
-in cardboard boxes. They swarm in the dugouts and appear in all sorts
-of odd corners. They disturb the little rest one does get; and I have
-had them run all over me, even over my face, while lying in my dugout.
-All attempts to clear them out were useless. But what ferrets and
-terriers and virus could not accomplish the boche gas did. Mister Rat
-cannot stand up to a strong mixture of chlorine and phosgene without a
-gas mask, and so in this attack, as in others we experienced, he died
-by hundreds; and nobody mourned him.
-
-Curiously enough two kittens, which inhabited the dugout of the
-commanding officer of one of the battalions of the Scottish Borderers,
-who were in reserve, came through alive. The kittens were badly
-gassed and lay breathing rapidly, suffering from spasms and with
-profuse salivation. Possibly their fur helped to absorb some of the
-gas, for five hours later the little victims were almost themselves
-again, though they continued to cough occasionally and drank water
-continually. The water they took in preference to milk.
-
-The effects of the poison on the soldiers who were gassed were pretty
-much the same as has been so frequently described in the press before.
-In the lighter cases it was mostly severe and painful coughing and
-bronchitis, with occasional retching and vomiting. The severe cases
-had the frothing at the mouth, the painful fight for breath and the
-blue face with staring eyes which are typical of severe gassing with
-chlorine and phosgene. I was told that there were not many delayed
-cases--that is, men being taken seriously ill hours after the attack,
-though apparently unscathed before.
-
-The casualties were really remarkably small in the circumstances, and
-even despite the surprise tactics, were not as numerous as those of
-the December attack. Apart from the men who were caught without their
-respirators, most of the casualties were the result of some special
-circumstances. The helmets themselves when properly inspected and
-adjusted gave good protection. In connection with the laying aside of
-the respirators after the first cloud a sergeant told me that when the
-second wave came over he had seen two soldiers trying to get into the
-same helmet. The humorous side of this had apparently appealed to him
-even in the middle of the attack.
-
-Of course with the trenches so close together a lot of men had
-difficulty in getting protection in time. Parties of men in advanced
-saps and listening posts had the greatest difficulty, and numbers
-of these men were killed. One pioneer of a tunnelling company came
-out of a mine gallery knowing nothing about what had been happening
-aboveground, and walked straight into the middle of the gas cloud.
-
-A man in one of the companies of the Irish Rifles was wounded in the
-head by shrapnel through both his steel and gas helmets. In spite of
-the wound and the hole in his gas helmet he held the latter close round
-his mouth and nose and was not gassed at all--a clear case of presence
-of mind saving his life.
-
-One thing which impressed every one with the need for thorough gas
-training at home, and which should be taken to heart by all men in
-training at the camps or likely to go there, was the way in which
-reinforcements and men who had recently joined up suffered. Their
-casualties were out of all proportion to their numbers and were due
-entirely to the fact that insufficient attention was given at that time
-to the gas-defence training of the recruits. Many of them had never put
-on a helmet before, and none of them had ever smelled gas.
-
-In one particular instance a batch of twenty men had come straight over
-from England and were in the gas attack the day after their arrival in
-the trenches. The only training they had had was a lecture from their
-own regimental officers, and consequently they knew little or nothing
-about the use of their helmets. Every one of these men was gassed. It
-is true that they had scrambled into their helmets somehow, and none
-of them died; but the fact remains that absence of training at home
-cost the fighting line twenty men in one company. In this company they
-were the only men gassed. Largely as a consequence of this, gas-defence
-training was taken up very seriously in the early training of recruits,
-and big gas schools were established at all the camps both in England
-and at the bases in France, so as to catch the young soldier early.
-
-The boche made another gas attack on the Irish Division on the same
-Front two days later. Once again he let off two waves--this time with
-an interval of only a quarter of an hour. But despite his idea of
-“mixing them up” he could not bring off that particular surprise again.
-
-The second attack was one of the most interesting on record, for it
-was here, near Hulluch, that the gas blew back on the Germans and
-killed many more of them than our total gas casualties. The thing
-happened in this way: The first gas wave was loosed off at three-fifty
-A. M., opposite the celebrated Chalk Pit Wood. Fifteen minutes later a
-heavy cloud was discharged on the Hulluch front. But the wind was too
-light and variable. The cloud came over our line and then the gentle
-wind first dropped altogether and then gradually veered round. The
-gas hung on No Man’s Land and over both sets of trenches for a short
-time, and then with increasing pace drifted back right over the German
-position, just where Fritz had been seen massing for an attack on the
-Hulluch sector. We did not see the confusion which reigned, but almost
-simultaneously with the arrival of his own gas our barrage came down
-and the German attack dispersed.
-
-All that day our observers reported the carrying out of German
-casualties from the trenches on stretchers and a constant stream of
-ambulances coming up and then returning along the roads to the rear. We
-surmised that the boche had swallowed some of his own poison, but it
-was not until several months later, from some documents captured during
-the Battle of the Somme, that we were able to appreciate his disaster
-to the full.
-
-The first of these documents was the diary of a soldier who had been in
-the neighbouring trenches. It ran: “... We went along the trenches to
-find the headquarters of the ----th. It was awful. Everywhere lay dead
-bodies or men gasping for breath and dying from the gas. Somebody must
-be to blame. At first I could not go on. One almost had to step on them
-to get through. I asked an officer of the ----th what had happened.
-They were going to be relieved....”
-
-But the other documents were more explicit, as they happened to be the
-official report on the matter from the war office in Berlin. It appears
-that the Germans had eleven hundred deaths from their own gas. A most
-rigid enquiry was held and it was found that many of the men were not
-carrying respirators, either in the trenches or in the area immediately
-behind the line. But this did not explain the extent of the disaster,
-so eight hundred of the respirators collected from casualties were sent
-to Berlin for examination and report. Even allowing for those which
-might have been injured in transit, there were still thirty-three per
-cent of the masks so defective that their owners were certain to be
-gassed. To see whether this applied only to the area affected a large
-number of respirators were collected from up and down the whole Western
-Front, and it was found that even among those as many as eleven and a
-half per cent were similarly at fault. It would seem that there had
-been very poor inspection of the respirators both in manufacture and
-after issue to the troops. Apart from the joy of seeing the boche hoist
-with his own petard it was rather a relief to find that the efficient
-German Army was not so frightfully efficient after all.
-
-This matter of inspection is taken very seriously in the British Army.
-Besides the rigorous factory inspection all respirators are inspected
-thoroughly every day even in the trenches, and Tommy is expected to
-look after his respirator just as he looks after his rifle. As an
-official statement issued after the April attack said: “A defective
-helmet frequently leads to the death of the wearer. Inspection of
-respirators must be frequent and thorough.” A sergeant who was
-notorious for his thorough dealing with recruits got away with it in
-even better terms when addressing a squad on parade. In thundering
-tones he said: “If you don’t look for the ’oles in your ’elmet, they’ll
-soon be looking for a ’ole for you.”
-
-Another thing that resulted from the attacks just described, and
-from another similar attack shortly afterward in the salient, was
-the putting on the screw with regard to the carrying of respirators
-continuously by every one in the trenches. A very good and well-known
-story on the British Army in this connection is that of a brigadier
-general who was proceeding to the line for his daily inspection when he
-discovered that he was minus a gas bag. He stopped the first orderly
-he saw, borrowed the man’s helmet and serenely went his way with a
-clear conscience. Arrived in the trenches, one of the first sights that
-met his horrified gaze was a soldier without a gas mask. In virtuous
-tones he demanded the reason for its absence, and then, waving aside
-the halting explanation, went on loudly to assert his belief that the
-soldier would not know how to use a respirator even if he had one.
-
-“Here,” he said, “take mine and show me whether you can put it on in
-quick time.”
-
-The awe-stricken Tommy slung the satchel over his shoulder, and on the
-word “Gas!” from the general thrust his hand into the haversack and
-pulled out--a very dirty pair of army socks.
-
-The fourth German attack of 1916 was made on June seventeenth in
-Flanders, near Messines; in fact, just north of the Wulverghem-Messines
-road. Like those of April, it was intensely strong, very short, and
-sent over in successive waves at intervals of about twenty minutes.
-There were really no fresh features about the show, but the cloud seems
-to have been even stronger than before. I had no personal experience of
-this attack, but the cloud must have been very strong, for it killed
-animals at “Plugstreet”--the only name we used in the British Army
-for Ploegsteert--three and half miles away, and was quite distinctly
-perceptible even at Béthune. At the “Piggeries”--the remains of a
-model farm in rear of Plugstreet Wood belonging to a notable French
-sportsman, a place well-known to so many British soldiers--a calf was
-found dead, after the passage of the cloud, with the body very much
-blown out. Dead rats lay in close proximity.
-
-Even farther back than this animals were seriously affected. The
-army mules in the line of the gas were seized with fits of coughing
-and kicked violently, making them even more difficult to handle than
-usual. It is probably not realised that horse masks are now issued on
-a scale sufficient to provide protection for all horses and mules,
-such as those of the first-line transport and the artillery, which
-have to approach anywhere near the lines. The present form of these
-respirators is that of a big bag soaked in chemicals which fits over
-the animal’s nostrils, leaving its mouth free so that the use of the
-bit is not interfered with. When not in use the horse respirator folds
-up very nicely and neatly into a canvas case which can be carried on
-the breastband of the harness or any place from which it can be quickly
-adjusted. Some of the animals take to these masks--“Horspirators,”
-some wag called them--quite quickly, but others are strenuous
-objectors; some of those hardened sinners, the mules, transforming
-themselves into masses of teeth and hoofs whenever an attempt is made
-to fix on the gas bags.
-
-In one case where a horse and a mule in the same supply column were
-fitted with their masks at the same time the difference was most
-marked. The horse was dressed up without much trouble, though he did
-not like it. He whinnied and sneezed, breathed hard and perspired
-and looked rather pitiable, but stuck it out. The mule, on the other
-hand, had to be roped to get the mask on at all. Then he danced about,
-heels in the air and head down, and tried to rub off the objectionable
-appendage against the rope, and then against a tree. This did not
-effect its removal, and for a minute the cunning animal stood still
-with his ears cocked at different angles. Then suddenly he put his
-head to the ground and before anything could be done to prevent it put
-his foot on the respirator, pulled his head up smartly and left the
-respirator under his hoof.
-
-These masks have proved of the greatest value and have saved any
-number of horses’ lives. The cavalry are not provided with them, as
-it is not anticipated that they will be near enough to be affected by
-gas-cloud attacks, and when the cavalry are mounted and in action it is
-unlikely that they will meet even poison-gas shells in large numbers.
-Added to this is the fact that a horse can stand more gas than a man
-without being distressed.
-
-The casualties in the June attack were lower than in any one
-previously. Indeed, it was a satisfactory feature of the whole gas
-business that despite the increasing deadliness of the German clouds
-the losses they caused became less and less. Of course the proportion
-of severe cases in those gassed became greater, for with such strong
-clouds it had become a case of hit or miss. Either a man was protected
-completely or he was caught out badly; and this spoke well for the
-protection supplied, for otherwise there would have been a much bigger
-proportion of light cases.
-
-Of the minor effects of these boche gas clouds, that on vegetation is
-the most marked and gives a good idea of the strength of the gas. For
-miles in the track of the cloud all green stuff is burned up or wilted.
-Grass is turned yellow, the leaves of trees go brown and fall off, and
-the garden crops are entirely destroyed. I have seen root crops in the
-fields and garden crops of onions, beans and lettuce quite destroyed.
-But curiously enough, farther back, in places where this still happens
-to the garden crops, the cereals and the hedges seem to escape serious
-injury.
