“Dr. Wilson stated, in conclusion, that Dr. Stenhouse had no interest but a scientific one in the success of the respirators. He had declined to patent them, and desired only to apply his remarkable discoveries to the abatement of disease and death. Charcoal had long been used in filters to render poisonous water wholesome; it was now to be employed to filter poisonous air.”
CHAPTER II
MODERN DEVELOPMENT
OF GAS WARFARE
The use of toxic gas in the World War dates from April 22, 1915, when the Germans launched the first cylinder attack, employing chlorine, a common and well known gas. Judging from the later experience of the Allies in perfecting this form of attack, it is probable that plans for this attack had been under way for months before it was launched. The suggestion that poisonous gases be used in warfare has been laid upon Prof. Nernst of the University of Berlin (Auld, “Gas and Flame,” page 15), while the actual field operations were said to have been under the direction of Prof. Haber of the Kaiser Wilhelm Physical Chemical Institute of Berlin. Some writers have felt that the question of preparation had been a matter of years rather than of months, and refer to the work on industrial gases as a proof of their statement. The fact that the gas attack was not more successful, that the results to be obtained were not more appreciated, and that better preparation against retaliation had not been made, argues against this idea of a long period of preparation, except possibly in a very desultory way. That such was the case is most fortunate for the allied cause, for had the German high command known the real situation at the close of the first gas attack, or had that attack been more severe, the outcome of the war of 1914 would have been very different, and the end very much earlier.
First Gas Attack
The first suggestion of a gas attack came to the British Army through the story of a German deserter. He stated that the German Army was planning to poison their enemy with a cloud of gas, and that the cylinders had already been installed in the trenches. No one listened to the story, because, first of all, the whole procedure seemed so impossible and also because, in spite of the numerous examples of German barbarity, the English did not believe the Germans capable of such a violation of the Hague rules of warfare. The story appeared in the summary of information from headquarters (“Comic Cuts”) and as Auld says “was passed for information for what it is worth.” But the story was true, and on the afternoon of the 22nd of April, all the conditions being ideal, the beginning of “gas warfare” was launched. Details of that first gas attack will always be meager, for the simple reason that the men who could have told about it all lie in Flanders field where the poppies grow.
The place selected was in the northeast part of the Ypres salient, at that part of the line where the French and British lines met, running southward from where the trenches left the canal near Boesinghe. The French right was held by the —— Regiment of Turcos, while on the British left were the Canadians. Auld describes the attack as follows:
“Try to imagine the feelings and the condition of the colored troops as they saw the vast cloud of greenish-yellow gas spring out of the ground and slowly move down wind towards them, the vapor clinging to the earth, seeking out every hole and hollow and filling the trenches and shell holes as it came. First wonder, then fear; then, as the first, fringes of the cloud enveloped them and left them choking and agonized in the fight for breath—panic. Those who could move broke and ran, trying, generally in vain, to outstrip the cloud which followed inexorably after them.”
It is only to be expected that the first feeling connected with gas warfare was one of horror. That side of it is very thrillingly described by Rev. O. S. Watkins in the Methodist Recorder (London). After describing the bombardment of the City of Ypres from April 20th to 22nd he relates that in the midst of the uproar came the poison gas!
Fig. 1.—French Gas Attack as seen from an Aeroplane.