The Cordova daily times., 1918-04-18

gas. One helmet Is good for five hours | of the strongest gas. Each Tommy carries two of them slung around his | shoulder in a waterproof canvas bag. He must wear this bag at all times, even while sleeping. To change a de fective helmet, you take out the new one, hold your breath, pull the old one off, placing the new one over your head, tucking in the loose ends under the collar of your tunic.
 For a minute, pandemonium reigned in our trench-Tommies adjusting their helmets, bombers running here and there, and men turning out of the dugOuts with fixed bayonets, to man the fire step.
 Re-enforcements were pouring out of the communication trenches.
 Our guns crew were busy mounting the machine gun on the parapet and bringing up extra ammunition from the dugout.
 German gas is heavier than air and soon fills the trenches and dugouts. where 1t has been known to turk for two or three days, until the air Is puri- fled by means of large chemical spray CTS.
 We had to work quickly, as Fritz generally follows the gas with an h. fantry attack.
 A company man on our right was too slow in getting on his helmet; he sank to the ground, clutching at his throat and after a few spasmodic twistings went West (died). It was horrible to see him die, but we were power1ess to help him. In the corner of traverse, little, muddy cur dog, one of the company's pets, was lying dead, with his paws over his nose.
 It's the animals that suffer the most the horses, mules, cattle, dogs, cats and rats-they having no helmets to save them. Tommy does not sympa- thize with rats in u gas attack.
 / At times gas has been known to 1 travel, with dire results, fifteen miles behind the lines.
 gas, or smoke helmet, as it is called, at the best is a vile-smelllng thing, and It Is not long before one gets ! N~ AiStAhtANAiC HUH NtdIIAAB It.
 Our eighteen-pounders were burst | ing in No Mans Land, in an effort, by the artillery, to disperse the gas clouds.
 The fire step was lined with crouch ing men, bayonets fixed, and bombs near at hand to repel the expected at l tack.
 Our artillery had put a barrage of ] curtain fire on the German lines, to try l and break up their attack and keep back re-enforcements. | l trained my machine gun oR their trench and its bullets were raking the parapet
 1 Then taver they came, bayonets glis- tening- In their respirators, which have large snOut in front, they look i ed like some horrible nightmare.
 All along our trench, rifles and ma- chine guns spoke, our shrapnel was bursting over their heads. They went down in heaps, but new ones took the places of the fallen. Nothing could stop that mad rush. The Germans reached our barbed wire, which had previously been demolished by their shells, theR it was bomb against bomb and the dez1I for all.
 Suddenly my head seemed to burst from loud '"crack" in my ear. Then my head began to swim, throat got dry, and heavy pressure on the lungs warned me that my helmet was leak ing. Turning by gun over to No. 2, changed helmets.
 The trench started to wind like q snake, and sandbags appeared to be floating in the air. The noise was hOr- rible; sank onto the fire step, needles seemed 10 be pricking my flesh, then blackness.
 i was awakened by one of my mates removing my smoke helmet. How de HciOus that cool. fresh air felt in my lNngs.
 A strong wind had arisen and dis | peTsed the gas.
 l Tihey told me that had been tout" for three hours; they thought I was i dead
 The attack had been repuised after a hard fight. Twice the Germans had  gained a foothold in our trench, but had been driven out by cOunter-at- tacks. The trench was filled with their dead and ours. Through a periscOpe counted eighteen dead Germans in our wire: they were a ghastly sight In their hOrribie-lOoking respIrators. l examined my first smoke helmet. A bullet had gone through 1t on the left side, just grazing my ear. The gas had penetrated through the hole made in the cloth.
 Out of our crew of six we lost two killed and two wounded.
 That night we buried all of the dead, excepting those in No Mans Land. In death there is not much distinction; friend and foe are treated alike.
 After the wind had dispersed the gas the R. A. M.~C. got busy with their chemical sprayers, spraying out the dugouts and low parts of the trenches to diSSiData any fumaS af tho German