-
-Of course over a wide area all metal work is thickly tarnished, and
-this might be a danger in the case of telephone instruments and other
-delicate appliances, except that the exposed parts are always kept
-slightly oiled and then cleaned thoroughly after the attack. The same
-thing is done with rifles and machine guns and their ammunition, and
-with the clinometres, fuses and breech mechanism of guns and trench
-mortars. Since this war started very little difficulty has occurred
-through corrosion, but the chief thing is to clean off the grease and
-reoil all metal parts exposed to the gas immediately after the attack
-is finished, otherwise the greasy surface seems to hold the gas or the
-acid it engenders, and allows it to eat in at its leisure.
-
-During the attacks of 1916 the alarm arrangements worked very well,
-and the Strombos Horns in particular justified their use. Even above
-the noise of machine-gun fire and the bursting of shells their shrill,
-unmistakable note could be heard for long distances, giving warning to
-all troops on the flanks and in the rear. There were very few instances
-where they were not let off in time and the sentries posted over them
-apparently knew their jobs better, for instance, than one man who
-was questioned on the subject. This particular sentry was asked by a
-noncommissioned officer going the rounds in the trenches what he would
-do in the event of a gas attack being made. “Oh,” replied the bright
-boy, “that’s easy. If any gas comes over it blows the horn and I call
-the platoon sergeant and tell him about it.”
-
-A much more conscientious sentry over a Strombos Horn had been told to
-be particularly on the lookout for a gas attack, as one was expected
-at any time. The officer on duty, going round about midnight, heard
-a suspiciously regular sound coming from one of the fire bays, and
-thinking that one of the sentries was indulging in a stolen forty winks
-he cautiously rounded the traverse. Here he found the sentry lying
-on the top of the parapet staring into the darkness and going sniff,
-sniff, sniff with his nose.
-
-Being asked more forcibly than politely what was the matter with him
-the man replied: “I’m sniffing for gas.”
-
-Sniff, sniff, sniff.
-
-“Can you smell any?”
-
-“No, sir; but I want to smell it if it does come, as I’m a gas sentry
-and the leftenant told me always to keep smelling for gas.”
-
-Sniff, sniff, sniff.
-
-The job of seeing that the air cylinders of the Strombos Horns are
-kept at their full pressure is intrusted to the divisional gas
-noncommissioned officers, who go round periodically with pressure
-gauges and test them out. If they fall below a certain pressure they
-are replaced at once by fresh ones from the divisional store. Some
-Australians going up the line one night were carrying a number of such
-cylinders for replacement, when one of them got turned on accidentally
-and they didn’t seem able to stop it.
-
-A passing officer hearing the hissing noise called out: “What have you
-got there?”
-
-“Air bottles,” was the answer.
-
-“What for?” persisted the officer.
-
-A pause, and then out of the darkness: “Oh, hell! To put the wind up
-the boche, of course.”
-
-This story will probably be appreciated more by Britishers than
-Americans, though I think the latter in many cases already know the
-significance of the expressions “getting the wind up” and “putting the
-wind up.” They refer of course to what official reports or newspaper
-men would style as “reduction of morale.”
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VI
-
-  The last German gas cloud sent over August, 1916--Its
-    intensity--“Delayed” gases of phosgene gassing--Cigarettes as a test
-    of gassing--Dangers of carelessness--The sprayer abandoned for Mrs.
-    Ayrton’s fan--Responsibilities of the divisional gas office--Russian
-    gas victims--The day of the gas cloud over.
-
-
-The last German gas cloud to be discharged against the British Front
-was in August, 1916. In every way it was the greatest test to which our
-men had been put. It was the strongest cloud attack the Germans had
-made--not only were the individual waves of only ten minutes’ duration
-but the boche had more cylinders in his line than usual. According to
-his own admissions the bottles were put in at the rate of three every
-two yards and in some places two per yard. Added to this he had brought
-up the proportion of phosgene to the maximum that can be used. The
-circumstances, too, were very unfavourable to us. It must be remembered
-that the Battle of the Somme was in full swing, and that for once in
-its war history the Ypres salient, where the gas attack took place,
-was a “quiet” sector where divisions used up in the battle went to
-“rest” and reorganise. The result was that the divisions attacked were
-composed very largely of fresh drafts. They had lost very heavily in
-officers and most of the company noncommissioned gas officers had been
-knocked out. Their gas training was therefore not at the high standard
-that it had attained previous to the battle.
-
-Added to this, a relief was going on in the trenches. This, by the way,
-was the second time that our fellows were caught by a gas attack during
-a relief. Whether it was that the boche intelligence was particularly
-good or whether it was simply that his luck was in is not certain, but
-it meant that our trenches, both the front line and the communication
-trenches, had just twice the number of men in them that they would have
-had normally. And every man, both incoming and outgoing, was carrying
-his complete “Christmas Tree” rig--rifle, ammunition, full pack,
-haversack, greatcoat, gas masks, and all the rest of it; in some places
-hardly able to squeeze through the trenches in his bulky marching
-equipment.
-
-Into this congestion the boche let off his gas on the eighth of August
-about ten o’clock P. M. It says worlds for the steadiness of our
-fellows that the total casualties from the three waves he sent over
-remained at the same low ebb that they had reached in the June attack.
-Of course but for the adverse circumstances they would undoubtedly have
-been still lower. It is interesting to note that the position on which
-the attack was made--namely, the line between Bellewarde Lake and the
-Yser Canal--included much of the line over which the first attack of
-all had been made a year and a half previously.
-
-The intensity of the cloud can be realised from the fact that helmets
-had to be worn at a division headquarters nine miles from the point of
-discharge, and the gas was perceptible, though not so dangerous, many
-miles beyond this point.
-
-The most distinctive feature of the whole affair was the number of men
-who suffered from the delayed action of the phosgene and collapsed
-several hours after the attack, especially if they had taken any
-exercise or eaten a heavy meal in between. The latter is not very
-likely, though it does occur, for a man even slightly gassed with
-phosgene feels very depressed--“fed up” and not particularly inclined
-for a hearty meal. But the getting of the exercise is only too easy,
-what with the necessary work in the trenches and the possible walk back
-to the aid post or the march back to rest billets in the event of a
-relief. It was men who had done this kind of thing who suffered most.
-
-After the attack we received official orders that no man suffering
-from the effects of the gas should be allowed to walk to the dressing
-station, and that if possible after a gas attack troops in the front
-trenches should be relieved of all fatigue and carrying work for
-twenty-four hours. It was also ordered that during the passage of the
-gas all movement should be reduced to a minimum and there should be
-as little talking as possible. These were very wise orders, for there
-had been too many officers and noncommissioned officers gassed through
-moving up and down to control the positions of their men and from
-shouting orders through their helmets. A certain amount of talking
-is necessary, of course, but too much of it makes a man breathe more
-deeply and may be just the added strain sufficient to affect his heart
-and cause his collapse.
-
-Of course after a gas attack there are always a certain number of
-malingerers--“Skrimshankers,” as we call them--who affect to be gassed
-in order to get away from the line for a bit. These are generally
-spotted easily enough by the doctor men. One medical officer I knew,
-harassed by the number of slightly “gassed” cases who would have to
-be evacuated, and suspicious about the genuine character of some of
-them, handed round cigarettes. All those who accepted and smoked their
-cigarettes were kept back. Later examination showed that he was right
-in every case.
-
-A similar instance that I heard of, this time in a practice attack in
-a camp in England, concerned a very poor specimen who pretended to be
-badly gassed. He was taken to the orderly room on a stretcher; but
-unfortunately for him the medical corps sergeant recognised him as a
-man who had fallen out during a march a short time before, and knew all
-about him.
-
-Meantime the man was feigning unconsciousness, but the sergeant winked
-at the medical officer and said: “It’s a pity that order about sick
-leave prevents men from going home in a case like this unless they live
-in London. What this poor fellow needs is a couple of weeks in his own
-home.”
-
-The corpse thereupon sat up and said: “That’s all right, sir. I live in
-Bow. When can I go?”
-
-As in all the previous attacks an analysis of the casualties showed
-that where the helmets had been kept in good condition and had been
-used properly and in time they had given perfect protection. The
-casualties were all due to preventable causes--some of them lamentable,
-others humorous, had it not been for their tragedy.
-
-Many men were gassed through taking off their helmets too soon. It
-is really up to the officers and noncommissioned officers who have
-attended a course at a gas school to decide when the atmosphere is
-safe, and it is not nearly so risky to do this as it sounds. All that
-is necessary is to let a little air in from the outside by cautiously
-opening up the face piece of the mask--or the skirt of the helmet in
-the case of the old gas bag--and sniffing cautiously. Of course if it
-is not done cautiously and there happens to be a lot of gas about, the
-rash man suffers.
-
-A number of men were gassed through going into unprotected dugouts
-before they had been ventilated or through wandering into pockets of
-the gas after the attack. They should have been on the lookout for
-these patches, as the gas notoriously keeps close to the ground at
-night, and sheltered places are bound to remain unhealthy for much
-longer periods than the open. It is curious that by some vagary of the
-wind the cloud farther back hopped over some houses that were used
-as billets and affected neither the inhabitants nor the unprotected
-animals on the ground, whereas some fowls that were roosting in the
-trees and on the tops of the houses were killed.
-
-One instance that shows how carelessness spells casualty in gas warfare
-was that of a working party of thirty or forty men who were busy on
-railway work a mile or two behind the line. They had taken off their
-coats and gas helmets and placed them on some trucks, but when the
-alarm was given and a rush was made for the helmets the trucks were
-found to have gone.
-
-One thing that was done after the August attack was definitely and
-finally to withdraw the Vermorel sprayers for use for clearing the gas
-out of the trenches and dugouts. These instruments, brought up for the
-work of spraying fruit trees and vineyards, had done some first-class
-fighting of the German gas, right in the front line, as long as the gas
-was chlorine. But with the introduction of large quantities of phosgene
-the work of the sprayers was gone. They could not touch the phosgene,
-and consequently Tommy’s dependence on them was a snare and made things
-more dangerous for him than if they had not been used at all. For a
-dugout might be sprayed and thought, therefore, to be quite healthy to
-sleep in and yet contain as much phosgene as would at any rate cause
-minor and delayed effects.
-
-To clear out the gas recourse was had to ventilation by means of fires
-and by specially constructed canvas fans.
-
-These fans were the invention of an English lady named Ayrton--the
-widow of the physicist of that name--and were originally intended by
-her for fanning back the gas cloud to the German trenches. Of course
-they were quite incapable of doing any such thing, but during trials
-with them it was found that they were quite good, after an attack,
-for fanning the gas out of the trenches or creating such a draft of
-air into a dugout or cellar as to force out the impure air from the
-interior.
-
-These anti-gas fans, or flapper fans as they were called, are made of
-canvas supported by braces of cane and attached to a hickory handle
-about two feet long. The blade of the fan, which looks like an immense
-fly swat, is hinged in two places and measures about fifteen inches
-square. When the fan is brought down on the ground it bends over on the
-back hinge and produces a sharp puff of air, in just the same way that
-the sudden shutting of an open book does.
-
-By working the fans in series, one man behind another, it is possible
-to keep a current of air going which will ventilate a room or clear
-out a trench in remarkably quick time. In clearing out a trench the
-fan is brought back over the shoulder, and this helps to “shovel” the
-contaminated air out of the trench after it has been brought off the
-ground by the lower stroke, which is more like a smart slap.
-
-These fans are kept as trench stores, which means that they are handed
-over on relief to the incoming unit taking over the line of trenches.
-They have proved very useful, especially in skilful hands their chief
-value being that, unlike the sprayers, they do not distinguish between
-different kinds of gases and they will deal as unceremoniously with
-tear gas and phosgene as they do with chlorine.
-
-By the time of the last gas-cloud attack the organisation of the
-British Army for defence against gas had been brought to a pretty high
-state of efficiency. A special branch of the gas service had been
-detailed for the purpose and special gas officers were appointed to the
-staffs of the various formations, from army down to division.
