A second and more severe "gas" attack, under much more favorable weather conditions, enabled the enemy to recapture this position on May 5.
The enemy owes his success in this last attack entirely to the use of asphyxiating gas. It was only a few days later that the means, which have since proved so effective, of counteracting this method of making war were put into practice. Had it been otherwise, the enemy's attack on May 5 would most certainly have shared the fate of all the many previous attempts he had made.
SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES
4. It was at the commencement of the second battle of Ypres on the evening of April 22, referred to in paragraph 1 of his report, that the enemy first made use of asphyxiating gas.
Some days previously I had complied with General Joffre's request to take over the trenches occupied by the French, and on the evening of the 22d the troops holding the lines east of Ypres were posted as follows:
From Steenstraate to the east of Langemarck, as far as the Poelcappelle Road, a French Division.
The British battle line in Flanders, Belgium.
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Thence, in a south-easterly direction toward the Passchendaele-Becelaere Road, the Canadian Division.