The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-10-12
WORK OF THE GASMEN.
Gruesome Feature of European War
Horrors.

strictly prohibited Dut no" tue Iaooo
has been lifted, and British gas
man, has been allowed to write
graphic account of the work of his
own special corps whose business it
is. he says, ''to doctor the Germans
with their own medicine
Behind our lines,' he writes, 1.-The
sun set in a blaze of glory. A glance
over the parapet shows the green
and scarlet popped Nomansland al
ready merging into the gray mists OF
twilight; about $50 yards away, like
a brown earth shadow among the
grays, hangs the rusty barbed wire OF
the enemy and just beyond white,
chalky upthrow marks his front line
trench. The gasmen stare across the
silent shadows at that white line and
for a moment they think of the
choky, gurgling cough of the men
who die by gas. 1t. is not pleasant
to die by gas.
"'Connect up!' the order comes
down the line from one bay Of the
trench to another, and the gasmen
Immediately get busy. The front
rows of neatly piled sandbags OF
which each flre-step is apparently
solidly built are pulled out and dis
close a cavity in which show, black
and ominous, the cowled heads of a
row of iron cylinders. They are
sunk in pits well 'bagged up to pro-
tect them from possible crack or
puncture by flying fragments or
ricocheting bullets. Each cylinder
weighs about 13O pounds and con-
tains sufficient compressed gas, if it
could be used without waste, to put
an entire company out of action.
t.On top of the cylinders lies a
tangle of flexible connecting pipes,
three and four way joints, ,spigots
and screw-jets, and upon these, with
spanner and key, the gasmen start
to work. The cylinders are all con-
nected up in series, and nothing re-
mains but to throw the jets over the
top of the parapet and open the
valves in order to release the deadly
fumes. T..
"But something is required to car
ry the gas over to the German lines
a favoring breeze never did
sailor scan the sky more intently
than the gasmen watch their little,
inconspicuous wind gauges, fixed to
the edge of a trench. They must
have wind of a certain direction
and they prefer it of certain
strength. On this occasion, the di-
rection is satisfactory enough, but
the breeze shows signs of weakness,
and occasionally falls to mere, al
most imperceptible zephyr.
t'When not watching the wind, the
gasmen are watching their pipes; re-
peadedly. feeling and testing every
inch of the tube and point; for none
know better than they the danger of
leakage and of the escape of gas in
to their own trenches. Persistently
an officer passes down the line, cast
ing rapid though keen glances as he
goes at each set of cylinders and
their connecting pipes. And in
every bay he pauses and whispers
two words to the corporal in charge:
Eleven O'clock But the wind with
out which the gas will not reach the
enemy's trench and do it's deadly
work among it's occupants, begins to
peter out.
cat ten fifty the gasmen don their
special respirators, which in the dim
light give the wearers a strange, al
most inhuman appearance. Masked
and sgoggled, with weird, trunk-like
pieces of hose running from the
mouthpiece to the box of air-purify-
ing chemicals strapped to their
chests, they look like some of the
unearthly beings who people the
books of Mr.. H. G. Wells.
"But not a breath disturbs the
still air. The feeble breeze has died
completely. Hurriedly the order
runs down the line: Cancel, and
stand BY Behind their masks the
gasmen grunt disgustedly. But sud-
denly-crack! crack! rat-a-tat! The
orders to the infantry have not been
countermanded and the quiet of the
night is roughly shattered by long
lire Of viciously cracking rifles and
Lewis guns to which the Germans
reply.
The gasmen move about uneasily.
1t is not for themselves they fear, but
for those pipes and cylinder heads
lying bare and exposed to the hail of
flying fragments. Well they know