-
-The position of divisional gas officer is no sinecure. Besides having
-the job of screwing up the gas discipline of his division and having
-a general oversight of all gas-defence training and supplies, he is
-responsible to the divisional commander for the preparedness of the
-line to meet a German gas attack. He is the “intelligence” officer of
-his general as regards all things pertaining to gas and has to be a
-walking dictionary on the subject. He has to be a great part of his
-time in the front trenches and it is up to him to see that all enemy
-blind shells, and so on, are examined and brought in if they seem to
-be anything new. As he must deal direct with the battalion commanders
-he must know them and the senior officers of each regiment personally,
-so as to smooth the way in getting things done. Then if a gas attack
-or bombardment is made he must get there quick, so as to find out all
-about it from personal experience.
-
-Altogether he is a very important and busy person, and to those
-acquainted with his work the following incident will appeal. I happened
-to overhear part of a conversation between two Cockney Tommies on the
-road:
-
-“What’s this ’ere divisional gas officer, Bill?”
-
-“Why, he’s the bloke what goes round and blows up these observation
-balloons.”
-
-The divisional gas officer has a number of specially trained
-noncommissioned officers to help him, and each company of infantry and
-battery of artillery has at least one noncommissioned officer. It is
-the first and most important job of these noncommissioned officers to
-help the commander in everything pertaining to defence against German
-gas. He assists at drills and inspections, help in the arrangement
-and fitting up of alarms, in the taking of wind readings and the
-protection of the shelters and dugouts. In his charge are placed the
-gas fans and the sampling apparatus. A good company gas noncommissioned
-officer is a real joy and can polish up the gas discipline of the
-company tremendously, as well as take a lot of responsibility off the
-overworked company commander’s shoulders. A bad noncommissioned gas
-officer, on the other hand, can be the direct and indirect cause of the
-loss of many lives when the gas attack does come.
-
-This ended the British experience of German gas-cloud attacks, for
-though the 35th and 36th Pioneers made three subsequent visits to the
-Western Front it was each time to gas the French. The last cloud attack
-of all was made near Nieuport, at that time in the French lines, on
-April 23, 1917.
-
-Since then the only cloud attacks have been made against the Russians
-and the Italians.
-
-Probably the chief reason that has caused the boche to hold back with
-his cloud attacks has been his conclusion that they were unprofitable
-against well-disciplined, highly trained and thoroughly protected
-troops. With a limited amount of gas available he naturally chose the
-method that would give him the best results. For the cloud attack
-his cheapest target was the Russians, who were incompletely equipped
-with gas masks of a modern kind and who for a long time were badly
-disciplined in anti-gas measures. Against such troops the gas cloud
-is just the thing, and the Germans have estimated that ten to fifteen
-per cent of all troops exposed to a successful gas cloud would become
-casualties. This was probably true on the Russian Front, but was
-certainly not true in the West.
-
-Then the gas cloud has almost reached its apparent limit of
-development. There is a limit to the number of gases that can be used
-from cylinders, and there is a limit to the number of cylinders that
-can be discharged at one time. Besides this the gas cloud is largely
-dependent on infantry labour for carrying and installation, and it is
-mighty difficult to bring off a complete surprise owing to the time it
-takes to prepare an attack.
-
-On top of all this the whole procedure is wrong as regards efficiency,
-for it puts up the highest concentration of gas where the boche does
-not want it--just in front of his own trenches instead of in ours.
-
-For all these reasons the boche during the past year has specialised on
-the development of his gas shells. Of course he may come back with the
-cloud again, and we do not relax our vigilance or it certainly would
-reappear. But unless he discovers something new in the cloud line, and
-if we keep up a high standard of training, he will not do much damage,
-though for that matter the same thing is true about gas shells and
-trench mortar bombs.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VII
-
-  The rising importance of the gas shell--The variety of gases
-    practicable with the shell--The deadly Green Cross Shell--Risks
-    of transporting “duds” for chemical analysis--Reduced Allied
-    casualties--German blunders in shelling tactics--Importance of
-    universal discipline.
-
-
-One of the most interesting things about the development of gas warfare
-has been the way in which the gas shell, from being the least important
-method of poisoning the air, has become the chief gas weapon in the
-German armoury.
-
-The reasons for this extraordinary development, though various, are not
-far to seek. They lie chiefly in the fact that unlike the gas cloud we
-have not even yet approached the limit of the number or size of the gas
-projectiles that can be used. Nor, which is even more important, is
-there any limit to the variety of the poisons that can be used in gas
-shell.
-
-The fact of the matter is that the gas shell is not really a gas
-shell at all. It is nearly always a “liquid” shell and sometimes even
-a “solid” shell. The term “gas shell” is used because the liquid or
-solid contents are atomised by the explosion of the bursting charge or
-are distributed round in the form of such tiny particles or droplets,
-as the case may be, that they act almost as a gas. In the latter
-case they form what might be described as a mist or smoke, but with
-this difference from ordinary smoke--that the gas mist or smoke is
-generally, though not always, invisible.
-
-Just imagine what would happen supposing a shell were filled with
-water. Burst such a shell with a sufficiently big charge of high
-explosive and all the water would be distributed into the air in the
-form of such finely divided spray that it would form a mist. This mist
-would either vapourise into the atmosphere completely or hang about
-like a cloud, according as the air was dry or moist. In any case, if
-the burster were big enough no water would be spread on the ground; nor
-would any big drops be formed.
-
-This is just what happens with any of the poisonous materials filled
-into a shell. Indeed if the burster were big enough and carefully
-chosen it would be possible to form a “gas” with treacle. With a
-volatile material like gasoline on the other hand all that would be
-needed would be a burster just big enough to open the shell.
-
-It can be seen therefore that the choice of materials for gas shell is
-practically unlimited and is governed only by their being poisonous
-enough and by the ease of production.
-
-Another thing in which the gas shell has the advantage over the
-cylinder gas is in getting surprise, which is naturally much easier
-to effect with shell. By the way, if the reader wishes to be counted
-among those who knows, he will always speak or write the plural of
-shell without adding a final “s.” To talk of a number of shells is very
-civilian.
-
-As I pointed out before, we were expecting something new to happen in
-the gas-shell line during the whole of 1916, and had an idea that the
-new arrival would be something of a cyanide nature--possibly prussic
-acid itself. When it did come, however, it proved to be a liquid
-filling closely related chemically to phosgene and to the K-Stoff,
-which I have previously described. These new gas shell were the first
-of the present series of German gas shell, which are all distinctly
-marked with coloured crosses and named accordingly. These particular
-shell were the Green Cross Shell, a green cross being painted on the
-base of the cartridge or on the side of the shell or sometimes on both.
-They made their appearance on the Somme Front about a fortnight after
-the battle had started--that is, about the middle of July, 1916--though
-a few of them had been used against the French on the Verdun Front
-sometime in June.
-
-It was not long before blind or unexploded shell--“duds,” we call
-them--were collected and sent back for examination. This is one of the
-disadvantages of using gas shell--your opponent can always keep track
-of what you are doing. Sooner or later a fuse will not function or a
-bursting charge will not explode and your watchful enemy carefully
-collects the shell, and has for examination a considerable amount
-of the poison material. I say “carefully collects,” for it is no
-child’s play dealing with shell which may go off in your hands on the
-slightest provocation. However, it has to be done, and as it is the
-gas officer’s pidgin he manfully shoulders his task and the shell and
-has it brought in. Very frequently the fuse fails to act because a
-powder pellet holding up the striking needle has not burned away; but
-I remember one case where the gas officer of one of the armies took
-back a big dud gas shell. It meant transporting the weighty souvenir
-in a not particularly well sprung car over very bumpy roads, and he
-was quite relieved to arrive at his destination--the field laboratory.
-Here it was reverently taken to bits by the experts. Imagine the gas
-officer’s horror to find he had been bumping along for several hours in
-the company of a shell the powder pellet of which had burned away and
-whose only safety device was the weakest of weak creep springs on which
-the striker rested. A hard knock or a drop of six inches would almost
-certainly have exploded it.
-
-The laboratory officers, who are experts at the game, may have to go up
-to the Front themselves to solve important duds which are regarded as
-dangerous and require expert attention. In one instance the officer
-concerned--in civil life a very celebrated professor at one of the
-London colleges--went up to the salient and explored about a mile and
-a half of trenches and finally located his prey--a fine dud 4.2-inch
-howitzer gas shell--out in the open.
-
-Though the place was pretty unhealthy he “climbed the bags” and made a
-careful examination of the shell where it lay, finally bringing it back
-in with him. I forget whether he drew its sting on the spot, but in any
-case it was a pretty good effort, especially for a man no longer in his
-first youth.
-
-Chemical analysis of the blind Green Cross Shell showed the contents
-to be a colourless liquid known to chemists by the extensive name of
-“trichlormethylcholoroformate.” Its effects are just as ferocious
-as the name implies, and experience showed it to be very poisonous.
-Indeed it is as poisonous as phosgene itself. The Green Cross Shell
-gas--“diphosgene,” to give it its short name--has many effects and
-symptoms that make it a dangerous weapon. When dilute it has a peculiar
-though not particularly nauseating smell, a smell variously described
-as “earthy,” “mouldy rhubarb”--whatever that smells like--and damp hay.
-Unlike the shell gases we had encountered before, it has very little
-effect on the eyes and causes practically no lachrymation. And this
-was a trap, because we had been used to lachrymators, so that many men
-despite the obvious smell were not particularly quick in protecting
-themselves because of the new symptoms.
-
-Of course this applies only to such low concentrations as would take a
-long time to gas a man. In the higher concentrations the Green Cross
-very quickly asphyxiates--just as phosgene and chlorine do--and there
-is no question of whether it is deadly or not. The old Army quip about
-there being only two kinds of people in gas warfare, namely “The
-Quick and the Dead,” certainly applies if you get a Green Cross Shell
-bursting close to you. But even for gas shell bursting some distance
-away immediate and complete protection is necessary because of the
-delayed or after effects of the gas, which are exactly similar to those
-of phosgene. Every care that is taken with regard to men poisoned with
-phosgene has to be taken for men poisoned with Green Cross gas.
-
-Those suffering from the effects of the gas are not allowed to exert
-themselves at all or to take heavy meals. They are kept under close
-observation for at least two days, and are treated, in fact, as
-casualties even though they are not apparently ill. Before the need
-for this was understood an officer I knew was slightly gassed with
-shell gas but thought nothing of it. Later on he felt a bit queer,
-and the regimental medical officer advised him to go down to the
-dressing station. He walked the length of the communication trench and
-then mounted a “push bicycle” for a mile’s ride to the aid post. The
-exertion was too much, however, and he reached the aid post only to
-fall dead.
-
-The danger of not treating gassed men as casualties and resting them
-for a couple of days, after which they would probably be fit for work
-again, is shown by a case where forty men were lost to the line for
-a considerable time, though fortunately none of them died. These men
-were part of a working party engaged in the construction of dugouts.
-They were caught in a surprise bombardment, but were apparently not
-much affected. After completing their night’s work they marched back
-to billets and turned in as usual. The next morning several of them
-were so ill--nearly to the point of collapse--and the remainder were so
-visibly affected that the medical officer ordered the whole party to be
-sent down to the casualty clearing station, where they were evacuated
-to the base.
-
-In still another case I remember a sergeant and twenty men of a wiring
-party engaged in the consolidation of a recently captured position
-were similarly caught by a sudden and intense Green Cross bombardment.
-A number of the men were gassed and felt pretty seedy, but continued
-their work and then withdrew. The sergeant felt no ill effects until
-an hour after turning in, when he woke with a bad cough and internal
-pain and died two hours afterward. One private went to bed without
-complaining at all and was found dead next morning. Another died soon
-after getting up. A third reached headquarters complaining of shell
-shock and died three hours later. I mention these cases so that my
-reader will realise why such great care is now taken with men who have
-been exposed to poison gas, and how by looking after them in this way
-it has been possible to reduce the number of delayed cases of death or
-serious illness to a minimum.
