Chemical Warfare Troops
Chemical Warfare troops were divided into two distinct divisions—gas regiments and staff troops.
Fig. 13.—Firing a 155-Millimeter Howitzer.
The men are wearing gas masks to keep out the enemy gas fired at them in Oct., 1918.]
Staff Troops. The staff troops of the Chemical Warfare Service performed all work required of gas troops except that of actual fighting. They handled all Chemical Warfare Service supplies from the time they were unloaded from ships to the time they were issued to the fighting troops at the front, whether the fighting troops were Chemical Warfare or any other. They furnished men for clerical and other services with the Army, Corps and Division Gas Officers, and they manufactured poisonous gases, filled gas shells and did all repairing and altering of gas masks. Though these men received none of the glamour or glory that goes with the fighting men at the front, yet they performed services of the most vital kind and in many cases did work as dangerous and hair raising as going over the top in the face of bursting shell and screaming machine gun bullets.
Think of the intense interest these men must have felt when carrying from the field of battle to the laboratory or experimental field, shell loaded with strange and unheard of compounds and which might any moment burst and end forever their existence! Or watch them drilling into a new shell knowing not what powerful poison or explosive it might contain or what might happen when the drill “went through”!
And again what determination it took to work 12 or 16 hours a day way back at the depots repairing or altering masks, and, as was done at Chateroux, alter and repair 15,000 masks a day and be so rushed that at times they had a bare day’s work of remodeled masks ahead. But they kept ahead and to the great glory of these men no American soldier ever had to go to the front without a mask. And what finer work than that of these men who, in the laboratory and testing room, toyed with death in testing unknown gases with American and foreign masks even to the extent of applying the gases to their own bodies.
Heroic, real American work, all of it and done in real American style as part of the day’s work without thought of glory and without hope of reward.
The First Gas Regiment. In the first study of army organization made by the General Staff it was decided to recommend raising under the Chief of Engineers one regiment of six companies of gas troops.
Shortly after the cable of August 17, 1917, was sent stating that Lieut. Colonel Fries would be made Chief of the Gas Service, the War Department promoted him to be Colonel of the 30th Engineers which later became the First Gas Regiment. At almost the same time, Captain Atkisson, Corps of Engineers, was appointed Lieut. Col. of the Regiment. Although Colonel Fries remained the nominal Commander of the regiment, he never acted in that capacity, for his duties as Chief of the Gas Service left him neither time nor opportunity. All the credit for raising, training, and equipping the First Gas Regiment belongs to Colonel E. J. Atkisson and the officers picked by him.
Immediately upon the formation of the Gas Service, the Chief urged that many more than six companies of gas troops should be provided. These recommendations were repeated and urged for the next two months or until about the first of November, when it became apparent that an increase could not be obtained at that time and that any further urging would only cause irritation. The matter was therefore dropped until a more auspicious time should arrive. This arrived the next spring when the first German projector attack against United States troops produced severe casualties, exactly as had been forecasted by the Gas Service. About the middle of March, 1918, an increase from two battalions to six battalions (eighteen companies) was authorized. A further increase to three regiments of six battalions each (a total of fifty-four companies) was authorized early in September, 1918, after the very great value of gas troops had been demonstrated in the fight from the Marne to the Vesle in July.
Fig. 14.—Receiving and Transmitting Data
for Firing Gas Shell while Wearing Gas Masks.
Battlefield of the Argonne, October, 1918.
No Equipment for Gas Troops. About the first of December a cablegram was received from the United States stating that due to lack of equipment the various regiments of special engineers recently authorized, including the 30th (Gas and Flame) would not be organized until the spring of 1918. An urgent cablegram was then sent calling attention to the fact that gas troops were not service of supply troops but first line fighting troops, and consequently that they should be raised and trained in time to take the field with the first Americans going into the line. At this same time the 30th regiment was given early priority by the General Staff, A. E. F., on the priority lists for troop shipments from the United States. The raising of the first two companies was then continued under Colonel Atkisson at the American University in Washington.
About January 15 word was received that the Headquarters of the regiment and the Headquarters of the First Battalion together with Companies A and B of the 30th Engineers (later the First Gas Regiment) were expected to arrive very soon. Some months prior General Foulkes, Chief of the British Gas Service in the field, had stated that he would be glad to have the gas troops assigned to him for training. It was agreed that the training should include operations in the front line for a time to enable the American Gas Troops to carry on gas operations independently of anyone else and with entire safety to themselves and the rest of the Army.
Due to the fact that the British were occupying their gas school, the British General Headquarters were a little reluctant to take the American troops Feb. 1. However, General Foulkes made room for the American troops by moving his own troops out. He then placed his best officers in charge of their training and at all times did everything in his power to help the American Gas Troops learn the gas game and get sufficient supplies to operate with. Colonel Hartley, Assistant to General Foulkes, also did everything he could to help the American Gas Service. These two officers did more than any other foreign officers in France to enable the Chemical Warfare Service to make the success it did.
Second Battle of the Marne. The Chief of the Gas Service, following a visit to the British Gas Headquarters, and the Headquarters of the American 2d Corps then operating with the British, arrived on the evening of July 17, 1918, at 1st Corps Headquarters at La Ferte sous Jouarre about 10 miles southeast of Château-Thierry.
Two companies of the First Gas Regiment would have been ready in 48 hours to put off a projector attack against an excellent target just west of Belleau Wood had not the 2d battle of the Marne opened when it did. It is said that General Foch had kept this special attack so secret that the First American Corps Commander knew it less than 48 hours prior to the hour set for its beginning. Certainly the Chief of the Gas Service knew nothing of it until about 9:00 p.m., the night of July 17th. Consequently the gas attack was not made. At that time so little was known of the usefulness of gas troops that they were started on road work. At Colonel Atkisson’s suggestion that gas troops could clean out machine gun nests, he was asked to visit the First Corps headquarters and take up his suggestion vigorously with the First Corps Staff.
