DEFENSE AGAINST GAS
(From the Field Point of View)
The best defense against any implement of war is a vigorous offense
with the same implement. This is a military axiom that cannot be
too often, or too greatly emphasized, though like other axioms it
cannot be applied too literally. It needs a proper interpretation—the
interpretation varying with time and circumstances. Thus in gas
warfare, a vigorous offense with gas is the best defense against
gas. This does not mean that the enemy’s gas can be ignored. Indeed,
it is more important to make use of all defensive measures against
gas than it is against any other form of attack. Gas being heavier
than air, rolls along the ground, filling dugouts, trenches, woods
and valleys—just the places that are safest from bullets and high
explosives. There it remains for hours after it has blown away in the
open, and, since the very air itself is poisoned, it is necessary not
only that protection be general but that it be continuous during the
whole time the gas is present.
EARLIEST PROTECTIVE APPLIANCES
The earliest protection against gas was the crudest sort of a mask.
The first gas used was chlorine and since thousands of people in civil
life were used to handling it, many knew that certain solutions, as
hyposulfite of soda, would readily destroy it. They also knew that
if the breath could be drawn through material saturated with those
solutions, the chlorine would be destroyed. Thus it was that the first
masks were simple cotton, or cotton waste pads, which were dipped into
hyposulfite of soda solutions and applied to the mouth and nose during
a gas attack. These pads were awkward, unsanitary, and, due to the long
intervals between gas attacks, were frequently lost, while the solution
itself was often spilled or evaporated. The net result of all this was
poor protection and disgust with the so-called masks.
DESIGN OF NEW MASKS
After using these, or similar poor excuses for a mask, for a few weeks,
the British designed what was known as the PH helmet. In a gas attack
the sack was pulled over the head and tucked under the blouse around
the neck, the gas-tight fit being obtained by buttoning the blouse
over the ends of the sack. This PH helmet was quite successful against
chlorine and, to a much less extent, against phosgene, a new gas
introduced during the spring of 1916.
But it was warm and stuffy in summer—the very time when gas is used to
the greatest extent—while the chemicals in the cloth irritated the face
and eyes, especially when combined with some of the poisonous gases.
Probably as a result of experience with oxygen apparatus in mine rescue
work, Colonel Harrison suggested making a mask of which the principal
part was a box filled with chemicals and carried on the chest. A
flexible tube connected the box with a mouthpiece of rubber. Breathing
was thus through the mouth and in order to insure that no air would be
breathed in through the nose, a noseclip was added.
This, of course, cared for the lungs, but did not protect the eyes.
Their protection was secured by making a facepiece of rubberized cloth
with elastics to hold it tight against the face. The efficiency of this
mask depends, then, first upon the ability of the facepiece to keep out
lachrymatory gases which affect the eyes, and, second, upon a proper
combination of chemicals in the box, to purify the air drawn into the
lungs through the mouthpiece. (Details are given in Chapter XII).
PROTECTION AGAINST SMOKE
While the charcoal and soda-lime granules furnished an adequate
protection against all known true gases, they did not furnish
protection against certain smokes or against minute particles of
liquid gas. Since certain smokes, as stannic chloride, though not
deadly, are so highly irritating as to make life unbearable, it early
became necessary to devise means for keeping them from going through
the masks. This was done in the first masks by adding a sufficient
thickness of cotton batting. The cotton was usually placed in three
layers alternating with the charcoal and granules, as it was thought
the latter would be held in place better by that means.
Some time after stannic chloride came into use the Germans started
firing shells containing a small quantity of diphenylchloroarsine,
popularly known as “Sneezing Gas.” Protection against this is discussed
in Chapter XVIII.
CHOICE OF MASKS FOR U. S. TROOPS
When it became necessary, with the creation of a Chemical Warfare
Service in France in August, 1917, to decide upon a mask for American
troops, there were available for purchase two types—the British
type and the French M-2. The French M-2 consisted essentially of 32
layers of cloth impregnated with various chemicals, through which
the air was breathed both in and out. This mask was quite effective
against ordinary field concentrations of most gases, but was utterly
inadequate to care for the high concentration of phosgene obtained in
the front line from cloud gas or from projector gas attacks. It was
also poor against chloropicrin. The M-2 was, however, very light and
easy to carry and moreover was deemed sufficient to protect against
concentrations of cloud gas even, at points more than five miles
distant from the front line.
