The job of seeing that the air cylinders of the Strombos Horns are kept at their full pressure is intrusted to the divisional gas noncommissioned officers, who go round periodically with pressure gauges and test them out. If they fall below a certain pressure they are replaced at once by fresh ones from the divisional store. Some Australians going up the line one night were carrying a number of such cylinders for replacement, when one of them got turned on accidentally and they didn’t seem able to stop it.
A passing officer hearing the hissing noise called out: “What have you got there?”
“Air bottles,” was the answer.
“What for?” persisted the officer.
A pause, and then out of the darkness: “Oh, hell! To put the wind up the boche, of course.”
This story will probably be appreciated more by Britishers than Americans, though I think the latter in many cases already know the significance of the expressions “getting the wind up” and “putting the wind up.” They refer of course to what official reports or newspaper men would style as “reduction of morale.”
CHAPTER VI
The last German gas cloud sent over August, 1916—Its intensity—“Delayed” gases of phosgene gassing—Cigarettes as a test of gassing—Dangers of carelessness—The sprayer abandoned for Mrs. Ayrton’s fan—Responsibilities of the divisional gas office—Russian gas victims—The day of the gas cloud over.
The last German gas cloud to be discharged against the British Front was in August, 1916. In every way it was the greatest test to which our men had been put. It was the strongest cloud attack the Germans had made—not only were the individual waves of only ten minutes’ duration but the boche had more cylinders in his line than usual. According to his own admissions the bottles were put in at the rate of three every two yards and in some places two per yard. Added to this he had brought up the proportion of phosgene to the maximum that can be used. The circumstances, too, were very unfavourable to us. It must be remembered that the Battle of the Somme was in full swing, and that for once in its war history the Ypres salient, where the gas attack took place, was a “quiet” sector where divisions used up in the battle went to “rest” and reorganise. The result was that the divisions attacked were composed very largely of fresh drafts. They had lost very heavily in officers and most of the company noncommissioned gas officers had been knocked out. Their gas training was therefore not at the high standard that it had attained previous to the battle.
Added to this, a relief was going on in the trenches. This, by the way, was the second time that our fellows were caught by a gas attack during a relief. Whether it was that the boche intelligence was particularly good or whether it was simply that his luck was in is not certain, but it meant that our trenches, both the front line and the communication trenches, had just twice the number of men in them that they would have had normally. And every man, both incoming and outgoing, was carrying his complete “Christmas Tree” rig—rifle, ammunition, full pack, haversack, greatcoat, gas masks, and all the rest of it; in some places hardly able to squeeze through the trenches in his bulky marching equipment.