Chemical warfare

by Amos A. Fries; Clarence J. West

Fig. 9.—Destroying Mustard Gas on the Battle Field.

It is important to note that the Gas Service had to begin operations immediately upon its organization although it had almost no facilities of any kind to work with. At one and the same time it was necessary to decide upon the kinds of masks to be used and then to obtain them; to decide upon methods of training troops in gas defense and start at once to do it; to decide upon gases to be used and manufactured in the United States and then obtain and send the necessary data and finally to decide what weapons gas troops were to use and to purchase those weapons, since none of them existed in the United States. Worse still no one in the United States was taking any interest in them.

New Mask. About November 1, Major Karl Connell of the Medical Department, National Guard of New York, reported for duty in response to a cablegram that had been sent asking for him by name. It was intended to send him to a British School to learn the art of teaching gas defense. However, learning after a short talk with him that he had been interested in making masks for administering anæsthesia, there was at once turned over to him samples of all the masks in use by both the Allies and the Germans, with a view to getting his ideas for a new mask. Within two or three hours he suggested a new mask having a metal face piece with sponge rubber against the face and with a canister to be carried on the back of the head.

At that early date it was realized that a new mask must be invented which would be far more comfortable and give better vision than the British respirators adopted for use. Connell, thirty-six hours after reporting, had so far developed his idea that he was sent to Paris to make the first model, which he succeeded in doing in about three weeks. This first mask was good enough to risk testing in a high concentration of chlorine and while it leaked to some extent it indicated that the idea was sound. The problem then was to perfect the mask and determine how it could be produced commercially on the large scale necessary to equip an army.

Since the British at this time and practically throughout the war were much ahead of the French in all phases of gas warfare, Connell was sent to London. There he succeeded in getting additional models in such shape that one of them was sent to the United States during the first few days of January, 1918. Connell’s work and experiments were continued so successfully that after a model had been submitted to the General Staff, as well as to General Pershing himself, one thousand were ordered to be made early in May with a view to an extensive field test preparatory to their adoption for general use in the United States Army.

In this connection, during November, 1917, a letter was written to the United States stating that while the Gas Service in France insisted on the manufacture of British respirators exactly as the British were making them, they desired to have experiments pushed on a more comfortable mask to meet the future needs of the Army.

The following four principles were set down in that letter: (a) That the mask must give protection and that experience had shown that suitable protection could only be obtained by drawing the air through a box filled with chemicals and charcoal. (b) That there must be clear vision and that experience to date indicated that the Tissot method of bringing the inspired air over the eyepieces was by far the best, (c) That the mask must be as comfortable as compatible with reasonable protection, and that this meant the mouthpiece and noseclip must be omitted. (d) That the mask must be as nearly fool proof as it could be made. That is, it should be of quick and accurate adjustment, in the dark or in the trenches, and be difficult to disarrange or injure once in position.

Gas Training and Battle of Picardy Plains. On March 21, 1918, as is known to everyone, the Germans began their great drive from Cambrai across the Picardy Plains to Amiens. While the battle was expected it came as a complete surprise so far as the tactics used, and the extent and force of the attack, were concerned. Lieutenant Colonel G. N. Lewis, who had been sent about March 1 to British Gas Schools, and had been assigned to one of the schools run by the Canadians, was thus just on the edge of the attack. This gave him an opportunity to actually observe some of that attack and to learn from eye-witnesses a great deal more. The school, of course, was abandoned hurriedly and the students ordered back to their stations. Lewis submitted two brief reports covering facts bearing on the use of gas and smoke by the Germans. These reports exhibited such a grasp of gas and smoke battle tactics that he was immediately ordered to headquarters as assistant on the Defense side of gas work, that is, on training in gas defense. Up to that time no one had been able to organize the Defensive side of gas work in the way it was felt it must be organized if it were to prove a thorough success. A month later he was put at the head of the Gas Defense Section, and in two months he had put the Defense Division on a sound basis. He was then ordered to the United States to help organize Gas Defense Training there.