Furthermore, it was felt desirable at first to have an auxiliary or
emergency mask in addition to the principal one, for use in case
the principal mask was worn out or damaged. Accordingly both types
of masks were adopted and the day after Fries took charge of the
Chemical Warfare Service, A.E.F., on August 22, 1917, 100,000 of each
were purchased, although there were then only ten or twelve thousand
American troops in France requiring masks. Later additional masks of
both kinds were purchased to tide over the American troops until a
sufficient quantity of the British type masks could be manufactured in
the United States. The total of British masks purchased amounted to
about 700,000.
However, within a comparatively short time after American troops got
into the front line it was realized that a second mask, inferior in
protection to the first, was highly undesirable. During a gas attack
men seemed to acquire an uncontrollable desire to shift from one
mask to the other. This shifting in nearly every case resulted in a
casualty. We then came rapidly to the conclusion that one mask only
should be furnished, and that one the best that could be made, and
then to impress upon the soldier the fact that his life depended upon
the care he took of his mask. This proved to be an entirely sound
conclusion, as the number of men gassed through injuries to the mask
was comparatively small. An interesting proof of the value the soldier
placed upon his mask was shown by the articles of equipment thrown away
by 10,000 British stragglers in the great German offensive of March,
1918. Of the articles thus thrown away the gas mask came at the foot of
the list, with only 800 missing. The steel helmet is said to have come
next with about 4,000 missing.
SIZES OF FACES FOR MASKS
When adopting the British respirator in August, 1917, it was decided
that the American face as well as the American stature was probably
larger than the English. Accordingly inquiry was made in regard to
the sizes of masks issued to the Canadians as it was thought probable
they required a greater proportion of the larger size masks than did
the English. When prescribing the relative quantities of each size
of mask to be furnished Americans, the Canadian requirements were
taken as a base but with the larger sizes increased slightly over the
Canadian requirements. As a matter of fact even these increases proved
considerably too small, so that the numbers in the two sizes above
normal had to be finally more than doubled.
OBJECTIONS TO GERMAN TYPE MASK
The American Gas Service felt from the beginning that a design which
attached the box of chemicals to the facepiece was unsound in principle
(this design was used in the German mask and in the French A. R. S.
masks), since it did not allow proper flexibility for increasing the
size of the box to care for new gases. Furthermore, the weight of the
box during movement caused the facepiece to swing slightly from side
to side. This interfered with vision and tended to lift the facepiece
away from the face and allow gas to enter. That the objections of
the American Gas Service to this type were correct was proved by the
difficulty encountered toward the end of the war by both the French
and the Germans in trying to provide a suitable filter for protection
against particulate clouds and the smokes, such as stannic chloride and
diphenylchloroarsine.
STRUGGLE BETWEEN MASK AND GAS
As between the mask and poisonous gases, we have the old struggle of
the battleship armor against the armor-piercing projectile. While the
armor-piercing projectile has always had a little the better of the
game, it is just the reverse with gases. The gas mask has always been
just a little better than the gases, so that very few casualties have
occurred through failure of the mask itself. This margin of safety
has never been any too great, and that we have had a margin at all
is due to the energy, skill and enthusiasm of those developing and
manufacturing masks in England, France, and particularly in the United
States.
However, the mask at the best is uncomfortable, causes some loss of
vigor, and even with the very best American masks there is some loss in
vision. The wearing effect on troops results mostly from the increased
resistance to breathing. Accordingly a tremendous amount of study and
effort was made to decrease this breathing resistance. In the English
type masks this resistance was equal to the vacuum required to raise
a column of water about four and one-half inches. Adding the sulfite
paper to protect against diphenylchloroarsine increased this resistance
by about one inch. This put a heavy burden on the wearer of the mask
whenever it was necessary for him to do any manual labor while wearing
it. In addition earlier masks left a good deal to be desired in the
way of reducing resistance by proper sized tubes, angles and valves
through which the air was drawn. This was much more easily overcome
than reducing the resistance through the chemicals and charcoal and the
materials for protection against diphenylchloroarsine. In the latest
type canister, devised after long trials for the American forces, this
resistance was brought down to about two inches of water. What this
reduction in resistance means no one knows except one who has worn the
old mask with its mouthpiece and four to six inches’ resistance and has
then replaced that mask for one through which he breathes naturally
with only two inches’ resistance.
DESIGN OF NEW AMERICAN MASK
The American Gas Service felt from the beginning that the mouthpiece
and noseclip must be abandoned and bent every effort toward getting a
mask perfected for that purpose. The English opposed this view fiercely
for nearly a year. This position on the part of the English was more or
less natural. They developed their mask in the beginning for protection
against cloud gas. In those days the opposing trenches were close
together. Moreover, front line trenches were quite strongly manned.
