The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1918-10-09
HEAVY GAS ATTACKS
Fooled BY MASKS
War Department Says Our Protection
Against Huns Methods Stands
the Most Severe Tests.
SPEED Is AN ESSENTIAL
Men Are Not In Danger II They Fol-
low Orders AS Quickly As Expected
After Thorough Drill.

Washington, Oct s,-The war de-
statement:
German forces opposed to the
steady advance OF the American line
on the Lorraine front have brought
into play every method of defence con-
sidered effective in modern warfare.
They are making a particularly heavy
use of poison gas. Pershing's men
have been increasingly bonn barded
with mustard shells and every effort
has been made to drench the Aneri-
can advanced positions with deadly
fumes. It Is a remarkable tribute to
the chemical warfare work in the
United States that these efforts to
block the progress of the offensive
have proved utterly futile.
'sThe American attacking forces are
protected against gas by masks which
actual field tests prove give twenty
times the protection afforded by Ger
man gas masks. There is not, as a
matter Of fact a single case on record
OF an American soldier falling victim
10 a gas attack when protected by the
mask that is now being manufactured
in the United States on n vast guam
s:ty basis This fact has been so thor
ioughly established by repeated expert
ences that military authorities place
the blame for gas poisoning on the
carelessness of the victim. great
many officers in the United States
army insist that in most cases the men
who are gassed should be court mar
tailed. not decorated
Americans All Experts.
Fortunately. every American SOL
ldier who goes to France is a gas mask
expert. He has been trained to ad
Just his land preservers' with almost
incredible speed The mask is put on
with just five motions of the arms and
hands. The man who fails to accom-
plish the feat within q time limit OF
istx seconds is left behind when his
unit goes 70 the front
Recently, in a practice drill one
company of American fighting men set
a record OF four seconds from the
| time the order to don masks was given
TO the final adjustment by the slowest
man.
1T is an interesting fact that Ameri-
can gas masks stand up under tests
that German masks cannot meet. Ger
man masks will not give protection
against a high concentration of gas.
This was demonstrated recently when
the British assembled a sufficiently
large battery OF projectors, to put
seventy tons Of phosreno gas into the
air at once with consequences quite
well known to the German general
staff. There is no concentration of gas
that American masks will not defy
This has been proved. not only on the
battlefield hut in the experime ntal
stations in this country. whTre deter
mined attempts to break down tho
resistance OF United States army
masks by heavy gas concentrations
were absolutely unsuccessful
Call United States Masks Rest.
The American gas mask was de-
Neloped by actual manufactures The
proper authorities obtained complete
Information about the French and
British masks and full data as to the
efficiency they demonstrated under
German gas attacks. Armed with this
knowledge. an order for the making
of several thousand masks was placed
in this country. Members OF the force
of 500 officers and 1000 enlisted men
who are RESPONSIBLE for the production
iof this modern weapon of defence
showed the courage of their conivc-
tions by volunteering for experiments
They donned the masks and exposed
themselves to actual gas attacks-Erom
time to time. American ingenuity and
inventive genius suggested improve
ments in the original methods. As a
result the officers OF our allies are
unanimous in the frank admission that
the American mask is the best on the
western 'front.'
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