Chemical warfare

by Amos A. Fries; Clarence J. West

Liaison Officers

This chapter should not be closed without reference to the Liaison Service that was established between the United States and her Allies, especially England.

During the early days no one in the States was familiar with the details of gas warfare. At the request of the Medical Corps, upon the urgent representations of the Gas Service, A.E.F., Captain (now Major) H. W. Dudley was sent to this country (Sept., 1917) to assist in the development and manufacture of gas masks. For some time he was the Court of Appeal on nearly all technical points regarding matters of defense. Dudley’s continual insistence on the need for maintaining the highest possible standard of factory inspection was one of the factors resulting in the excellent construction of the American Mask. In March, 1918, Lieut. Col. Dewey and Captain Dudley made a trip to England and France, during which the idea of a liaison between the defense organizations of the two countries originated. Dudley was transferred to the Engineers, promoted and placed in charge of the Liaison service. While the time until the Armistice was too short to really test the idea, enough was accomplished to show the extreme desirability of some such arrangement.

Probably the best known liaison officer from the British was Colonel S. J. M. Auld, also sent upon the urgent representations of the Gas Service, A.E.F. He arrived in this country about the middle of October, 1917, in charge of 28 officers and 28 non-commissioned officers, who were to act as advisers in training and many other military subjects besides gas warfare. Since Auld had had personal experience with gas warfare as then practiced at the front, his advice was welcomed most heartily by all the different branches of the Army then handling gas warfare. On questions of general policy Auld was practically the sole foreign adviser. The matter of gas training was transferred from the Medical Corps to the Engineers, and was greatly assisted by four pamphlets on Gas Warfare issued by the War College, which were prepared by Major Auld with the assistance of Captain Walton and Lieut. Bohnson. Later Auld gave the American public a very clear idea of gas warfare in his series of articles appearing in the Saturday Evening Post, and re-written as “Gas and Flame.”

Major H. R. LeSueur, who was at Porton previous to his arrival in this country in December, 1917, rendered valuable aid in establishing the Experimental Proving Ground and in its later operations.

Towards the close of the war the British War Office had drawn up a scheme for a Gas Mission, which was to correlate all the gas activities of England and America. This was never carried through because of the signing of the Armistice.

The French representatives, M. Grignard, Capt. Hanker and Lt. Engel furnished valuable information as to French methods, but they were handicapped by the fact that French manufacturers did not disclose their trade secrets even to their own Government.

About August, 1918, Lieut. Col. James F. Norris opened an office in London. His duties were to establish cordial and intimate relations not only with the various agencies of the British Government which were connected with gas warfare, but also with the various laboratories where experiments were being conducted, that important changes might be transmitted to America with the least possible delay. The English made Colonel Norris a member of the British Chemical Warfare Committee. Here again the signing of the Armistice prevented a full realization of the importance of this work.

CHAPTER IV
THE CHEMICAL WARFARE SERVICE
IN FRANCE

It is worth noting here that the Chemical Warfare Service was organized as a separate service in the American Expeditionary Forces nearly ten months before it was organized in the United States, and that the organization in the United States as heretofore described was patterned closely on that found so successful in France.

Very soon after the United States declared war against the Central Powers, a commission was sent abroad to study the various phases of warfare as carried on by the Allies, and as far as possible by the enemy. Certain members of this commission gave attention to chemical warfare. One of those who did this was Professor Hulett of Princeton University. He, with certain General Staff officers, gathered what information they could in England and France concerning the gases used and methods of manufacturing them, and to a very slight extent the methods of projecting those gases upon the enemy. Some attention was paid to gas masks, but there being nobody on the General Staff, or anywhere else in the Regular Army, whose duty it was to look out particularly for chemical warfare materials, these studies produced no results.

As has already been stated, the Medical Department started the manufacture of masks, and the Bureau of Mines, under the leadership of the Director, Mr. Manning, began studies upon poisonous gases and the methods of manufacturing them just before or shortly after war was declared.

Nevertheless, although American troops left for France in May, 1917, it was not until the end of August—the 17th to be exact—that definite action was taken toward establishing a Chemical Warfare Service, or, as it was then known, a Gas Service in the American Expeditionary Forces. On that date a cablegram was sent to the United States to the effect that it was desired to make Lieut. Col. Amos A. Fries, Corps of Engineers, Chief of the Gas Service, and requesting that no assignments to the regiment of gas troops authorized in the United States be made which would conflict with this appointment. On August 22d, Lieut. Col. Fries entered upon his duties as Chief of the Gas Service.

There were then in France about 30 miles from the German lines, some 12,000 American troops without any gas masks or training whatever in Chemical Warfare. Immediate steps were taken to teach the wearing of the masks, and English and French gas masks were obtained for them at the earliest possible moment. At the same time efforts were made to obtain officer personnel for the C. W. S., and to have sent to France a laboratory for making such emergency researches, experiments, and testing as might become necessary. From that time to the end of the war the C. W. S. continued to develop on broad lines covering research, development, and manufacture; the filling of shell and other containers with poisonous gases, smoke and incendiary materials; the purchase of gas masks and other protective devices, as well as the handling and supply of these materials in the field; the training of the Army in chemical warfare methods, both in offense and defense; and the organization, equipment and operation of special gas troops.

This gave an ideal organization whereby research was linked with the closest possible ties to the firing line, and where the necessities of the firing line were brought home to the supply and manufacturing branches and to the development and research elements of the Service instantly and with a force that could not have been obtained in any other manner. The success of the C. W. S. in the field and at home was due to this complete organization. To the Commander-in-Chief, General Pershing, is due the credit for authorizing this organization and for backing it up whenever occasion demanded. Other details of this work will be considered under the following heads: Administrative; Training; Chemical Warfare Troops; Supply; Technical; Intelligence; and Medical.