The result was that a large number of men were exposed to a very high
concentration of gas, but—and highly important—for a short period
only. Inasmuch as the German feared this cloud gas even more than
the English there was no danger of his attacking in it. The English
rules of conduct during a gas attack called for all movement to stop
and for every man to stand ready until the cloud passed. Accordingly,
the man was breathing the easiest possible and hence did not suffer
particularly from the resistance.
With the advent of mustard gas, however, the whole general scheme of
protection changed. Mustard gas, as is well known, is effective in
extremely low concentrations and has very great persistency. In dry
warm weather mustard gas, scattered on the ground and shrubbery, will
not be fully evaporated for two to three days and accordingly will
give off vapors that not only burn the lungs and eyes but the soft,
moist parts of the skin as well. In cool, damp weather the gas remains
in dangerous quantity for a week and occasionally longer. Since this
gas, in liquid form, evaporates too slowly for use in gas clouds,
it is used altogether in bombs and shells. Accordingly it could be
expected to be and actually is fired at all ranges from the front line
to nearly eight miles back of that line. Hence, with the coming of
mustard gas, the need for protection changed from high protection for
a short period to moderate protection for very long periods. Indeed,
mustard gas makes it necessary for men to wear masks just as long as
they remain in an area infected with it. There is still occasional need
for high protection for short periods, but with the increase in the
efficiency of charcoal alone, it is found that the amount of charcoal
and chemicals in the canister can be very greatly reduced and still
maintain sufficient protection for the high concentrations encountered
in cloud gas and projector attacks.
EXHAUSTION AND MALINGERING
It seems physically impossible for the ordinary man to wear the British
mask with its mouthpiece and noseclip more than six to eight hours
and vast numbers are unable to even do that. How many thousands of
casualties were suffered through men losing their mental balance from
exhaustion and the discomfort of the mouthpiece and noseclip no one
knows. Such men tore off the mask, stating that they would rather
die than endure the torture of wearing it longer. Furthermore, the
poor vision of this mask led to the habit of taking the facepiece
off while still leaving the mouthpiece and noseclip in place. This
gave protection to the lungs, but exposed the eyes, and as mustard
gas affects the eyes very readily this alone led to thousands of
casualties. There was another interesting side to this situation. The
malingerer who wanted to get out of the front line and was willing to
take any action, however cowardly, to achieve that end, deliberately
removed the facepiece and thus suffered gassing of the eyes. The effect
of mustard gas soon became so well known that the malingerer knew
gassing of the eyes never resulted in death or permanent loss of sight.
With the new type of American mask, the protection of eyes and lungs
depends solely upon the fit around the face and no such playing with
the mask can be done.
Without going into further details in regard to masks it is sufficient
to state that at the end the Americans had produced a mask thoroughly
comfortable, giving complete protection against gases and smoke clouds,
and one that was easy to manufacture on the huge scale (fifty to
seventy-five thousand per day) which was necessary to provide masks for
an army of three to four million men in the field.
PROTECTION IN WAR IS RELATIVE ONLY
Napoleon is credited with saying “In order to make an omelet, it is
necessary to break some eggs.” Every student of war realizes that
casualties cannot be avoided in battle and yet one American Staff
Officer went so far as to refuse to use gas offensively unless the
Chemical Warfare Service could absolutely guarantee that not a single
American casualty could occur under any circumstances. This same
idea early got into the heads of the laboratory workers on masks.
They seemed to feel that if a single gas casualty occurred through
failure of the mask, their work would be a failure or at least they
would be open to severe criticism. Accordingly efforts were made to
perfect masks and to perfect protection regardless of the discomfort
imposed upon the wearer of the mask. This idea was very difficult to
eradicate. The laboratory worker who accustoms himself to experiment
with a particular thing forgets that he develops an ability to endure
discomfort, that is not possible of attainment by the ordinary man in
the time available for his training.
Furthermore, if the need for such training can be avoided it is of
course highly desirable. This applies to the mouthpiece of the British
respirator; to elastics that cause undue discomfort to the face; to
the noseclip and to the large boxes that cause too great resistance to
breathing.
It may be taken as a general rule that when protection requires so
much effort or becomes so much of a burden that the average man cannot
or will not endure it, it is high time to find out what the average
man will stand and then provide it even if some casualties result.
Protection in battle is always relative. A man who cannot balance
protection against legitimate risk has no business passing on arms,
equipment or tactics to be used in battle.
