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.