Sufficiently to be each in our proper places and be able to resist to the uttermost the attack which we felt sure must follow, and so hang on at all costs to the trench that we had been ordered to hold.” It was not, I think, the fear of death or anything supernatural but the great dread that we could not stand the fearful suffocation “It is impossible for me to give a real idea of the terror and horror spread among us by this filthy loathsome pestilence. Under such conditions, the Canadian lines were overrun, although most of the units at the front retreated to a secondary line of trenches, and German advances were minimal. Unable to climb out suffered the worst effects of the chlorine. Ross rifles when they were not jamming from an overheated breech and faulty ammunition, and escaping from gas that was pooling in the low-lying trenches. As the cloud rolled through the Canadians, soldiers scrambled out of the trenches, firing their Gas from two days earlier and instructed men to wet cloths with water or urine to offer some (minimal) protection. Some of the Canadian soldiers who had been trained in chemistry recognized chlorine The Germans unleashed a second smaller, denser, cloud on the 24th, directly opposite the Canadians. One Canadian survivor wrote: “It is impossible for me to give a real idea of the terror and horror spread among As they moved forward, they saw the French dead and dying, as they choked on their own fluids, retching up bile and blood. The Canadians even counterattacked on the 22nd and 23rd, halting The Canadians were lucky to escape the worst of the cloud, but those men on the left of the Canadian Division were hacking through burning lungs and firing at the enemy with teary eyes. German troops, no less afraid of the death clouds, advanced tentatively into the gap. Many died in agony.Ĭhoking and gasping in terror, those who did not succumb to the gas fled from the front.
Men were blinded, their lung tissue destroyed. As the gas combined with moisture in the soldiers’ eyes, noses and lungs, it turned into an acid. Territorial and colonial (Algerian) divisions to the north of the Canadian Division. The eerie green-yellow tendrils seemed to slither over the battlefield, filling the crevices, craters and trenches, before passing through two French On a sunny 22 April 1915, the Germans released their gas cloud, some 10 km long and almost 1 km deep. Trained soldiers, creating a cloud of chlorine that would be blown by strong winds over the enemy lines. Transported to the front in steel canisters, the gas would be released by specially Opposite the British, French and Dominion troops, the Germans were indeed waiting for proper weather conditions to unleash chlorine gas, in the hope of breaking the deadlock. No one was certain what the new gas might be, or how it would affect soldiers, so little was done to defend The Germans had launched tear gas attacks on both the Western and Eastern Fronts earlier in the war, but to little effect. In April, the Canadians were moved to the Ypres front in Belgium, east of the shattered city, in the large salient that jutted into enemy lines.īy mid-April 1915, British High Command had been warned by their spies that the Germans were planning to unleash poison gas. Dozens of Canadians were killed or wounded, usually from sniper fire, as they mucked through shallow The Canadian Division arrived in France in February 1915 and so missed the early battles however, it soon experienced the realities of trench warfare.
WW1 GAS MASK EYE PIECES HOW TO
Warfare.) The opposing armies faced off against each other along the Western Front, unsure of how to advance in the storm of steel. The ditches became trenches and then expanded into trench systems, eventually running some 700 km from Switzerland to the North Sea. The front stalemated by the end of 1914, with soldiers digging deep to escape the rain of shells and bullets. Rapid-firing artillery, modern rifles, and machine guns resulted in devastating losses during advances over open ground ( see Armaments).
During the first weeks of battle this was the case, with German troops marching through BelgiumĪnd sweeping downwards into France as they followed the Schlieffen Plan. World War, generals expected the war on the Western Front would be one of marching troops, thrusting cavalry and fast-paced action in a campaign of movement.
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