Gas was first used on the Western Front by the Germans at Second Ypres in April 1915. Its appearance introduced a new edge of harshness into the war. Ernest Shephard’s company was caught by a gas attack on Hill 60, just outside Ypres, on 1 May 1915, and even the tough-minded Shephard was shocked by what he saw.
The scene that followed was heartbreaking. Men were caught by fumes and in dreadful agony… I ran round at intervals and tied up a lot of men’s mouths, placed them in sitting positions, and organised parties to assist them to the support dugouts… When we found our men were dying from fumes we wanted to charge, but were not allowed to do so. What a start for May. Hell could find no worse [than] the groans of scores of dying and badly hurt men.
The following day he wrote:
The bitterest Sunday I have ever known or wish to know… Hardly know who is dead yet, but several of my best chums have gone under. Had we lost as heavily while actually fighting we would not have cared as much, but our dear boys died like rats in a trap, instead of heroes as they all were. The Dorset Regiment’s mottos is now: ‘No prisoners.’ No quarter will be given when we again get to fighting.
Source:
Holmes, Richard. "Steel and Fire." Tommy: The British Soldier on the Western Front, 1914-1918. London: HarperCollins, 2004. 418-19. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Shephard Sergeant Major’s War p. 40.
Further Reading:
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