Gas attack
Troops struggle to cope with the effects of chemical warfare.
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Propped up against a wall was a dozen men - all gassed - their colours were black, green and blue, tongues hanging out and eyes staring - one or two were dead and others beyond human aid, some were coughing up green froth from their lungs - as we advanced we passed many more men lying in the ditches and gutterways - shells were bursting all around.
My respirator fell to pieces with the continual removal and readjustment - the gas closed my eyes and filled them with matter and I could not see. I was left lying in the trench with one other gassed man and various wounded beings and corpses and forced to lie and spit, cough and gasp the whole of the day in that trench.
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Although our road was only slightly sunken it lay at the foot of a gentle slope and thus acted as a gas trap. Our Colonel and our Medical Officer had both been affected by the stuff and during the morning they were carried away on stretchers. The rest of us stayed out there all day, coughing and retching and gradually going blind...
Next day, with a label hung on each of us, and equipped with nothing but our tin hats and gas masks, ha ha, we groped our way outside with the Quarter-Master-Sergeant leading and each of us hanging on to the tail of the jacket of the man in front of him...
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Our eyes now began to feel irritated. All and sundry commenced to vomit. I heard several men complain about the pain in their eyes, some even complained of going blind; one by one these fellows made their way to the First Aid Dressing Station. The stream of men increased, those who could see led the way while the others formed a queue behind, each one placing his hands on the shoulders of his predecessor for guidance...
The symptoms were as follows: blindness, deafness, loss of voice, inability to swallow, weakness, high fever, burns on exposed and delicate parts of the anatomy, choking cough, difficult breathing.
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[By the afternoon]...the faces of our lads who lay in the open changed colour and presented a gruesome spectacle. Their faces and hands gradually assumed a blue and green colour and their buttons and metal fittings on their uniform were all discoloured. Many lay there with their legs drawn up and clutching their throats.
