Infantry and Gas Warfare
When one suggests the possibility of the infantry handling gas, it is at once argued that the infantry is already overloaded. That is true, but in the future, as in the past, the infantryman will increase or decrease his load of a given material just as its efficiency warrants. If he finds that gas will get casualties and help him win victories more readily than an equal weight of any other material, he will carry gas material. A study of the articles of equipment abandoned by 10,000 stragglers in the British Army picked up during the great German drive towards Amiens in March, 1918, illustrates this very clearly. Of the equipment carried by these stragglers, more than 6,000 had discarded their rifles. The helmets were thrown away to a somewhat less extent, but the gas mask had been thrown away by only 800 out of the 10,000. Now the gas mask is not a particularly easy thing to carry, nor was the English type comfortable to wear, but the English soldier had learned that in a gas attack he had no chance whatever of escape if his gas mask failed him. Accordingly, he hung on to the mask when he had discarded nearly everything else in his possession. The same thing will be true of any gas equipment if it proves its worth.