New Enemy Atrocity

Map of the s'Graventafel Area (here shown as Gravenstafel) - Ypres is to the south-west

Friday 23rd April 1915: Yesterday around five o’clock in the evening a foul thing took place near Ypres, one of the foulest things to happen yet in this foul war. Near the hamlet of s'Graventafel to the north-east of Ypres a greenish cloud was seen to issue from German lines and float with the wind towards our own. It passed through a section of the line held by Moroccan and Algerian troops of French 45th and 87th Divisions. At once men were see to clutch their throats and to fall, gasping for breath and many died. Not surprisingly the rest ran for their lives(1).

It looks very much as if the bestial foe has resorted to even baser methods of slaughter. Experts we have spoken to are of opinion that the green cloud was chlorine gas. It chokes, it blinds and it asphyxiates. The poor men who breathed it did not stand a chance but died, victims of the German chemical industry and German barbarism.

As a result of the French North African troops’ flight a four mile wide gap was left in our lines. This was no doubt the enemy’s intention and they were expected to pour through the gap. However, here the enemy’s treachery worked against him for the gas lingered in the old French trenches and the German troops feared to enter and to share the fate of their original defenders.

Here we are happy to praise the steadfast courage of our Canadian troops. They were next to the French troops who ran, but, despite taking casualties themselves, they stood firm and, by virtue of wetting cloths and putting them over their faces, were able to mitigate, to an extent, the effects of the gas(2). It is feared they have taken grievous casualties as a reward for their bravery.

The adjutant of 1^st Bedfords tells us that they were ordered to march from their rest at Reningelst to Ouderdom in preparation to check any German breakthrough but no breakthrough, thankfully, came.

Earlier that day the Bedfords had been visited by Commander-in-Chief British Expeditionary Force. He congratulatd them on their fine performance at Hill 60.

Source: X550/2/5

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(1)  This was not the first gas attack in history; the Germans had employed the gas against the Russians in January, but the intense cold had prevented it working properly. This was the first successful use of poisoned gas and the first use on the Western Front. The British army would soon begin to use gas itself.

(2)  In fact they urinated on the cloth.