TRAINING
Bitter experience taught the Allies as well as the Americans that no
matter how efficient the gas mask and other defensive appliances, they
would not take the place of thorough and constant training. One of the
greatest difficulties at first was to get American troops to realize
that a thing as invisible as gas, with in many cases no offensive smell
and producing no immediate discomfort, could be deadly. Nothing but
constant drill and constant reiteration of these dangers could get this
fact impressed on them. Indeed it never was impressed sufficiently in
any of the earlier divisions of American troops in the line to prevent
their taking such chances that each division suffered heavy loss on one
or more occasions from gas attacks.
A great deal of emphasis had been placed by the English upon the
adjustment of the mask in the shortest possible time, this time having
been officially set at six seconds after the alarm. The Americans
in adopting the mask _in toto_ naturally had to adopt the rules for
adjusting it and wearing it. Experience, however, taught them in a
few months that the effort to attain too great speed was dangerous.
It tended to rattle the soldier and to result in poor adjustment of
the mask, both of which led to casualties. Accordingly in the latest
instructions for defense against gas all reference to six seconds was
eliminated and emphasis placed on the necessity of accurate adjustment
of the mask. Inasmuch as any man, practically without effort or
previous drill, can hold his breath for twenty seconds, the need for
great speed in adjusting the mask is not apparent.
HOLDING THE BREATH
The first regulations and those in general use up to near the close of
hostilities, prescribed that the soldier should hold his breath and
adjust his mask. It seemed impossible to overcome the natural inference
that “holding the breath” meant first the drawing of a full breath.
This was obviously highly dangerous if gas were actually present
before the alarm was heard, as was often the case with projector and
artillery gas shell attacks. The change was then made to the phrase
“Stop Breathing and Stay Stopped until the Mask is Carefully and
Accurately Adjusted.”
PSYCHOLOGY IN TRAINING
While the importance of impressing upon the soldier the danger of gas
was early appreciated it was deemed necessary not to make him unduly
afraid of the gas. However, as gas defense training in our Army got
a big start over gas offense training, this became a matter of very
great importance. In fact, due to a variety of causes, training in
the offensive use of gas was not available for any troops until after
their arrival in France. This resulted in officers and men looking upon
the gas game, so far as they were individually concerned, as one of
defense only. Accordingly after their arrival in France it became very
difficult not only to get some of our officers to take up the offensive
use of gas but even to get them to permit its use along the front they
commanded.
Notwithstanding all the care taken in training Americans in gas defense
there arose an undue fear of the gas that had to be overcome in order
to get our troops to attack close enough to their own gas to make it
effective. This applied to the use of gas by artillery as well as
to its use by gas troops. However, it should be said that in every
instance where gas was once used on an American front all officers in
the Division, or other unit, affected by it were always thereafter
strongly in favor of it.
GERMAN PROBLEMS IN GAS TRAINING
The Germans also had serious troubles of their own over the psychology
of gas training. As stated elsewhere they were using mustard gas nearly
eleven months before the Allies began using it. During that time, for
purposes of morale, if not sheer boastfulness, the Germans told their
men that mustard gas could not be made by the Allies; that it was by
far the worst thing the war had produced—and in that statement they
were correct—and that they would win the war with it—in which statement
they were far from correct. When the Allies began sending it back
to them they had to reverse their teachings and tell their men that
mustard gas was no worse than anything else, that they need not be
afraid of it and that their masks and other protective appliances gave
full protection against it. They thus had a problem in psychology which
they never succeeded in fully solving. Indeed there is no question but
that the growing fear of gas in the minds of the German is one of the
reasons that prompted him to his early capitulation.
GAS AT NIGHT
In the early days it was very difficult to get officers to realize
the absolute necessity of night drill in the adjustment of the mask.
For various reasons, including surprise, gas attacks were probably
eighty to ninety per cent of the time carried out at night. Under
such conditions confusion in the adjustment of the mask is inevitable
without a great deal of practice before hand, especially for duty in
trenches with narrow spaces and sharp projecting corners. There are
numerous instances of men waking up and getting excited, who not only
gassed themselves, but in their mad efforts to find their masks, or
to escape from the gas, knocked others down, disarranging their masks
and causing the gassing of from one to three or four additional men.
The confusion inherent in any gas attack was heightened in the latter
stages of the war by heavy shrapnel and high explosive bombardments
that accompanied nearly all projector and cloud gas attacks for that
very purpose. The bombardment was continued for three or four hours to
cause exhaustion and removal of the mask and to prevent the removal of
the gassed patients from the gassed area.
