The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-09-27
ALLIED CHEMISTS
 ECLIPSED FEATS
 OF HUN SAVhNTS

The allies whipped the Germans in the battle of the chemists. and before the war was ended the Germans were subjected to twice as much poison gas as they were able t. deliver to tus allies, according to 4. Russell Bond, who writes a history of the develop ment of gas warfare n the August St. Nicholas. In part he writes as follows.
 'The German army had dug itself into a line of trenches. Neither side could make an advance without a frightful loss of life. But a German scientist, Prof. Nernst, inventor of a wel-knOwn electric lamp, came for ward with a plan to drown out the British with a flood of poison gas Chlorine gas was selected. For the gas attack point was chosen where the ground sloped gently to- ward the opposing lines, so that the gas would actually flow down hill into them. Preparations were carried out with the utmost secrecy. Just under the parapet of the trenches. deep pits were dug about a yard apart on a front of fifteen miles or over 25.OOO pits.
 Everything was ready for the at tack on the British in April 1915. A point had been chosen where the British lines made a juncture with the French. The French portion of the line was manned by Turcos, or AL gerians, who would be likely to think there was something supernatural about a death dealing cloud On the left of the Africans was a division f y7 pick out a time when the breeze was blowing steadily-nOt so fast that it would overtake men who attempted to run away from il. It was not until the twenty-second If April that con- ditions were ideal, and then the new warfare was launched.
 Just as had been expected, the Turcos were awe-struck when they saw, coming out of the German trenches. volumes of greenish- yellow gas, which rolled toward them, pour ;rg down into the shell-holes and flowing over into the trenches as if it were a liquid. Immediately there was a panic and they raced back, striving to outspeed the pursuing cloud. For Q stretch of fifteen miles the allied trenches were emptied, and the Ger
 mans, who followed in the wake of the gas, met with no opposition, eX- cept in the sector held by the Can adians. The brave Canadians held them until endorsements arrived and the gap in the line was closed. Had the Germans made the attack on a broader front, nothing could have stopped them from breaking through to Calais.
 "One thing the Germans had not counted upon was the fact that the prevailing winds in Flanders blow from west to east. During the entire summer and fall of 1915, the winds refused to favor them. This gave the British a long respite and enabled them to prepare gas masks. There were many disadvantages in the Use of gas-clouds. If the wind was blow ing at more than fifteen miles an hour, it would swirl the gas around and dissipate it before it did much harm to the opposing fighters. If the wind was light, there were other dan gers. On one occasion in 1916, the wind veered around and carried their gas back upon the German lines. As a result of this whim of the winds, eleven thousand Germans were kill ed
 While Chlorine was the first gas used British chemists had suspected that the Germans would use phos- gene. The man who inhales this deadly gas may not know he is gass-