-
-Talking of delayed effects of gas shell reminds me that at least
-two documents were captured during the Somme--one of them I got
-myself--which were obviously notes of lectures given to officers at
-a German gas school or staff course. In both of these sets of notes
-there were references to the Lusitania, showing that the German Higher
-Command was trying to explain that dastardly act to its own troops by
-making out that the Lusitania was sunk because it was carrying phosgene
-shell for the Allies. This lie can easily be nailed to the board, as
-not a single drop of phosgene--or any other poison gas or liquid, for
-that matter--was shipped from America before this year, 1918. Both
-of the paragraphs I refer to contained a double lie, for they each
-asserted that the French started the use of gas shell. One of them
-ran as follows: “The French first started the use of gas shell--with
-great hopes, but with little success! The most striking result was that
-experienced by the passengers of the Lusitania, whose rescued mostly
-died later.”
-
-But to return to the Green Cross Shell. These were used during the
-Somme Battle in enormous numbers, far surpassing anything we had had
-before in the extent of the bombardment. There were a great many new
-features about these shell quite apart from the altered nature of the
-gas. First of all there was the size. Until then we had had gas shell
-of only two sizes--150-millimetre howitzer shell and the 105-millimetre
-howitzer shell. The former contained from five to eight pints of liquid
-according to the construction of the shell, and the latter about three
-pints. To these longer shell were now added shell from the ordinary
-field gun, or 77-millimetre gun--quite a small affair compared with the
-others and containing only two-thirds of a pint of liquid poison. But
-then, though so small, it could be fired more rapidly and accurately
-and could bring off an initial surprise in a way that the bigger guns
-could not do.
-
-Shell of these three sizes were used then on nearly all occasions and
-in very large quantities. One thing that made large numbers possible
-was the simplicity of the shell compared with the old pattern. There
-was no separate lead container and the “gas” was filled straight into
-the body of the shell, as the new material was unacted on by iron or
-steel. The head of the shell was screwed in and kept in position and
-perfectly gas-tight by means of a special cement.
-
-As very little explosive was needed to open them up and spread the
-contents round the noise made by the burst of the Green Cross Shell
-was little more than a pop--at any rate when compared with the
-high-explosive shell or the old tear shell. The result was that at
-first men were apt to regard them as duds and to delay the putting on
-of respirators until it was too late.
-
-These gas shell are supposed to make a peculiar wobbling noise in the
-passage through the air because of the liquid inside them, and in
-this way to be recognisable beforehand. Personally I cannot tell any
-difference in the noise compared with H. E. or shrapnel of the same
-calibre, though I have heard thousands of both kinds; but I dare say
-some people can, as the belief is fairly widespread.
-
-Of course Fritz’s liberality with his gas shell caused us a lot of
-casualties, but not nearly so many as we might have had if he had known
-how to use them. The fact was he had not at that time got hold of the
-proper technic--developed later on by the French--of concentrating his
-gas shell on special targets. By now, of course, he has; but at that
-time he still clung to the idea of being able to poison big areas with
-his shell gas by putting down a series of barrages over the country
-to be attacked. Either he had not enough shell or he chose his areas
-too big, for he did not produce effective concentrations anywhere but
-locally. If he had, our losses might have been tremendous. As it was it
-became rather a hit-or-miss proposition, and I have seen hundreds and
-hundreds of these shell drop into absolutely unpopulated areas of the
-devastated Somme battlefield.
-
-In one case a battery of field guns came in for its share of one such
-promiscuous bombardment while I was there. The number of shell coming
-over was so great that it was like a magnified machine-gun shoot, but
-only a very few got on to the battery and the casualties were only
-two--both caused by a direct hit on one of the guns by a gas shell.
-If the boche had been able to concentrate his shell on and round the
-battery instead of giving it just the same amount as the unoccupied
-surrounding country the effect might have been very different.
-
-One possible reason for the promiscuous and sometimes very casual
-shooting may have been the fact that the boche at that time had
-practically no air observation. Our flying fellows had temporarily
-chased his planes out of the skies and had shot down all his
-observation balloons. This made it impossible for him to pick his
-targets, and he either had to bombard the countryside or shoot “by the
-map,” neither method being particularly conducive to good results with
-gas shell.
-
-On the other hand, one or two places that he knew were pretty certain
-to be occupied by our troops were given their full dose. One such
-place was Caterpillar Wood--a big narrow spinney running off from the
-Fricourt Valley and so named because of its shape and the fact that on
-the ordnance maps, on which the woods are colored green, it looks just
-like a green caterpillar crawling over to the shelter of Mametz Wood.
-This place was continually shelled with large numbers of the Green
-Cross Shell, and as it stood in the side of a valley the gas persisted
-longer there than elsewhere and built up a tidy concentration which
-caused a lot of trouble.
-
-The gunners were among our chief sufferers from these gas shell, as
-their guns were so frequently placed in sunken roads and folds in the
-ground for protection against explosive shell and aërial observation,
-and these were just the kind of places that held the gas longest. In
-the open much less damage was done. I remember one night the first-line
-transport of a battalion of the Black Watch ran into a patch of country
-into which the boche was raining 77-millimetre Green Cross Shell, and
-came out with only three casualties, two of which were from a direct
-hit on one of the wagons, the driver being killed instantly.
-
-It seems particularly bad luck to be killed by a direct hit from a
-gas shell, for the bits of shell that fly about don’t do much damage
-in the ordinary way and don’t travel great distances. Indeed it is
-remarkable, even in the biggest gas-shell bombardments, how very few
-men are hurt by the fragments.
-
-The first week or two after the advent of the Green Cross the toll of
-gas-shell casualties was considerable if not alarming, but steps were
-immediately taken to get the situation in hand. It is in a case like
-this, where a surprise had been brought off, that Discipline, with a
-very big “D,” counts for so much. Fortunately the gas discipline of
-the British Army was pretty good, and it was not difficult to get new
-instructions carried out and orders obeyed. Once they got going their
-effect was most apparent and the gas-shell casualties dropped from week
-to week until they approached a minimum.
-
-Among the important steps that were taken were a revision of the
-methods of spreading the alarm, and the protection and clearing out of
-dugouts into which the gas had penetrated.
-
-Mention has already been made of the slight noise caused by the
-explosion of the gas shell, and instructions were accordingly issued
-that all shell that sounded like duds were to be regarded as gas shell,
-and the respirators adjusted accordingly. This got over one of the
-elements of surprise.
-
-A great many men, especially those in battery positions, had been
-gassed in their dugouts before warning of the gas bombardment had
-been spread. Numbers of these men were actually gassed in their sleep
-and were awakened too late by the choking fumes themselves. What was
-done was to post a gas sentry at every battery in just the same way
-that it was done in the trenches. Special local-alarm signals were
-arranged so that the sentry could wake every one in the neighbourhood
-without having the alarm spread beyond the limit of the gassed area.
-These alarms generally took the form of bells or of gongs made from
-big shell cases; but later on policemen’s large rattles were found to
-be the most effective “weapon” for the purpose, and numbers of these
-were distributed up and down the line and in the battery positions. It
-was feared at first that the noise of the rattles would be mistaken
-for machine-gun fire and no attention be paid to it, but this did not
-materialise and the rattles have done good service.
-
-The only thing about them is that they are made of wood--and nicely
-pickled, easily burning wood at that. In the trenches kindling chips of
-any kind are eagerly sought after to make a miniature fire to warm tea
-or cook an egg. When men will go the length of shaving the handles of
-their entrenching tools to obtain dry wood it could hardly be expected
-that policemen’s rattles would always be respected. I am afraid a
-number of them disappeared. With the artillery things are not so bad as
-fuel is easier to obtain and the rattles are therefore less liable to
-get lost.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER VIII
-
-  The gas-proof dugout--First-aid methods of alarm--Von Buelow
-    improves German gas tactics--Popular errors about gas--Effectiveness
-    of new British respirators--Vomiting gas--Germans speed up their
-    manufacture--Gas as a neutraliser of artillery fire--As a
-    neutraliser of work behind the trenches--Raw recruits ashamed to
-    wear the mask--Casualties resulting.
-
-
-Probably the most important thing that was done as the result of the
-Somme Battle experience was to insist on there being at least one
-protected or gas-proof dugout at every headquarters, battery position,
-signal station, aid post, or wherever gas shell were particularly
-likely to drop.
-
-I have deferred describing these protected shelters until now, but
-as a matter of fact they had been devised and adopted nearly a year
-previously, though not many of them had got into actual use. The
-protection consists essentially of a damp blanket fitting closely over
-the entrance to the cellar or dugout or emplacement, whichever it may
-happen to be. The value of the blanket depends on the fact that if you
-prevent the movement of air you prevent the movement of gas. That is
-all there is to it. Stop any possible draft and you will keep out the
-gas. In practice the blankets are kept rolled up out of the way and are
-let down only when the alarm is sounded or when gas is about. In order
-to get an air-tight joint the blanket is made to rest on a sloping
-framework set into the entrance to the dugout. To make sure that the
-blanket really does remain stretched out over the frame and does not
-gape at all, two or three wooden battens are fastened across it at
-intervals.
-
-Where space is available two such sloping blankets are used, at least
-two feet apart and preferably far enough apart to allow a stretcher in
-between. This forms an “air lock”--you must go into the lock and close
-the outer blanket before going through the inner one--and not only
-makes protection of the interior doubly sure but makes it possible to
-enter the dugout even in the middle of an attack or bombardment. In the
-old days the blankets used to be sprayed with the Vermorel sprayer
-solution, but anything that will keep them damp and flexible will do.
-In the early days, too, the companies or batteries used to do all their
-own work on protecting dugouts, and it was always possible in cold
-weather to obtain an extra supply of blankets on the plea that they
-were required for making gas-proof shelters. Nowadays a close eye is
-kept on these supplies, which are doled out by the engineers, and it is
-seen that if blanket material is supplied for protected dugouts it is
-going to be used for protected dugouts, and for nothing else.
-
-Gradually all dugouts, cellars and buildings within the gas-shell
-area--let us say up to three miles from the front line--are being
-provided with blanket protection, which means a big decrease in
-casualties, for once inside such shelters men can sleep in more or less
-comfort until they again have to don their respirators and face their
-tour of duty in the poisoned air outside.
-
-It practically came then to this--that protection against the
-poison-gas shell was a question of gas-proof dugouts on the one hand
-and rapidity of spreading the alarm and quickness of getting protected
-on the other. At the gas schools and in the regiments and batteries
-men are trained to be so quick in their movements that they can get on
-their masks in six seconds. They are also taught on the burst of a gas
-shell in their neighbourhood to hold their breath at once. It sounds
-easy enough to do this, but it must come to a man automatically in any
-circumstances he may happen to find himself--and you can find yourself
-in some queer circumstances in war--and to assure this a great deal of
-training is needed. Anybody, however, can hold his breath for thirty
-seconds, and with practice it is possible to go well over a minute.
-During this time it is possible to make a fool of oneself in half a
-dozen different ways in putting on a respirator, and yet get it on in
-time in the end. But drill sergeants will stand for nothing less than
-the standard time and the most meticulous accuracy. God bless these
-tyrants--they must have saved a lot of lives! One of the difficulties
-we began to encounter with regard to gas shell was the spreading of
-the alarm among men on the march or in communication trenches where no
-alarm devices are installed. In some battalions it was the custom to
-teach men to spread the glad tidings by taking off their steel helmets
-and beating them with their bayonets. This certainly makes a good old
-noise, but unfortunately it is just when gas shell are coming over that
-shrapnel is also likely to be in the air, and to deprive a man of this
-tin hat at this time in order to provide him with a gas alarm is rather
-robbing Peter to pay Paul.
-
-The best way undoubtedly, and the one now taught throughout the British
-and American forces, is to hold the breath, then put on the respirator,
-and finally spread the news to everyone else by shouting “Gas shell!”
