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.