Attacking Machine Gun Nests. Thereupon the Gas troops were allowed to try attacking machine gun nests with phosphorus and thermite. This work proved so satisfactory that not long afterwards the General Staff authorized an increase in gas troops from 18 companies to 54 companies, to be formed into three regiments of two battalions each. The 6 companies in France did excellent work with smoke and thermite during all the second battle of the Marne to the Vesle river, where by means of smoke screens they made possible the crossing of that river and the gaining of a foothold on the north or German side.
With the assembling of American troops in the sector near Verdun in September, 1918, the gas troops were all collected there with the exception of one or two companies and took a very active part in the capture of the St. Mihiel salient. It was at this battle that the Chemical Warfare Service really began to handle offensive gas operations in the way they should be handled. Plans were drawn for the use of gas and smoke by artillery and gas troops both. The use of high explosives in Liven’s bombs was also planned. Those plans were properly co-ordinated with all the other arms of the service in making the attack. Gas was to be used not alone by gas troops but by the artillery. Plans were made so that the different kinds of gases would be used where they would do the most good. While these plans and their execution were far from perfect, they marked a tremendous advance and demonstrated to everyone the possibilities that lay in gas and smoke both with artillery and with gas troops.
Following the attack on the St. Mihiel salient, came the battle of the Argonne, where plans were drawn as before, using the added knowledge gained at St. Mihiel. The work was accordingly more satisfactory. However, the attempt to cover the entire American front of nine divisions with only six companies proved too great a task. Practically all gas troops were put in the front line the morning of the attack. Due to weather conditions they used mostly phosphorus and thermite with 4 inch Stokes’ mortars. Having learned how useful these were in taking machine gun nests, plans were made to have them keep right up with the Infantry. This they did in a remarkable manner considering the weight of the Stokes’ mortar and the base plates and also that each Stokes’ mortar bomb weighed about 25 pounds. There were cases where they carried these mortars and bombs for miles on their backs, while in other cases they used pack animals.
Fig. 15.—Setting Up a Smoke Barrage with Smoke Pots.
Not expecting the battle to be nearly continuous as it was for three weeks, the men, as before stated, were all put in the front line the morning of the attack. This resulted in their nearly complete exhaustion the first week, since they fought or marched day and night during nearly the whole time. Taking a lesson from this, in later attacks only half the men were put in the line in the first place, no matter if certain sectors had to be omitted. Fully as good results were obtained because, as the men became worn out, fresh ones were sent in and the others given a chance to recuperate. Officers relate many different occurrences showing the discipline and character of these gas troops. On one occasion where a battalion of infantry was being held up by a machine gun nest, volunteers were called for. Only two men, both from the gas regiment, volunteered though they were joined a little later by two others from the same regiment, and these four took the guns. While it was not considered desirable for gas troops to attempt to take prisoners, yet the regiment took quite a number, due solely to the fact that they were not only with the advancing infantry but at times actually in front of it. On another occasion a gas officer, seeing a machine gun battalion badly shot up and more or less rattled, took command and got them into action in fine shape.
At this stage the Second Army was formed to the southeast of Verdun and plans were drawn for a big attack about November 14. The value of gas troops was appreciated so much that the Second Army asked to have British gas troops assigned to them since no American gas troops were available. Accordingly in response to a request made by the American General Headquarters, the British sent 10 companies of their gas troops. These reached the front just before the Armistice, and hence were unable to carry out any attacks there.
This short history of the operations of the First Gas Regiment covers only the high spots in its organization and work. It covers particularly its early troubles, as those are felt to be the ones most important to have in mind if ever it be necessary again to organize C. W. S. troops on an extensive scale. The Regiment engaged in nearly 200 separate actions with poisonous gases, smoke and high explosives, and took part in every big battle from the second battle of the Marne to the end of the War. They were the first American troops to train with the British, and were undoubtedly the first American troops to take actual part in fighting the enemy as they aided the British individually and as entire units in putting off gas attacks, in February and March, 1918. It would be a long history itself to recite the actions in which the First Gas Regiment took part and in which it won distinction.[16]
No better summary of the work of this Regiment can be written than that of Colonel Atkisson in the four concluding paragraphs of his official report written just after the Armistice:
“The First Gas Regiment was made up largely of volunteers—volunteers for this special service. Little was known of its character when the first information was sent broadcast over the United States, bringing it to the attention of the men of our country. The keynote of this information was a desire for keen, red-blooded men who wanted to fight. They came into it in the spirit of a fighting unit, and were ready, not only to develop, but to make a new service. No effort was spared to make the organization as useful as the strength of the limited personnel allowed.
“The first unit to arrive in France moved to the forward area within eight weeks of its arrival, and, from that time, with the exception of four weeks, was continuously in forward areas carrying on operations. The third and last unit moved forward within six weeks of its arrival in France, and was continuously engaged until the signing of the Armistice.
“That the regiment entered the fight and carried the methods developed into execution where they would be of value, is witnessed by the fact that over thirty-five percent of the strength of the unit became casualties.
“It is only fitting to record the spirit and true devotion which prompted the officers and men who came from civil life into this Regiment, mastered the details of this new service, and, through their untiring efforts and utter disregard of self, made possible any success which the Regiment may have had. It was truly in keeping with the high ideals which have prompted our entire Army and Country in this conflict. They made the motto of ‘Service,’ a real, living, inspiring thing.”