-as loudly as possible with the mask on. In this way the information
-can be spread throughout a big working party or from front to rear
-of a column of infantry on the march in a remarkably short space of
-time. Even in the trenches it is well to give word-of-mouth warning
-as well as by means of the local-alarm devices, for a second or two
-of absolutely invaluable time may be saved in this way. One soldier
-questioned by an officer going the rounds as to what he would do in
-the event of a gas shell bombardment replied nervously: “Put on my gas
-mask and shout ‘Rattles!’”
-
-For the remainder of 1916 the boche treated us with gradually
-increasing numbers of Green Cross Shell. His tactics, too, got a
-bit better--I mean for him--for he began to make more concentrated
-bombardments on particular targets. Possibly this was because of
-special orders that were issued on the subject. One of these was by
-General von Buelow to the artillery of his army, in which he said:
-“There have been many instances of Green Cross Shell being fired in
-small quantities. This is a waste of ammunition, as with all gas shell
-good effects are only obtained by using them in large quantities. The
-firing of small quantities of gas shell has also the disadvantage
-that the enemy is practiced in the use of his anti-gas appliances and
-attains a higher degree of gas preparedness. For this reason the effect
-produced by larger quantities will be reduced.”
-
-This showed the increasing interest in the use of gas shell taken
-by the German General Staff, and heavier and more concentrated
-bombardments based on the above orders became more frequent. One of
-these, brought off in unusual circumstances, occurred at Arras in
-December, 1916. I say “unusual” because the weather was so cold at
-the time that the Green Cross liquid did not evaporate so quickly as
-usual but hung about in some places for long periods. The bombardment
-occurred at night and about three thousand shell must have been fired
-into one corner of the town--in fact, all round the old gateway through
-which the whole of the transport from the St. Pol road would have to
-pass. The surrounding houses and cellars got filled with gas, and in
-such billets, especially where shell had actually burst inside a room,
-the liquid soaked into the walls and floors and only evaporated the
-next morning when the air grew warmer. A lot of men were gassed in this
-manner on the following day, as they naturally thought the gas had
-vanished, and were gradually overcome as things warmed up.
-
-In the open, gas disappeared more at its usual rate, though it hung
-about all during the bombardment and for several hours after, thus
-forcing men in the neighbourhood to wear respirators for long periods.
-Some of these men, overcome by fatigue, actually slept in their
-respirators. I think this was the first time I had heard of its being
-done, though it has been done often enough since.
-
-By this time the British Army had been fitted out with the celebrated
-box respirator--a respirator of particular interest to Americans, as it
-was the type adopted for and at present in use in the American Army. A
-short description of it will not be out of place. The principle of the
-respirator is to have a box filled with chemicals and attached by a
-flexible tube to a face piece or mask, which fits closely to the face.
-All air breathed by a man must therefore pass through the chemicals,
-and these are so chosen that they will absorb any and every poison that
-may be present in the atmosphere at the time. In order to keep the air
-pure in the mask and to have a double line of protection a man breathes
-through a special mouthpiece and has his nose clipped. So even if the
-face piece, which is made of rubber cloth, should be torn or damaged in
-any way the soldier is perfectly safe as long as he does not attempt to
-talk--that is, if he keeps his nose clipped and does not remove the
-mouthpiece from his mouth.
-
-The respirator is not only active against a diversity of poisonous
-gases but it will keep out very high concentrations of gas for many
-hours.
-
-One of the most misleading statements made about gas masks--sometimes
-by newspaper men and consequently given wide publicity--is that such
-and such a mask will stand up for so many hours against gas. It is a
-very natural thing to want to know or to state how long your respirator
-will last, but without stating what concentration of gas is being
-talked of it is impossible to give such definite information about
-any mask. It simply depends on the amount of gas there is in the air.
-But the box respirator if kept in good condition and properly used is
-guaranteed to keep out German gas continuously for many hours, even in
-concentrations which it is quite impossible for the boche to maintain
-in the field. In the American modification of the box respirator the
-absorptive power of the chemicals used is even greater than in the
-British box, and this makes it the best respirator in the world, which
-is very reassuring for those who have to make use of it.
-
-The box respirator is contained in a haversack and is carried slung
-on the shoulder until such time as the soldier comes into the forward
-areas, where it must be carried tied up on the chest ready for instant
-adjustment in case of need. As I mentioned before, it can be put on in
-six seconds from the word “go,” and once a man is practiced in wearing
-it he can walk, run, shoot, dig, speak or do anything but eat and smoke
-in it; and this for long stretches at a time. I know many cases where
-men have been forced to wear masks literally continuously for more than
-eight hours; and much longer periods than this, with perhaps short
-intervals of rest in protected dugouts or in unaffected areas, are
-common.
-
-Of course the soldier has to be practiced in putting the mask on
-quickly. It is not quite so simple as the old “gas bag,” about which
-a drill sergeant said to a squad: “You just whops it out and you
-whops it on.” But it does not take long to make men proficient with
-the respirator, at any rate on the parade ground. It is making him
-proficient under conditions of war that counts and all his instruction
-is now aimed toward this end.
-
-With the mask in position and a tin hat on top of his head a soldier
-has a peculiar beetlelike appearance, which is not very improving,
-though the following conversation was reported to have been overheard
-by an officer about to enter a dugout:
-
-“’Ere, mate, take yer gas mask off.”
-
-“It is off.”
-
-“Then for Gawd’s sake put it on!”
-
-The Germans were much interested in our new respirators and their
-development, and apparently had great difficulty in obtaining specimens
-for examination. During the winter of 1916-17 German soldiers were
-being offered a reward of ten marks for every British box respirator
-that they brought in; but as we were doing most of the shooting at that
-time I can hardly think that Fritz made a fortune out of his chance.
-
-But to return to the gas shell. During 1917, it became apparent that
-the Germans were placing more and more reliance on the use of gas shell
-and were manufacturing them in enormous numbers. For a whole year after
-the introduction of the Green Cross there was only one modification
-of the chemicals used and that was the admixture with the diphosgene
-of a material which has been called “vomiting gas.” This substance is
-a chemical named chloropicrin, and it certainly lives up to its pet
-name if you take a real good breath of it. The boche mixed it with his
-diphosgene in order to make the latter more potent if possible, or else
-because he was running short of diphosgene; but he still calls the
-mixture Green Cross and uses the gas for its killing power.
-
-The chief development, however, was rather in the tactics than in the
-chemicals used. Gas shell were no longer thrown away; each target
-or area was apparently considered separately and was given enough
-shell to make certain of putting up a very high concentration of gas
-on it. At this time the boche divided his gas-shell shoots into two
-classes--those for “destructive” effect, and those for “harassing”
-purposes.
-
-The destructive fire was intended to take on big targets, which were
-not only definite but were known to contain living targets--for
-example, concentration points where troops were bound to be gathered;
-billeting areas, including well-known villages or towns; areas known to
-have a number of batteries collected in them, and so on; in the latter
-case the batteries themselves would be taken on individually if their
-positions were known.
-
-Apart from a number of fairly big bombardments, like that at Arras,
-mentioned above, the destructive shoots were chiefly counter-battery
-ones, intended if possible to “neutralise” our artillery while it
-should be actively engaged in putting down a barrage, either to prevent
-a German attack or in preparing the way for our own infantry when we
-were attacking, which, of course, was much more frequently the case in
-1916 and the first half of 1917.
-
-This neutralisation business wants a bit of explaining. It will
-have been realised that the Germans were and still are using two
-very distinct kinds of gas shell--those which kill, like the Green
-Cross, and those which only temporarily put a man out of action, like
-the lachrymators and nowadays the mustard gas. Of course, the idea
-underlying the use of gas shell in general--and the whole war for
-that matter--is to put men out of action. The most effective way of
-doing this is to kill, as that puts a man out of action for good and he
-doesn’t return. But you can kill men with gas only by taking them by
-surprise, because of the excellence of the gas masks.
-
-After the surprise has been effected the chief use of the gas shell
-is to force the opposing side to continue wearing their gas masks
-and in that way to hamper them and reduce their fighting efficiency
-for considerable lengths of time. This is where the lachrymators
-and mustard gas and similar stuffs come in, because they are very
-persistent, and a little goes a long way in forcing a man to keep his
-respirator on. The quick-killing gases, like phosgene and the Green
-Cross, are not very persistent, and it would be waste of material
-to continue shooting them when you could effect the same thing with
-another stuff, which would hang about for hours or perhaps for days.
-
-Now see how this affected the German “fire for effect,” or destructive
-shooting, as applied to a battery, and why the gas shell are so
-particularly suited for taking on targets of this kind, which used to
-be engaged only by high-explosive shell. Imagine a battery of, let us
-say, field howitzers. Our men are making an attack. The howitzers are
-busy pounding the German trenches to bits, and then they are going to
-“lift” on to the support trenches when our men go in. The whole of the
-success of the infantry assault may rest on the guns’ keeping up to
-the program with the requisite amount of fire. The boche business then
-is to try to put our guns out of action. If he can do this he has the
-infantry--I won’t say at his mercy, but at any rate at such a serious
-disadvantage that their losses will be tremendous compared with what
-they would be under cover of a good barrage from the guns.
-
-Now if the enemy uses high-explosive shell to take on our batteries
-he can put them out of action only by registering a direct hit. If
-the guns are well dug in in good emplacements with head cover it will
-be possible for high-explosive shell to drop within a dozen yards
-without doing anything but scare the gunners. Not so, however, with
-the gas shell. Drop enough gas shell within a dozen or twenty yards
-of the battery position and the gas will float down with the wind and
-penetrate every nook and cranny. If the gunners are not quick some of
-them may be gassed; and if, as is sometimes the case, the gun has been
-worked short-handed this alone may throw down the rate of fire to a
-very considerable extent. Add to this the fact that the remainder of
-the crew will have to don their respirators in order to fight their gun
-at all, and it can be seen that the rate of fire may be reduced to such
-a low limit as to make it of little value for the time being; or the
-gun may even be put out of action completely.
-
-Once the first surprise is over and no more immediate killing can be
-counted on, the bombardment may be continued with persistent gas shell,
-which are just as effective in making the men wear masks.
-
-From our point of view it all comes down to the ability of the gunners
-to be quick enough at first in preventing themselves from being gassed;
-and then later of their being capable of carrying on with their firing
-while wearing masks. It means that gas training and discipline are,
-if possible, more important for the artillerymen even than for other
-branches of the service. This is realised to the full in all their
-training and practice, for if they are not able to respond to an S
-O S call from the infantry an otherwise abortive German attack may
-be turned into a disaster. It is like everything else in this war--a
-question of training and discipline.
-
-The neutralisation of the infantry or the transport is conducted on
-similar lines, and though it rarely reaches the point of being complete
-a partial neutralisation of reserves which prevents their getting up
-in sufficient numbers or in time, either for reinforcement or attack,
-may have most serious consequences in an operation. The partial
-neutralisation is attempted, just as for the artillery, by killing as
-many as possible by heavy surprise bombardments with the lethal shell
-and then continuing with persistent gas in order to force the remainder
-to wear their gas masks.
-
-Let me describe as an example a particular way in which the infantry
-may be partially neutralised if they are not thoroughly steady,
-well-disciplined and trained up to the final dot in gas-defensive
-measures and the use of their respirators. Troops in the front line,
-whether they are in settled lines of trenches or merely in temporary
-positions, are absolutely dependent on their supplies. Supplies of
-ammunition, barbed wire and, above all, rations must be brought up to
-them constantly; otherwise they cannot continue to fight. All these
-things are brought up at night. The motor lorries of the Army Service
-Corps take the supplies up to selected points, where they are taken
-over by the first-line transport--that is, the regimental transport,
-which consists of horse or mule drawn general service or limber wagons.
