Some months after the first gas attack, he was taken into the Gas Service, owing to his training and ability as a chemist, and later became Chief Gas Officer to Sir Julian Byng’s Army. He was awarded the Military Cross after the Battle of the Somme, and was wounded in an expedition into No Man’s Land to observe the effect of a British Gas attack. He has therefore been in touch with gas warfare from the beginning and knows all phases.
As the natural consequence of all this, the Government of the United States welcomed him as the representative of Great Britain in its counsel to America on all aspects of gas warfare. In this official capacity the Major has been engaged here assisting in organization and development of training, research and production aspects of Gas, and lecturing at camps, the War College, and West Point.
The American Gas Service has, for all these reasons, deemed the publication of Major Auld’s experiences very desirable.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER I | |
| PAGE | |
| The first rumours of German gas attacks—Sceptically received—First attack in 1915—Canadian pluck under gas—Nernst and Haber the inventors of German gas—The difficulties of getting practicable gases—The technic of gas attacks—A German prisoner’s account | [ 9] |
| CHAPTER II | |
| The first respirators—First-aid devices—The smoke helmet—Anti-gas sprayers—Their use and delicacy—The English chemists set to work—The task of training the whole army | [ 26] |
| CHAPTER III | |
| Popular terror of gas—Necessity for drilling and early personal experience—Sure defence from gas possible—The first gas alarms—The prussic acid scare a myth—The phosgene scare a reality—The helmet made to combat it—Necessity for renovating the helmet | [ 42] |
| CHAPTER IV | |
| The attack of Dec. 1915—The Allies’ good training tells—The casualties analysed—The new element of surprise—Evidences of the use of phosgene—The incident of the bulb—Improved alarms—The Strombos sirens—Accidents to the horns—The Tear Gas Shell—Its chemical analysis—Combated by anti-gas goggles—Tommies scoff at Tear Gas—The Germans make it formidable | [ 62] |
| CHAPTER V | |
| Summer of 1916 the highwater mark of the German gas cloud—Their improved methods—The need of speed and secrecy—Gas as a rat exterminator—Causes of Allied casualties—Germans killed with their own gas—Gas masks for horses and mules—Reduced Allied casualties—Humorous incidents | [ 88] |
| CHAPTER VI | |
| The last German gas cloud sent over August 1916—Its intensity—“Delayed” cases 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 | [ 112] |
| CHAPTER VII | |
| The rising importance of the gas shell—The variety of gases practicable with the shell—The deadly Green Cross Shell—Risks of transporting “duds” for chemical analysis—Reduced Allied casualties—German blunders in shelling tactics—Importance of universal discipline | [ 127] |
| CHAPTER VIII | |
| The gas-proof dugout—First-aid methods of alarm—Von Buelow improves German gas tactics—Popular errors about gas—Effectiveness of new British respirators—Vomiting gas—Germans speed up their manufacture—Gas as a neutraliser of artillery fire—As a neutraliser of work behind the trenches—Raw recruits ashamed to wear the mask—Casualties resulting | [ 145] |
| CHAPTER IX | |
| Mustard or Yellow Cross gas—Not deadly but a dangerous pest—Its troublesome persistence—Cleaning it out by fires—Sneezing of Blue Cross gas—Another pest—Its violent effect—The limit of gas shell effectiveness—The need for constant vigilance and disciplinary training | [ 169] |
| CHAPTER X | |
| Liquid fire—First used by Germans in July 1915—A great surprise and success—German hopes from it—Construction of a flame projector—Flammenwerfer companies—Their perilous duties and incidents of desertion from them—Improved types of projectors—Co-operation of machine-gun fire—Failure of liquid fire—Its short duration and short range—Ease of escape from it | [ 185] |
GAS AND FLAME
GAS AND FLAME
CHAPTER I
The first rumours of German gas attacks—Sceptically received—First attack in 1915—Canadian pluck under gas—Nernst and Haber the inventors of German gas—The difficulties of getting practicable gases—The technic of gas attacks—A German prisoner’s account.
In the early part of April, 1915, we were in the trenches opposite Messines. We enjoyed the usual morning and evening “hate”; we sniped and were sniped at; we patrolled and wired and attempted to drain away the superfluous water, and there was much mud and humour and expectancy. It is true there were no Mills grenades or Stokes mortars or tin hats, but trench warfare was not so very different then from what it is now—with one great exception: There was no gas. And there were consequently no respirators to carry day and night. It is almost impossible now to remember the time when one did not carry a respirator in the trenches. Somehow it makes you feel quite naked to think of it—and yet there we were, imagining we knew what war really was like!