DETECTION OF GASES
Efforts were made by the enemy and by all the Allies throughout the war
to invent a mechanical detector that would show when gas was present
in dangerous quantities. While scores, perhaps hundreds, of these were
invented none proved simple, quick, or certain enough in action to make
their adoption desirable. In every case it was necessary to rely on
the sense of smell. Thus it was that as the war wore on, more and more
attention was given to training officers and non-commissioned officers
to detect various kinds of gases in dangerous quantities by the sense
of smell.
In the American Gas Defense School for officers this was done wholly by
using captured German gases. This was because certain gases have quite
different smells, depending upon the impurities in the gas and also
upon the solvents sometimes mixed with them. Thus the German mustard
gas has a mustard smell, while the Allies mustard gas, due to a slight
difference in the method of manufacture, has a very perfect garlic
odor. Not only must officers and men who handle gas training know the
smell of the various gases, but they must know when the concentration
of each is high enough to be dangerous. This is not easy to learn
because the strength of the various gases in dangerous concentrations
varies through wide limits. Not only does the strength of the gases
vary and the sharpness of the odors accordingly, but the mingling of
poisonous gases with other gases from high explosive and shrapnel tends
to obscure these odors and make them more difficult of detection.
DECEPTIVE GASES
A great deal of thought was given toward the end of the war to the
subject of deceptive gases which could by powerful or peculiar odors
mask the dangerous gases. This masking was to deceive the enemy when
dangerous gases were present or to admit an attack without masks while
the enemy was wearing his through thinking there was a dangerous gas
when as a matter of fact none existed.
In gas warfare, the German, as well as the Allies, was exercising his
ingenuity in devising new and startling methods of making gas attacks.
A well known trick with the German was to fire gases for several days,
particularly against green troops, in concentrations so slight as to
do no harm. When he felt that he had lulled those troops to a sense of
the ineffectiveness of his gas, he sent over a deadly concentration.
In spite of the warning that this was what was happening, he often
achieved too great a success. Before the war closed, however, the
American was beginning to out-think and out-wit the German in this
method of warfare.
MUSTARD GAS BURNS
With the advent of mustard gas which burned the body, a new and serious
difficulty in protection arose. At first it was thought mustard gas
burned only when the liquid from the bursting shell actually splashed
on the clothing or skin. This was unfortunately soon found to be not
true. The gas itself rapidly penetrates clothing and burns the skin
even when the concentration of the gas is very low. Probably the
majority of burns from mustard gas arose from concentrations of gas
consisting of less than one part of gas to five hundred thousand of
air. Furthermore, the gas is fully fifty per cent cumulative in its
effects, that is, in extremely low concentrations over a period of
hours it will produce more than fifty per cent the effect that a far
higher concentration would produce in a relatively shorter time.
The Allies were not long in discovering that oilcloth afforded very
complete protection against mustard gas. The ordinary oilcloth,
however, was too thick, too hot and too heavy for general use.
Experiments soon showed that cloth thoroughly impregnated with boiled
linseed oil would give protection. In order to make this protection
more perfect a certain amount of paraffin was added. All this made
the clothing air-tight, rather stiff and always uncomfortable.
Notwithstanding these discomforts, hundreds of thousands of oiled
suits, and as many pairs of oiled gloves were made and issued to
artillery troops, and to troops especially charged with handling
mustard gas shells, or to those employed in destroying mustard gas in
shell holes by spreading chloride of lime over them.
The importance of protection against mustard gas burns led to extensive
researches being made with a view to finding a cloth which would be
comfortable and porous and while stopping mustard gas would yet be
sufficiently durable and comfortable to be issued to infantry troops as
well as to artillery and other special troops. This, it is understood,
had been achieved, just prior to the Armistice. Still more desirable
would be the discovery of a chemical substance which could be applied
to all uniforms and Army clothing and thus protect the regulation
clothing against the penetration of mustard gas, and thereby avoid
carrying extra clothing for that special purpose.
PROTECTING TROOPS BY MOVING THEM FROM INFECTED AREAS
As soon as it was fully realized that mustard gas persisted for
several days it was decided to run complete reliefs of men into and
out of areas that had been heavily shelled with mustard gas, or better
still, where practicable, to completely evacuate the area. Inasmuch
as the gas is dangerous to friend and foe alike, this method was
comparatively safe and was used to a very considerable extent. With
the warfare of movement that existed over most of the active front
throughout the season of 1918, this moving of troops out of infected
areas became highly important and, when skillfully done, often resulted
in a great saving of troops and at the same time prevented the enemy
from receiving any particular tactical advantage from his mustard gas
attacks.