-
-As night approaches everything is loaded up and departure timed so that
-the trysting place with the infantry carrying parties is reached after
-dark. These meeting places are very frequently crossroads immediately
-below the lines, and in position warfare are usually situated close to
-the entrances of the communication trenches. Pass by such a place by
-day and you will find it deserted, but as soon as darkness has fallen
-it becomes a hive of activity--as busy a crossroads as you might
-find in the centre of a big city. There is a constant movement in and
-out of men, animals and vehicles. Unloading and taking over of the
-supplies alternate with checking off the goods and the moving off of
-the carrying parties. Military policemen direct the traffic and relieve
-the ever-threatened congestion. Altogether it is one of the busiest and
-most important phases of the routine side of war, and anybody there
-without a special job is a nuisance and is not wanted.
-
-Places like this of course are apt to be well-known to the boche, and
-every now and again he will drop in some high-explosive shell or put
-over some shrapnel in the hope of catching the crossroads at its busy
-hour. But even if he is lucky and manages to get on to the spot it
-hardly holds up the work at all. I have seen a big shell drop into
-just such a place and make a huge hole in the road, killing men and
-horses and smashing up a wagon. Half an hour later there was hardly a
-sign that anything had happened. The hole had been filled in and the
-material debris cleared away. The wounded of course had been looked
-after first.
-
-Now imagine instead of ordinary shell that a number of gas shell had
-been dropped into this busy centre. On a dark night, probably very
-muddy underfoot and with all the excitement of kicking mules, flares
-going up and anything from machine-gun bullets at long range to shell
-of every size dropping in or expected, things are difficult enough. But
-with the advent of the gas shell every man must get himself protected.
-It is now that the “hold the breath, and mask on in six seconds” stunt
-is going to be of value. With well-trained troops the losses from the
-gas may be negligible, and it is equally true that they will be heavy
-if the discipline is poor. But whether one way or the other it means
-that all the frightened horses and mules must next be fixed with their
-respirators and the work in hand must be proceeded with by everybody
-while wearing gas masks. This is the real test.
-
-If the men are well trained the carrying parties--perhaps with loads
-of barbed wire on their backs--will get away as before and proceed up
-the filthy communication trench to the front line; swearing probably,
-uncomfortable certainly, but safe. Similarly the drivers will be
-able to get their teams away from the gassed area as soon as they are
-unloaded, and the serving out of the supplies will go on as before,
-though at a reduced rate. But if the soldiers were not able to carry
-on in these terrific circumstances--could not wear masks for long
-periods and could not do anything in them--confusion would undoubtedly
-supervene and the work be brought to a standstill. If this happened
-the men in the front line next day would be short of rations, of
-ammunition, of wire. They would, in fact, be neutralised.
-
-It is attempted neutralisation of artillery and infantry by methods
-such as these, carried out over large selected areas and generally as
-a preface to an attack--either their own or ours--which constitutes
-the German “fire for effect.” The “harassing fire” is simply the same
-thing on a smaller scale and with no immediate tactical reason at the
-back of it except that of killing and general annoyance. As a rule a
-sudden burst of a few shell will be landed on some likely place, such
-as the entrance to a communication trench, a sunken road, a bridge or
-an observation post. These small shoots were always causing us a few
-casualties. There was no warning, or somebody was not quick enough, or
-did not get his respirator on, or took it off too soon. There would
-always be some reason--but in the end it would generally come down to
-something that the disciplinary thumbscrew could cure.
-
-It is almost unbelievable nowadays that at one time one of the chief
-sources of these constantly occurring casualties was shame-facedness at
-being seen in a mask. Men would not protect themselves until absolutely
-forced to do so, for fear others would regard them as being too easily
-frightened. This was especially the case with new comers, who did not
-want to drop in the estimation of the older hands.
-
-One case was reported where a corporal in charge of a small party of
-men in passing along a communication trench ran into some pockets of
-gas from a bombardment that had just stopped. He ordered his party to
-don their masks and proceeded up the trench. A few yards farther on
-they passed through the support line, which happened to be fairly free
-from gas, and here they were met by jeers from some of the supporting
-troops who shouted “Hello, got the wind up?” and in this way induced
-the corporal, really against his better judgment, to order masks off.
-Not more than twenty or thirty yards farther along the party ran into a
-particularly bad pocket of Green Cross and the corporal and several of
-his men were so badly gassed that they had to be sent to the rear.
-
-The attitude of the officers is always reflected in the attitude of
-the men. At that time you would sometimes meet young officers who had
-either been on the outer fringe of a gas-shell shoot or had merely
-smelled tear gas thinking they knew all about it and refusing to
-believe in the extreme deadliness of the poison gas and the need for
-enhanced discipline. They would damn the gas and the need for taking
-precautions, and their men would consequently damn the gas and the need
-for taking precautions. This of course would mean another batch of
-casualties when Fritz did treat them to the real article.
-
-Just to show how a small matter of indiscipline may result in disaster
-I would instance the case of two men who took off their respirators
-in a front-line trench. Their battalion was going to be relieved
-that night and they took off their webbing equipment for the purpose
-of fastening on the haversack and pack. Absolutely against orders
-they also removed their box respirators, and of course it was just
-that moment that the boche chose for dropping in half a dozen small
-trench-mortar bombs filled with phosgene. These vicious little guns
-are very accurate and most of the shell landed on or near the parapet
-and filled the fire bay with gas. Both men dived at once for their
-respirators and in so doing upset three other men in the bay. All five
-were gassed and three of them died later.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IX
-
-  Mustard or Yellow Cross gas--Not deadly but a dangerous pest--Its
-    troublesome persistence--Cleaning it out by fires--Sneezing or Blue
-    Cross gas--Another pest--Its violent effect--The limit of gas shell
-    effectiveness--The need for constant vigilance and disciplinary
-    training.
-
-
-This was pretty well the position of things in July of last year, when
-the German use of gas shell underwent a radical development due to the
-advent of the so-called mustard gas. So much has been written about
-this gas and so many mis-statements have been made concerning it that
-it is as well for the public to understand what mustard gas is, what
-it can do and what it cannot do. On the one hand, it has been credited
-with such impossible potency as would make it wonderful that any Allied
-soldiers remain at all. On the other hand, it should be realised that
-in mustard gas the Germans possess a very powerful weapon of war and
-one which they are using to a very considerable extent.
-
-In the first place let it be said that mustard gas is not a killing
-gas like Green Cross, but that it is of the persistent type, like the
-older lachrymators. Unlike the lachrymators, however, its effects are
-not transitory and a man put out of action by mustard gas is going
-to be a casualty for several weeks and perhaps longer. Mustard gas
-principally affects the eyes and the lungs, but in a very strong vapour
-or in contact with any of the actual liquid from the shell a man’s skin
-may be burned very severely--even through his clothes. More attention
-has been turned to this blistering effect of the gas than to anything
-else, but as a matter of fact the blistering is of secondary importance
-and in itself does not result in the loss of many men to the line. Of
-course one has to be very careful. It is foolish, for example, to lean
-up against sandbags that have been spattered with the liquid or to sit
-in a mustard-gas shell crater. Sooner or later the skin underneath will
-develop a severe and possibly extensive blister, which is very painful
-and certain to last some time.
-
-These burns are not dangerous, but they are most uncomfortable, to say
-the least, especially as they are most easily produced on the more
-tender parts of the skin.
-
-Great excitement was caused at first among the Highland regiments
-because the story was spread about that the Scots were particularly
-susceptible to the mustard gas because of their attenuated clothing. As
-a matter of fact the kilt doesn’t seem to be a source of danger at all,
-and Highlanders are burned no more frequently than others. Possibly the
-continued exposure of their legs hardens them.
-
-The chief effects of the mustard gas are on the eyes and lungs. The
-first thing you notice is the smell--which is slightly of garlic or
-mustard--and irritation of the nose and throat. Neither effect is
-enough to make you feel gassed, and the chief symptoms develop later
-on. When the gas is strong it is apt to cause sickness and sometimes
-actual vomiting. Later on the eyes inflame and get very sore, the lids
-swell and blister, but no permanent injury to the eyes takes place,
-though the victim may be temporarily blinded. The effects developed in
-the lungs are equally painful and consist of severe inflammation and
-bronchitis, which may take some time to get better and if not well
-looked after may develop into pneumonia.
-
-It will thus be seen that for a persistent gas, though not deadly
-poisonous, mustard gas is a nasty proposition. First the gas does not
-of itself force a man to protect himself. With the old lachrymators a
-man either put on his mask or his eyes would smart and water so badly
-that he could not keep them open. With the Green Cross and similar
-gases a man either protects himself or dies. But with the mustard gas,
-though the smell and irritation may be perfectly apparent, the effect
-is not such as to force a man to don his mask. Yet if he does not do
-so and continues to live in the vapour unprotected he will certainly
-become a casualty. It may take half an hour, it may take several hours
-to come on, but come on it will.
-
-Another particular disadvantage of the mustard gas is its persistence.
-It will hang about in shell holes for many hours and even for days. If
-it gets into a dugout it is very difficult to get rid of it, and as
-long as there is enough to produce the faintest smell or irritation of
-the nose there is enough to bring on serious symptoms eventually. This
-means that when it is used our fellows are forced to wear their masks
-for very long stretches of time.
-
-The mustard gas is known officially by the Germans as Yellow Cross
-gas, and the shells are marked on the sides with bright yellow crosses
-and bands. The paint used for these bands changes colour in contact
-with the mustard-gas liquid, so that if a shell should leak it at once
-becomes apparent and can be taken away and buried.
-
-The Yellow Cross gas was first used at Ypres and bombardments there
-were quickly followed by similar ones at Nieuport and Armentières.
-Enormous numbers of shell of all calibres were employed, including a
-new and larger size--the 8.3-inch howitzer shell, which holds nearly
-three gallons of the liquid and can be fired a distance of six miles.
-
-At Nieuport more than fifty thousand shell were fired in one night, and
-equally large numbers were used in deluging the other towns. Since then
-the numbers used have continually increased, especially when the boche
-was preparing for an attack or expecting one of ours.
-
-Duds that were collected showed that the mustard-gas liquid was a
-chemical called dichlorethyl sulphide, a liquid that gives off its
-vapour only slowly. The shell themselves were similar to the previous
-gas shell except that the small one have a new type of fuse--a very
-simple and quick-acting fuse which bursts the shell before it can get
-into the ground, and consequently produces a very little crater. This
-of course helps to spread the gas round more than if a big hole were
-formed. The respirators keep out the Yellow Cross gas completely,
-and the blanket protection of dugouts will also keep out the gas
-splendidly. Of course if a dugout gets a direct hit with a mustard
-shell there is nothing for it but to leave it empty for some days, as
-the liquid cannot be removed by ventilation with either fans or fires.
-
-A case that will illustrate what I mean was one in which a three-inch
-mustard-gas shell got a direct hit on a doctor’s dugout and gassed
-him and his orderlies. Some time afterward the remaining orderlies
-thought they ought to send the doctor’s things down the line and went
-in and got them out of the dugout. They noticed a faint smell but did
-not worry about it, and soon afterward found themselves gassed in
-consequence.
-
-A fire was then placed in the dugout to clear it. In the meantime
-the medical sergeant secured another dugout by clearing out some
-infantrymen. In the evening the infantry felt soul-sick and wanted
-somewhere to sleep, so they went into the original gassed dugout and
-slept there. In the morning they all went down, gassed.
-
-Where there has been no direct hit and the mustard-gas vapour gets
-into the dugout, it can be cleared out just like ordinary gas, by
-ventilation either with fans or by means of fires. For clearing dugouts
-a great deal of reliance is placed nowadays on building small fires
-inside. A dugout with two entrances can be very quickly cleared by
-means of fires, as a through draft is produced, which carries the
-gas away with it; but difficulty is frequently found in getting the
-necessary fuel for the fire and in keeping the stuff handy. Bundles of
-firewood and kindling material are supposed to be kept in the dugouts
-ready for use; but, as has already been explained, the Tommies are
-always on the lookout for combustible materials for their own fires,
-and continual inspection has to be made to see that the special
-supplies for ventilation are kept available. One officer told me that
-he always had the supplies of wood, paper and kerosene kept in an
-army-biscuit tin which was closed and sealed; because, as he said,
-no Tommy would ever investigate the contents of a biscuit tin unless
-absolutely forced to do so for lack of other food.
