The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-08-05
CHEMISTS OF
 ALLIES BEAT GERMANS AT GAS
Last Days of War Subjected Them to Twice What
 They Could Give.

New York. Aug. 2-(special Core spondence)-The Allies whipped the Germans fin 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 to deliver to the Allies, according to A. Russell Bond, who writes a history Of the development of gas warfare in the August St. Nicholas. In part he writes as follows:
 'The German army had dug itself into 8 line of trenches. Neither side could make an advance without a frightful loss of life. But German scientist, Professor Nernst, inventor of a well-known electric lamp, came forward with a plan to drown out the British with a flood of poison gas Chlorine gas was selected For the gas attack a point was chosen where the ground sloped gently toward 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 yard apart on front of fifteen miles, or over 25,O00 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 the line was manned by Turcos,- or Algerians, who would be likely to think there was something super natural about a death-dealing cloud. On the left of the Africans was a di- vision of Canadians. The Germans wished to pick out a time when the
 
 1 fast as to scatter the gas, but yet s~ 1 fast that 1t would overtake men wno | attempted to run away from 1t. It 1 was not until the twenty-second of | April that conditions were ideal, and 1 then the new warfare was launched. Just as had been expected, the | Turcos were awe-struck when they l saw, coming out of the German | trenches, volumes of greenish-yeI1ow l gas, which rolled toward them, pour | ing down into the shell holes and | flowing over into the trenches as If i it were liquid. Immediately there was a panic and they raced back | striving to outspeed the pursuing cloud. For a stretch of fifteen miles | the Allied trenches were emptied, | and the Germans, who followed in the | wake of the gas, met with mo op- ! position, except in the sector held by | the Canadians. The brave Can 1 adians held them until reinforce i ments arrived and the gap in the line
 was closed. Had the Germans made 1 the attack on a broader front, noth-
 ing could have stopped them from 1 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 en- 1 tire summer and fall of 1915, the ! winds refused to favor them. This | gave the British a long respite and l enabled them to prepare gas masks. | There were many disadvantages in the use of gas-clouds. If the wind i was blowing at more than 5 miles l an hour it would swirl the gas around ! and dissipate 1t before it did much 1 harm to the opposing fighters. If the 1 wind was light there were other dan 1 gers. On one occasion in 1916 the ! wind veered around and carried their i gas back upon the German lines. As l a result of this wflim of the winds,
 eleven thousand Germans were killed.
 While chlorine was the first gas
 used, British chemists had suspected | that the Germans would use phos- gene The man who inhales this 1 deadly gas may not know he is | gassed, but hours afterWard, partcu- | larly If he has exercised in the mean | time he may suddenly fall dead. | owing to the paralyzing action of the
 gas on the heart. Mixed with chlorine | this deadly combination destroyed all life for miles behind the trenches. | Except for the men, whose masks | proved defective, the soldiers came | through with few losses. All animal life, however, was destroyed. This 1 was blessting to the British Tommy
 whose trenches had been overrun | with rats"