There was one very excellent example of this a few miles to the
northwest of Château-Thierry prior to the counter-offensive of July 18,
1918. At that time the Germans heavily shelled with mustard gas four or
five small woods and two or three villages. It was necessary for the
men to stay in these woods during the day, as they afforded the only
protection obtainable from machine guns, shrapnel and high explosive.
At the time this occurred American gas officers generally understood
the necessity of getting troops out of a mustard gas infected area.
Accordingly all began searching for places safe from the mustard gas.
In one particular instance the gas officer of a regiment discovered
that a portion of the woods his men were in was free from the gas,
and the regimental commander, promptly following his advice, moved
his troops into the free area. As a result of this prompt action the
regiment had only four light gas casualties, although all told there
were several hundred mustard gas casualties in this attack, the number
per thousand generally being from ten to twenty times that of the
thousand men just mentioned.
MIXING POISONOUS GASES
On this as well as other occasions the Germans fired some diphosgene
and Blue Cross (Sneezing gas), as well as mustard gas. This added to
the difficulty of determining areas free from the latter. In the future
such mixing of poisonous gases may always be expected and, in addition,
gases which have no value other than that of masking the poisonous
ones will be fired. While with practically all gases except mustard
gas a man is comparatively safe while breathing a concentration very
noticeable to the sense of smell, the only safe rule with mustard gas
is to consider as dangerous any concentration that can be smelled.
For the reason that this gas persists longer in calm areas, woods are
always to be avoided, where practicable, and also, since all gases,
being heavier than air, tend to roll into depressions and valleys, they
should be avoided. There have been a number of authentic cases where
batteries in hollows or valleys suffered severely from mustard gas,
while troops on nearby knolls or ridges were comparatively free, though
the difference in the amount of shelling of the two places was not
noticeable.
Of great importance with all gases is the posting of a sufficient
number of sentries around men sleeping within the range of gas shell.
The worst projector gas attack against the Americans was one where the
projectors were landed among a group of dugouts containing men asleep
without sentries. The result was a very heavy casualty list, coupled
with a high death rate, the men being gassed in their sleep before they
were awakened.
DESTRUCTION OF MUSTARD GAS
Prior to the introduction of mustard gas all that was necessary to get
rid of gas was to thoroughly ventilate the spot. Thus in trenches and
dugouts, fires were found to be very efficient, simply because they
produced a circulation of air. In the early days, among the British,
the Ayrton fan, a sort of canvas scoop, was used to throw the gas out
of the trenches. While this was taken up in the American Service, it
did not become very important, since it was found that, under ordinary
atmospheric conditions, natural ventilation soon carried the gas out of
the trench proper, while fires in dugouts were far more efficient than
the fans. Likewise the Ayrton fan smacked too much of trench warfare
which had reached a condition of “stalemate”—a condition that never
appealed to the Americans and a condition that it is hoped never will.
With mustard gas, however, conditions were entirely changed. This
liquid having a very high boiling point and evaporating very slowly,
remains for days in the earth and on vegetation and other material
sprinkled with it. This was particularly true in shell holes where the
force of the explosion drove the gas into the earth around the broken
edges of the hole. While many substances were experimented with, that
which proved best and most practical under all conditions, was chloride
of lime. This was used to sprinkle in shell holes, on floors of dugouts
and any other places where the liquid might be splashed from bursting
shells. It was also found very desirable to have a small box of this at
the entrance to each dugout, so that a person who had been exposed to
mustard gas could thoroughly coat his shoes with it and thus kill the
mustard gas that collected in the mud on the bottom and sides of his
shoes.
CARRYING MUSTARD GAS ON CLOTHING
There are many instances where the occupants of dugouts were gassed
from the gas on the shoes and clothing of men entering the dugout.
Not only were occupants of dugouts thus gassed but a number of nurses
and doctors were gassed while working in closed rooms over patients
suffering from mustard gas poisoning. Even under the conditions of
warfare existing where the Americans were generally in action, the
quantity of chloride of lime required amounted to several hundred tons
per month which had to be shipped from the United States. Chloride of
lime was also very convenient to have at hand around shell dumps for
the purpose of covering up leaky shells, though rules for handling
mustard gas shells usually prescribed that they be fired and where that
was not practicable to bury them at least five feet under the surface
of the ground. This depth was not so much for the purpose of getting
rid of the gas as it was to get the shell so deep into the ground that
it would not be a danger in any cultivation that might later take place.