-
-It should be realised, however, that properly protected dugouts have
-given perfect immunity from the mustard gas as long as the protection
-has remained intact, and a great deal of attention is being paid to
-increasing the number of the protected shelters in order to give the
-men the necessary rest from wearing their respirators occasioned by
-the extensive use by the boche of his Yellow Cross Shell. In Nieuport
-a special gas patrol was instituted for going the round of the town
-to see that blanket protection of cellars and shelters was kept in
-good condition, as there was always a chance that they would not be
-well looked after or that the blankets had been taken down by some
-enterprising Tommy for his own personal use.
-
-Round about battery positions the most annoying feature of the mustard
-gas is the length of time it persists. In the shell holes it can at any
-rate be partly destroyed by sprinkling with chloride of lime. It is
-rather interesting to find that in some captured German instructions
-great secrecy was laid on the use of chloride of lime for getting
-rid of the effects of mustard gas. The boche kept boxes of chloride
-of lime in all positions where the gas shell were stored, and issued
-instructions to his own troops that “the use of chloride of lime for
-the protection of our own troops against Yellow Cross liquid must not
-become known to the enemy. Observation of the strictest secrecy is
-a matter of duty just as much now as it was previously. The troops
-will be thoroughly instructed in these precautionary measures, but
-nothing will be taught them as regards the nature or composition of the
-antidote employed.”
-
-During the present offensive the Germans have used very large
-quantities of mustard gas, generally for holding purposes and against
-our rear lines, battery positions, communications and reserves. This is
-kept up for many hours in order to wear out the patience of our fellows
-and weaken them for the coming assault.
-
-Strong points that the boche does not wish to attack are also swamped
-with the gas, and when Armentières were evacuated by the British,
-Yellow Cross liquid was actually running down the gutters. But in
-places that he intends to assault he will complete the mustard-gas
-bombardment against our troops some considerable time before he
-advances; otherwise his own troops would run into it and be forced to
-don their respirators.
-
-The quantities of shell used in this preparation are enormous and
-supplies of the mustard gas must have been accumulated during the
-winter to an unexpected extent and their manufacture proceeded with to
-full capacity.
-
-Take it altogether, Yellow Cross gas is very much more than an
-annoyance, but there is no question that good discipline and thorough
-appreciation and carrying out of the orders laid down for the
-protection of troops have reduced the losses in very much the same
-way that the screwed-up discipline reduced the losses after the first
-introduction of Green Cross Shell. One of the most objectionable
-features of the mustard gas is the continual care that has to be
-exercised to prevent casualties. It is so easy for a man whose clothing
-is slightly contaminated with gas to enter a dugout and contaminate
-the whole of the interior and all its occupants. Sentries also have to
-be posted to warn troops passing through or into an area that has been
-bombarded with mustard gas, so that respirators can be put on. After a
-cold night the officers must be continually on the watch to see whether
-the vapours that rise from the warming of the earth by the morning sun
-are charged with mustard gas, and to take the necessary precautions on
-the slightest detection of the characteristic smell. This smell to my
-mind is much more like garlic than mustard, and the use of the term
-“mustard gas” is purely the origination of the Tommies themselves. As a
-matter of fact, so as not to confuse the Yellow Cross liquid with true
-mustard oil, efforts were made at first to prevent the stuff from being
-called mustard gas. But once the British Tommy decides on a name for
-anything, that name it is bound to have, and as he adopted the name
-“mustard gas” for it mustard gas it will remain for all time.
-
-The other new material that was introduced by the Germans in the
-summer of 1917 and which, like mustard gas, has been in use ever
-since is the German “sneezing gas.” For a long time high-explosive
-bombardments were reported on many occasions to be accompanied with
-violent sneezing, which at the time was laid down to the presence in
-the air of undecomposed explosive from the shell. As a matter of fact
-the sneezing was due to the presence inside the high-explosive shell
-of bottles containing chemicals the chief effect of which is to cause
-violent sneezing when small quantities get into the air. This sneezing
-material, or sternutator, to give it its scientific name, in this
-case was a solid which is atomised into tiny particles when the shell
-bursts. Chemically speaking, it is called diphenylchlorarsine. This
-material is used embedded in the trinitrotoluene of the explosive shell
-in most cases, and such shells are called Blue Cross Shell, and are
-marked accordingly. This is the third of the present trilogy of the
-German coloured-cross gas shell. The sneezing gas is also sometimes
-mixed in with the contents of the Green Cross Shell in considerable
-proportions.
-
-The idea underlying the use of this sneezing gas by the Germans was
-apparently partly that of getting a gas which they thought might go
-through our masks. In this of course they were disappointed, as the
-respirator keeps out sneezing gas perfectly well. The other idea
-underlying its use was apparently to cause such violent sneezing as to
-prevent men from getting their masks quickly adjusted or to cause them
-to sneeze them off if they had been put on.
-
-This and all sorts of other tricks of the gas-shell business have been
-tried out at various times by the Germans. While putting over Green
-Cross or Blue Cross Shell, or both, they will suddenly accompany them
-with violent bursts of shrapnel, the idea being that men will be so
-busily occupied in putting on their masks or in sneezing that they will
-not take the usual care in finding immediate cover from the shrapnel;
-or that, on the other hand, in taking cover from the shrapnel they
-will not get their masks on in the minimum time or will displace them
-in their efforts to get away.
-
-The sneezing caused by the Blue Cross Shell is a most peculiar and
-violent kind. If you get the smallest dose of this stuff into your
-lungs you start sneezing at once. You seem to sneeze from the very
-bottom of your stomach upward, and feel as if the whole of your chest
-were going to come out with it. This may continue almost continuously
-for a short time; but there are apparently no after effects unless the
-gas has been very strong indeed, in which case there is very painful
-irritation of the whole of the throat and lungs which will produce
-bronchitis.
-
-This is the present stage of development of the German gas shell.
-Whether they will add another colour to their lot of Green, Yellow and
-Blue Cross Shell we do not know, but we are prepared for it when it
-does come, and in the meantime he is getting as good as he gives.
-
-It will be news to most people to realise how the gas shell are
-gradually dominating the field. Some bombardments are composed entirely
-of gas shell. As many as a quarter of a million have been fired on
-the attacking front during twenty-four hours, and probably at least
-one-quarter of all German shell of all calibres are gas shell.
-
-It must be remembered that there are certain things that gas shell
-cannot do. They cannot replace high-explosive shell for the demolition
-of fortified works, for example. Nor can they be used for cutting
-barbed wire previous to an advance; and the creeping barrage that
-preceded the assaulting infantry cannot be made up by gas shell. An
-S O S barrage in No Man’s Land, to cut up an attack, also would have
-to be shrapnel and H. E. so as not to gas the defending troops. When
-all these are cut out it will be realised that the proportion of gas
-shell that are used against living targets must be very big indeed. It
-is hardly too much to assert that at the present day, of the actual
-methods of attacking men direct gas is the most important. It must be
-realised also that it can become, and is likely to become, still more
-important, and that the fight between the offence and the defence on
-both sides will continue until the end of the war.
-
-Since December of last year the boche has been copying a method
-invented by the British for firing a large number of big drums of gas
-simultaneously. These drums are used chiefly against the front-line
-troops and are generally filled with pure phosgene. As each bomb
-contains a gallon and a half of liquid and many hundreds are fired at
-the same moment a good high concentration of gas is produced. Warning
-is given by the tremendous roar from behind the German lines when the
-flock of canister or rum-jar bombs starts on its way. Every man who
-hears the noise gets his mask on at once, even before there is any sign
-of gas; and if he does this there is little danger, as the respirators
-are quite capable of dealing with even the very high concentrations
-of phosgene produced. If a man keeps his head and obeys orders there
-is little to fear from gas. But discipline must be high. As one Tommy
-said: “You must be so well disciplined that when the gas alarm goes you
-will even drop the rum ration so as to get your respirator on in time.”
-Beyond that it is simply a question of carrying on the work in hand
-while wearing a respirator, and this is entirely a matter of practice.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER X
-
-  Liquid Fire--First used by Germans in July, 1915--A great
-    surprise and success--German hopes from it--Construction of
-    a flame projector--Flammenwerfer companies--Their perilous
-    duties and incidents of desertion from them--Improved types of
-    projectors--Co-operation of machine-gun fire--Failure of liquid
-    fire--Its short duration and short range--Ease of escape from it.
-
-
-When the German Army entered on its policy of frightfulness there was
-none of its new and unprincipled methods which had more immediate and
-striking success than the use of liquid fire. And there is now none of
-all its methods of frightfulness which has fallen more into disrepute,
-and which has had less success when once the first surprise was over.
-
-A great deal of attention has been drawn in the newspapers to the use
-of liquid fire, but the average man, even in the fighting forces,
-knows very little about the German methods and the appliances for
-its use. Yet Germany still has special troops trained in the use
-of liquid fire, and seeks continually to alter and develop the fire
-weapons and their tactical employment in order to take advantage of
-the undoubtedly terrible appearance and destructive power of the high
-temperature flames which can be emitted. This article is intended to
-show the stage to which the development has attained and the reasons
-for the relatively innocuous character of what is probably the most
-terror-inspiring method of modern warfare.
-
-Throughout 1915 England was pouring new divisions of its National army
-into France. As with all new troops the procedure adopted at the time
-was to bring these divisions by easy stages to within a short distance
-of the front line, and then send them in by companies for a four day
-“instructional tour” in the trenches to pick up all the wrinkles and
-habits from the seasoned troops holding the line. After the whole
-formation had been put through it in this way the division would be
-allotted a definite part of the line, taking it over possibly from the
-troops with whom it had been in for instruction and allowing the latter
-to get out for a much needed rest, or to get “fattened up” for some
-impending or progressing show elsewhere.
-
-One such new division, absolutely fresh from England and with no war
-experience whatever, was the target selected by the boche for his
-new deviltry. The portion of line allotted to this division was on
-the outermost part of the Ypres salient and included the ruins of
-the little village of Hooge right at the point of the salient. This
-position had always been a hot corner--“unhealthy” in the British army
-parlance--and had changed hands several times. The trenches there were
-poor as it was almost impossible to get effective work done on them
-owing to their exposed position. Indeed there were many parts of the
-line where no movement was possible by day and the men on the posts had
-to lie “doggo” until night. The two lines were very close together--in
-many places less than twenty yards--and it was quite possible to hurl
-hand grenades from one set of trenches to the other. It was on this
-position of the line, over a front held by two battalions, that the
-attack was made.
-
-After a bombardment of several days, a mine was exploded under the
-front line and then immediately afterward, at 3:20 A. M. on the
-morning of the 29th of July and without the slightest warning, the
-front line troops were enveloped in flames. Where the flames came
-from could not be seen. All that the men knew was that they seemed
-surrounded by fierce curling flames which were accompanied by a loud
-roaring noise and dense clouds of black smoke. Here and there a big
-blob of burning oil would fall into a trench or a saphead. Shouts
-and yells rent the air as individual men, rising up in the trenches
-or attempting to move in the open, felt the force of the flames. The
-only way to safety appeared to be to the rear. This direction the men
-that were left took. For a short space the flames pursued them, and
-the local retirement became a local rout. Then the flames stopped and
-machine guns began to take toll of the fugitives. Only one man from the
-front trenches is known to have returned. German infantry following up,
-poured into the breach in the line, widened it, took our positions as
-far back as Sanctuary Wood, and then consolidated.
-
-Ten days afterward we counter attacked and won back the whole of
-the line concerned but at very considerable cost. Incidentally, we
-captured two of the German flame projectors, one of them complete, and
-they proved to be of the greatest possible use to us subsequently for
-educating the army in the new warfare, and for inspection by our own
-experts with a view to their duplication for retaliation.
