WAITING FOR THE WIND

Everything was ready for the attack on the British in April, 1915. A point had been chosen where the British lines made a juncture with the French. The Germans reckoned that a joint of this sort in the opponent's lines would be a spot of weakness. Also, they had very craftily picked out this particular spot because the French portion of the line was manned by Turcos, or Algerians, who would be likely to think there was something supernatural about a death-dealing cloud. On the left of the Africans was a division of Canadians, but the main brunt of the gas was designed to fall upon the Turcos. Several times the attack was about to be made, but was abandoned because the wind was not just right. The Germans wished to pick out a time when the breeze was blowing steadily—not so fast as to scatter the gas, but yet so fast that it would overtake men who attempted to run away from it. It was not until April 22 that conditions were ideal, and then the new mode of warfare was launched.

Just as had been expected, the Turcos were awe-struck when they saw, coming out of the German trenches, volumes of greenish-yellow gas, which rolled toward them, pouring down into shell-holes and flowing over into the trenches as if it were a liquid. They were seized with superstitious fear, particularly when the gas overcame numbers of them, stifling them and leaving them gasping for breath. Immediately there was a panic and they raced back, striving to out-speed the pursuing cloud.

For a stretch of fifteen miles the Allied trenches were emptied, and the Germans, who followed in the wake of the gas, met with no opposition except in the sector held by the Canadians. Here, on the fringe of the gas cloud, so determined a fight was put up that the Germans faltered, and the brave Canadians held them until reinforcements arrived and the gap in the line was closed.

The Germans themselves were new at the game or they could have made a complete success of this surprise attack. Had they made the attack on a broader front, nothing could have kept them from breaking through to Calais. The valiant Canadians who struggled and fought without protection in the stifling clouds of chlorine, were almost wiped out. But many of them who were on the fringe of the cloud escaped by wetting handkerchiefs, socks, or other pieces of cloth, and wrapping them around their mouths and noses.

The world was horrified when it read of this German gas attack, but there was no time to be lost. Immediately orders went out for gas-masks, and in all parts of England, and of France as well, women were busy sewing the masks. These were very simple affairs—merely a pad of cotton soaked in washing-soda and arranged to be tied over the mouth and nose. But when the next attack came, not long after the first, the men were prepared in some measure for it, and again it failed to bring the Germans the success they had counted upon.

One thing that the Germans had not counted upon was the fact that the prevailing winds in Flanders blow from west to east. During the entire summer and autumn of 1915, the winds refused to favor them, and no gas attacks were staged from June to December. This gave the British a long respite and enabled them not only to prepare better gas-masks, but also to make plans to give the Hun a dose of his own medicine.

Liquid Fire Streaming from Fixed Flame-throwing Apparatus