MUSTARD GAS IN COLD WEATHER
Much was learned toward the end of the war about ways of getting
through or around areas infected with mustard gas. For instance,
if mustard gas be fired when the weather is in the neighborhood of
freezing or somewhat below, it will remain on the ground at night
with so little evaporation as not to be dangerous. The same will be
true during the day time if the weather is cloudy as well as cold.
If, however, the days are bright and the nights cold, mustard gassed
areas can be safely crossed by troops at night provided care is taken
in brush and bushes to protect the feet and clothing from the liquid
splashed on bushes. If the sun comes out warm in the morning such
areas may be quite dangerous for three to four hours following sun-up
and indeed for the greater part of the day. Quite a large number of
casualties were ascribed to this fact in the heavy attack on the
British front west of Cambrai just prior to the great German drive
against Amiens, March 21, 1918.
DEGASSING UNITS
Since mustard gas has a greatly delayed action it was found that if men
who had been exposed to it could be given a thorough bath with soap and
water within a half hour or even a full hour, the mustard gas burns
would be prevented or very greatly reduced in severity. Accordingly
degassing units were developed consisting essentially of a 5 ton truck
with a 1200 gallon water tank, fitted with an instantaneous heater and
piping to connect it to portable shower baths. Another truck was kept
loaded with extra suits of underclothing and uniforms. These degassing
units were to be provided at the rate of two per division. Then, in the
event of a mustard gas attack anywhere in the division, one of these
units would be rushed to that vicinity and the men brought out of the
line and given a bath and change of clothing as soon as possible. At
the same time they were given a drink of bicarbonate of soda water and
their eyes, ears, mouth and nasal passages washed with the same.
PROTECTING FOOD FROM MUSTARD GAS
It was very early learned that mustard gas, or minute particles of
the liquid gas settling on food, caused the stomach to be burned if
the food were eaten, just as the eyes, lungs and skin of the body are
burned from gas in the air. This made it necessary then to see that
all food liable to exposure to mustard gas attacks was protected, and
tarred paper for box linings or tops was found by the Gas Service to
furnish one of the cheapest and most available means of doing this.
ALARM SIGNALS
Numerous, indeed, were the devices invented at one time or another with
which to sound gas alarms. The English early devised the Strombos horn,
a sort of trumpet operated by compressed air contained in cylinders
carried for that purpose. Its note is penetrating and can be heard,
under good conditions, for three or four miles. When cloud gas attacks,
which occurred only at intervals of two to four months, were the only
gas attacks to be feared, it was easy enough to provide for alarm
signals by methods as cumbersome and as technically delicate as the
Strombos horn.
With the advent of shell gas in general, and mustard gas in particular,
the number of gas attacks increased enormously. This made it not only
impossible, but inadvisable also, to furnish sufficient Strombos horns
for all gas alarms, as gas shell attacks are comparatively local. In
such cases, if the Strombos horn is used to give warning, it causes
troops who are long distances out of the area attacked to take
precautions against gas with consequent interference with their work or
fighting.
To meet these local conditions metal shell cases were first hung up
and the alarm sounded on them. Later steel triangles were used in the
same way. At a still later date the large policeman’s rattle, well
known in Europe, was adopted and following that the Klaxon horn. As the
warfare of movement developed the portability of alarm apparatus became
of prime importance. For those reasons the Klaxon horn and the police
rattle were having a race for popularity when the Armistice was signed.
A recent gas alarm invention that gives promise is a small siren-like
whistle fired into the air like a bomb. It is fitted with a parachute
which keeps it from falling too rapidly when the bomb explodes and
sets it free. Its tone is said to be very penetrating and to be quite
effective over an ample area. Since future gas alarm signals must be
efficient and must be portable, the lighter and more compact they can
be made the better; hence the desirability of parachute whistles or
similar small handy alarms.
ISSUING NEW MASKS
One of the problems that remained unsolved at the end of the war was
how to determine when to issue new boxes, or canisters, for masks. One
of the first questions asked by the soldier is how long his mask is
good in gas, and how long when worn in drill where there is no gas.
This information is of course decidedly important. Obviously, however,
it is impossible to tell how long a canister will last in a gas attack,
unless the concentration of gas is known—that is, the life of the box
is longer or shorter as the concentration of gas is weak or heavy.