-
-Any one attempting to blame the troops attacked for their retirement
-can hardly appreciate the circumstances, and, I am convinced,
-over-estimates his own capacity for resistance. This attack was an
-utter surprise--the kind of warfare was unknown and unheard of. Imagine
-being faced by a spread of flame exactly similar to that used for the
-oil burners under the biggest boilers, but with a jet nearly sixty feet
-in length and capable of being sprayed round as one might spray water
-with a fire hose. Personally, I am pretty sure, had I been there, that
-I should have hopped it if I had not been fried by the heat or frozen
-with terror. Later, when we knew the limitations of these things it was
-different, though even then it is a pretty good test of a man’s nerve.
-
-The flame projectors taken by the 14th Division in the counter attack
-were simple but very interesting in construction. The main part was
-a cylindrical vessel of steel about two feet in height and fifteen
-inches in diameter provided with straps so that it could be carried on
-a man’s back. At one side about two-thirds of the way up was a filling
-hole for oil, closed by a screw cap. Near the top was a pressure gauge
-attachment and toward the base was a lock closed by a lever handle and
-to which could be attached a long length of flexible hose ending in a
-peculiar shaped nozzle.
-
-On examination it was found that the body of the projector was divided
-internally into two compartments which could be connected by opening
-another tap. The upper compartment was the compressor and the lower
-the oil reservoir. The compressor chamber was filled to a pressure
-of twenty-three atmospheres with deoxygenated air or nitrogen. Air
-itself cannot be used because of its oxygen content forming an
-explosive mixture with the vapours from the oil, and any heating on
-compression, or back-flash from the flame or fuse, might make things
-very unpleasant for the operator. The nitrogen required for the flame
-projectors is carried into the field in large cylinders about 4 feet 6
-inches in length and 6 inches in diameter. Several of these cylinders
-have been captured from the enemy since. These cylinders are actually
-taken into the trenches and the flame projectors charged from them
-there.
-
-The combustible liquid used in the flame throwers has varied in
-source and composition from time to time, but it invariably has one
-characteristic which appears to be essential for good results--it must
-have light or easily volatile and heavy and less volatile fractions
-mixed in carefully graded proportions. The heavy oil has sometimes
-been a petroleum product and sometimes a tarry residual oil from the
-distillation of wood. The light portion, which insures the jet’s
-keeping alight was originally a light gasolene, but at one period,
-whether from shortage of petrol or not I do not know, the place of the
-latter in the mixture was taken by ordinary commercial ether.
-
-The lighting device, fixed at the end of the flexible hose, is the
-most ingenious part of the whole contrivance and is so made that the
-oil ignites spontaneously the minute the jet is turned on, and is
-kept alight by a fiercely burning mixture which lasts throughout the
-discharge.
-
-The nozzle is about 9 inches long and detachable so that replacement is
-easy. It clips into the end of the tube and is held in position by an
-annular ring. When the oil with its twenty-three atmospheres pressure
-behind it is rushed out of the jet, it forces up the plunger of a
-friction lighter and ignites a core of a fierce burning fuse mixture
-which fills the whole of the space between the central tube and an
-outer casing. The latter consists of a thick wick soaked in paraffin
-wax and fitting loosely into a thin brass case.
-
-When the nozzle is in position all that is necessary is to turn on the
-tap, and the stream of flame issues from the tube and can be directed
-at will.
-
-The official name for this instrument we discovered was the
-“_Flammenwerfer_” (flame thrower) and it is now never known in the
-British army by anything else than its German name. Indeed this is one
-of the very few German words we have adopted as an outcome of the war,
-the only others I can remember being “_strafe_” and “_Kamerad_.”
-
-Flammenwerfer attacks are made by the 3rd and 4th Guard Pioneer
-Battalions and by the Guard Reserve Pioneer Regiment--all of which
-troops are specially trained in flame tactics. Each battalion is
-composed of six companies and each company is equipped with 18 small
-or portable projectors similar to that described above, and with 20-22
-large projectors of greater range. The latter larger flammenwerfer are
-built on the same principle as the former, but are too heavy to be used
-as mobile weapons. They are consequently built in to the trenches at
-about 27 yards from the opposing lines, and, if the trenches are not
-close enough together for the purpose, special saps are pushed out
-and the flammenwerfer installed at the end. The range of these large
-projectors is 33-44 yards and they can cover a front of 55 yards with
-flames.
-
-It is probable that in the attack at Hooge that both large and small
-flammenwerfer were employed.
-
-It is possible with the above equipment for a flame company to cover a
-total front of 1100-1600 yards.
-
-Service in the Guard Reserve Pioneers is apparently a form of
-punishment. Men convicted of offences in other regiments are
-transferred either for a time or permanently, and are forced under
-threat of death to engage in the most hazardous enterprises and carry
-out the most dangerous work. The following incident will serve to show
-how the German soldiers are hounded to their death in these engagements.
-
-In the summer of last year a small flammenwerfer attack was made
-against our line at a point near Monchy, south of Arras. Two boches
-armed with flame projectors of a modified pattern were instructed to
-attack one of our advanced posts which was at the head of a sap running
-out toward the German trenches. In broad daylight and with no covering
-fire worth talking about these two poor devils were forced over the top
-with revolvers pressed into their backs. One was shot down immediately.
-The other managed to get clear of his own barbed wire and then
-discarded his apparatus, with the intention of crawling over to us and
-deserting. By this time, however, he had been badly shot up--whether
-by his own people as well as by us, I cannot say. His left arm and his
-right thigh were both smashed, and he had two bullets in his abdomen.
-Nevertheless this man managed to crawl into our lines and was taken
-care of. He was sent down to a Casualty Clearing Station in a perilous
-condition, but despite his terrible injuries I understand the doctors
-managed to patch him up, and that he recovered completely.
-
-The portable flammenwerfer used in the attack just described was
-brought in by our patrols the following night, the spot where he
-had left it being accurately described by the wounded prisoner. It
-was found to be of a new pattern and other specimens of the same
-construction have since been captured, chiefly in the neighbourhood of
-Lens where they were employed by the boche in the course of abortive
-counter attacks against the Canadians.
-
-In this pattern, which is shown in detail in the photograph, the
-compressed nitrogen is contained in a spherical-vessel which is
-contained inside a ring-shaped oil container. The whole thing looks
-like a life preserver and is mounted on a light frame so that it can
-be comfortably carried on the back. For a man who may suddenly have to
-get down on his stomach and crawl, the apparatus is much more compact
-and better fitting to the body than the original type, but it has no
-advantage over the older varieties as regards range or duration.
-
-The flexible hose which carries the lighting nozzle is made of canvas
-and rubber, and enemy documents which have been captured show that only
-one tube is provided for each three reservoirs. After the discharge of
-one apparatus the long tube is supposed to be fitted with a new nozzle
-and handed on to the others in succession.
-
-The flammenwerfer companies are divided into squads. Following the
-German army habit of adopting contractions--a habit presumably forced
-on them by their cumbersome word-building language, the squads are
-designated _Groftruppe_ or _Kleiftruppe_, according as they are armed
-with large or small projectors. The former is a contraction for
-_Grosser-flammenwerfertrupp_ (large flame projector squad), and the
-latter for _Kleiner-flammenwerfertrupp_ (small flame projector squad).
-
-In the case of attacks with the large projectors, or a combined attack
-with both sizes, the chief thing is secrecy of installation in the
-trenches. If it was ascertained or suspected that flammenwerfer were
-being put in, our gunners would open on the position in no time and
-blow the apparatus sky-high. As it is necessary to sap out to within 27
-yards of our lines in order to get in a “shot,” it can readily be seen
-that the possibilities of using the large projectors are very limited,
-and as a matter of fact little use has been made of them.
-
-Attacks with the portable projectors are more possible owing to their
-greater mobility. But here again the essential part of the tactics and
-the most difficult thing to do is to get near enough the target to
-make the shot effective. The range is only fifty to sixty feet. The
-German idea is to cover the advance of the “_Kleif_” men by protecting
-machine-gun fire.
-
-In an attack, the advance of the company is covered by machine-gun fire
-from each side, converging at a point on the opposing trenches. In the
-triangle thus formed the attacking force, the “_Kleiftruppe_” in front,
-then a party of bombers, and finally the raiding or attacking party
-take up their positions in No Man’s Land and crawl as far forward as
-possible in the “protected area.” As soon as the flame projectors are
-within range, the machine guns switch outward to each side, the flame
-is discharged and the bombers rush in and try their luck in the trench.
-If things go well, the infantry follows the bombing party and proceeds
-to its objective.
-
-In an attack of this kind, or a less well-supported attack such as
-that at Arras, mentioned above, the attackers suffer from two such
-severe disadvantages that against well-disciplined troops they stand
-little chance. These disadvantages are (1) the flammenwerfer carriers
-have to get so near their objective that they are almost certain to be
-shot, and they then become a source of danger to their own side; (2)
-men in trenches know they are perfectly safe from frontal flame attack
-if they keep well down and hug the parapet side of the trench. The
-reason for this is that the flame will not sink down into a trench,
-but having little force behind it at the end of its journey is curled
-_upward_ by the rising currents of hot air. The result is that any
-sort of head cover (unless made of wood) makes perfect protection, and
-a man crouching in a trench or even lying prone in a shell hole, is
-very unlikely to be more than slightly scorched at the very worst. I
-can vouch for this, for I have lain at the bottom of a trench with the
-flames playing over my head and have not been injured in the slightest,
-though I confess to being very much relieved when the flame stopped.
-The only danger in trenches to men who keep their heads is that of
-“blobs” of burning oil falling from the end of the fiery stream, but
-this is not a very serious chance.
-
-Another serious disability in the German liquid fire is its very short
-duration. The stream of flame from the portable flammenwerfer lasts
-rather less than one minute. It is impossible to charge up again on
-the spot, and the result is that once the flame stops the whole game
-is finished and the operators are at our mercy. Without making the
-apparatus of a prohibitive weight, the duration of the flame cannot be
-increased. Even the heavy projectors give only a flame lasting at the
-best one minute and a quarter.
-
-It must be realised that it is discipline and coolness (if one may use
-the word) which count, and that the moral effect on unsteady troops,
-unaware of the fact that the appalling flames have little destructive
-value, may be very great indeed. When men have bolted from the trenches
-into the open they are an easy prey.
-
-An enfilade attack, i.e., one made from a flank, would be much more
-dangerous were it not for the difficulty of approach and the fact that
-the traverses of a fire-trench are as good protection against flame as
-the parapet. Only where the “_Kleif_” squad can approach under cover
-and get in its shot at an exposed target is the flammenwerfer likely to
-have much success nowadays.
-
-A certain amount of value was obtained from their use in this way in
-the attack on Verdun for reducing isolated strong-points, notably
-fortified farmhouses and broken down cottages in the ruined villages.
-In certain cases the flame projector carriers were enabled to approach
-under cover or by crawling among the ruins and heaps of debris, to
-within striking distance of the otherwise well protected machine-gun
-emplacements and positions. By suddenly playing the fire jet into the
-loopholes, enough flame penetrated into the interior of the emplacement
-to put the machine-gun and its crew out of action--either temporarily
-or permanently. This was the opportunity awaited by the covering party
-of bombers who would rush the post the minute the flame ceased, having
-made their approach while the projectors were in action.
-
-But even for special cases like these the circumstances must be so
-favourable and the inherent disadvantages are so great that the
-flammenwerfer cannot be counted on to attain the required result.
-
-The low value placed by the Allies on the German flame attack can
-be realised from the fact that no special form of cover is provided
-against it. There is no special form of fireproof clothing or other
-protection issued to the troops, and the instructions for meeting the
-attack may be summarised as “Shoot the man carrying the apparatus
-before he gets in his shot if possible. If this cannot be done take
-cover from the flames and shoot him afterward.”
-
-
-
-
-TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
-
-
-  Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.
-
-  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
-
-  Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.
-
-  Archaic or variant spelling has been retained.
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GAS AND FLAME IN MODERN
-WARFARE ***
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