This and all sorts of other tricks of the gas-shell business have been tried out at various times by the Germans. While putting over Green Cross or Blue Cross Shell, or both, they will suddenly accompany them with violent bursts of shrapnel, the idea being that men will be so busily occupied in putting on their masks or in sneezing that they will not take the usual care in finding immediate cover from the shrapnel; or that, on the other hand, in taking cover from the shrapnel they will not get their masks on in the minimum time or will displace them in their efforts to get away.
The sneezing caused by the Blue Cross Shell is a most peculiar and violent kind. If you get the smallest dose of this stuff into your lungs you start sneezing at once. You seem to sneeze from the very bottom of your stomach upward, and feel as if the whole of your chest were going to come out with it. This may continue almost continuously for a short time; but there are apparently no after effects unless the gas has been very strong indeed, in which case there is very painful irritation of the whole of the throat and lungs which will produce bronchitis.
This is the present stage of development of the German gas shell. Whether they will add another colour to their lot of Green, Yellow and Blue Cross Shell we do not know, but we are prepared for it when it does come, and in the meantime he is getting as good as he gives.
It will be news to most people to realise how the gas shell are gradually dominating the field. Some bombardments are composed entirely of gas shell. As many as a quarter of a million have been fired on the attacking front during twenty-four hours, and probably at least one-quarter of all German shell of all calibres are gas shell.
It must be remembered that there are certain things that gas shell cannot do. They cannot replace high-explosive shell for the demolition of fortified works, for example. Nor can they be used for cutting barbed wire previous to an advance; and the creeping barrage that preceded the assaulting infantry cannot be made up by gas shell. An S O S barrage in No Man’s Land, to cut up an attack, also would have to be shrapnel and H. E. so as not to gas the defending troops. When all these are cut out it will be realised that the proportion of gas shell that are used against living targets must be very big indeed. It is hardly too much to assert that at the present day, of the actual methods of attacking men direct gas is the most important. It must be realised also that it can become, and is likely to become, still more important, and that the fight between the offence and the defence on both sides will continue until the end of the war.
Since December of last year the boche has been copying a method invented by the British for firing a large number of big drums of gas simultaneously. These drums are used chiefly against the front-line troops and are generally filled with pure phosgene. As each bomb contains a gallon and a half of liquid and many hundreds are fired at the same moment a good high concentration of gas is produced. Warning is given by the tremendous roar from behind the German lines when the flock of canister or rum-jar bombs starts on its way. Every man who hears the noise gets his mask on at once, even before there is any sign of gas; and if he does this there is little danger, as the respirators are quite capable of dealing with even the very high concentrations of phosgene produced. If a man keeps his head and obeys orders there is little to fear from gas. But discipline must be high. As one Tommy said: “You must be so well disciplined that when the gas alarm goes you will even drop the rum ration so as to get your respirator on in time.” Beyond that it is simply a question of carrying on the work in hand while wearing a respirator, and this is entirely a matter of practice.
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.
When the German Army entered on its policy of frightfulness there was none of its new and unprincipled methods which had more immediate and striking success than the use of liquid fire. And there is now none of all its methods of frightfulness which has fallen more into disrepute, and which has had less success when once the first surprise was over.
A great deal of attention has been drawn in the newspapers to the use of liquid fire, but the average man, even in the fighting forces, knows very little about the German methods and the appliances for its use. Yet Germany still has special troops trained in the use of liquid fire, and seeks continually to alter and develop the fire weapons and their tactical employment in order to take advantage of the undoubtedly terrible appearance and destructive power of the high temperature flames which can be emitted. This article is intended to show the stage to which the development has attained and the reasons for the relatively innocuous character of what is probably the most terror-inspiring method of modern warfare.