A realization of this need led mask designers to work very hard, long
before the necessity for comfort in a mask was as fully realized as
it was at the end of the war, to increase the length of life of the
canister. To get longer life they increased the chemicals and this
in turn increased the breathing resistance, thereby adding to the
discomfort of the soldier when wearing the mask. Finally, however, it
was found that in the concentration of gas encountered on an average
in the field, the life of the comparatively small American boxes was
sufficient to last from fifty to one hundred hours, which is longer
than any gas attack or at least gives time to get out of the gassed
area.
The British early appreciated the necessity of knowing when boxes
should be replaced. They accordingly devised the scheme of furnishing
with each mask a very small booklet tied to the carrying case in which
the soldier could not only enter a complete statement of the time he
had worn the mask but also the statement as to whether it was in gas
or for drill purposes only. The soldier was then taught that if he had
worn the mask, say for forty hours, he should get a new box. But the
scheme didn’t work. In fact, it was one of those things which foresight
might have shown wouldn’t work. Indeed, any man who in the hell of
battle can keep such a record completely, should be at once awarded a
Distinguished Service Medal.
As gas warfare developed not only were all kinds of gas shells sent
over in a bunch but they were accompanied by high explosive, shrapnel
and anything else in the way of trouble that the enemy possessed. A man
near the front line, under those conditions, had all he could do and
frequently more than he could do, to get his mask on and keep it on
while doing his bit. Consequently he had no time, even if he had the
inclination, to record how long he had the mask in the various gases.
In this connection, after the Armistice was signed we in the field were
requested to obtain for experimental purposes 10,000 canisters that had
been used in battle. Each was to be labeled with the length of time it
had been worn in or out of gas, and if in gas, the name of each gas
and the time the mask was worn in it. This request is just a sample of
what is asked by those who do not realize field conditions. One trip to
the front would have convinced the one making the request of the utter
impossibility of complying with it, for really no man knows how long
he wears a mask in gas. With gas as common and as difficult to detect
(when intermingled with high explosive gases and other smells of the
battle field) as it was at the end of the war, each man wore the mask
just as long as he could, simply as a matter of precaution.
Before hostilities ceased we were trying out a method of calling in say
fifty canisters per division once a week for test in the laboratory. If
the tests showed the life of the canisters to be short new canisters
would be issued. While we did not have opportunity to try out this
plan, it gave promise of being the best that could be done. With gas
becoming an every day affair, the only other alternative would seem
to be to make issues of new boxes at stated intervals. On the other
hand there are no definite records of casualties occurring from the
exhaustion of the chemicals in the box. Undoubtedly some did occur, but
they were very, very few. In nearly all cases the masks got injured, or
the box became rusted through before the chemicals gave out.
TONNAGE AND NUMBER OF MASKS REQUIRED
It will probably be a shock to most people to learn that with more than
two million men in France we required nearly 1500 tons of gas material
per month. This tonnage was increasing, rather than decreasing, to
cover protective suits, gloves, pastes, and chloride of lime, as well
as masks. The British type respirator was estimated to last from four
to six months. The active part of the war, in which the Americans took
part, was too short to determine whether this was correct or not. The
indications were, however, that it was about right, considering rest
periods and fighting periods.
With the new American mask, with its much stronger and stiffer face
material, the chances are that the life will be considerably increased
although the more constant use of the mask will probably offset its
greater durability. A longer life of mask would of course be a decided
advantage as it would not only reduce tonnage, but would reduce
manufacturing and distribution as well. The estimates on which we were
working at the end looked forward to requiring from the United States
about one-third pound per man per day for all troops in France, in
order to keep them supplied with gas defense material and with the
gases used offensively by gas troops. All gas shell, hand grenades,
etc., used by other than gas troops required tonnage in addition to the
above.
SUMMING UP
In summing up then, it is noted that there are several important things
in defense against gas. First, the mask which protects the eyes and the
lungs. Second, the training that teaches the man how to utilize to best
advantage the means of protection at his disposal, whether he be alone
or among others. Third, protective clothing that protects hands and
feet and the skin in general. Fourth, a knowledge of gases and their
tactical use that will enable commanders, whenever possible, to move
men out of gas infected areas. Fifth, training in the offensive use of
gas, as well as in defensive methods, to teach the man that gas has no
uncanny power and that it is simply one element of war that must be
reckoned with, thus preventing stampedes when there is really no danger.
While these are the salient points in defense against gas, above them
and beyond them lies the vigorous offensive use of gas. This involves
not only the research, development and manufacture of necessary gases
in peace time, but also the necessary training to enable our nation to
hurl upon the enemy on the field of battle chemical warfare materials
in quantities he cannot hope to attain.