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The Ypres Times.
by the French, because it was first used near Ypres. Mustard gas attacks the skin, the
eyes and the lungs, and is generally called a vesicant or blistering gas. It is a high boiling
liquid and therefore very persistent. It vaporises very slowly in cold weather but much
more quickly in hot. It is slowly decomposed by water and readily destroyed by chloride
of lime. The liquid or vapour will penetrate all ordinary clothing, leather and even
rubber. Oiled fabric is the only type of material which will resist it for any length of
time. The vapour has a slight smell, but this is not very marked and the sense of smell
becomes dulled after quite short exposures. It is very insidious, as it has no immediate
effect that can be detected, and therefore, unless a man notices the smell, there is nothing
to compel him to put on his respirator but usually in 24 hours symptoms will develop,
the first signs being inflammation of the eyes if the man has not worn his mask. In
the same way there is no immediate effect if the liquid gets on the skin and blisters do not
develop until a few hours later. This insidious and delayed action of mustard, coupled
with the difficulty of protecting the body against it, makes it a war gas of very great
importance, and it proved to be far more effective than any other gas during the War
in producing casualties. Owing to its insidious nature, the number of casualties continued
to be large even when the period of surprise was over. The other new gas was contained
in their Blue Cross shells, and was an arsenic compound called diphenyl-chloroarsine. It
was in a bottle surrounded by high explosive, and the Germans expected that the burst of
the shell would scatter the arsenic compound as a fine dust, which would penetrate our
respirators and cause such violent sneezing as to make the wearing of the mask impossible
lethal gas, such as phosgene or diphosgene, was then to be used to put the unprotected
troops out of action. Fortunately for us, thé effects obtained under laboratory conditions
were not realised in the field, and many millions of these shells were fired without producing
any serious gas casualties and without material results beyond the discomfort and incon
venience of wearing a respirator.
At the beginning of 1918, the Germans accumulated stocks of several million rounds of
gas shells for use in the March offensive, and they relied very largely on gas shells in their
artillery preparations for these attacks, as much as 80 per cent, of gas ammunition being
allowed for counter-battery work. A number of new types, which were variants of Yellow
Cross, Blue Cross and Green Cross, were introduced, but none of these new gases had any
special advantage over mustard gas. The Germans achieved some notable successes
with mustard gas, a particular instance being the bombardment of Armentieres, the
streets of which ran with mustard gas so that it had to be evacuated, and no one could
enter the town with safety for at least a fortnight.
In 1918, the Germans again reverted to a gas shell containing a large amount of high
explosive this was their high explosive mustard gas shell, which was extremely efficient.
The high explosive burst made it difficult to recognise that a gas shell had been employed,
and a concentrated mustard gas cloud was obtained which was highly effective. Another
result was that the persistency of the gas on the ground was lessened and the area
bombarded did not remain dangerous so long. This was an asset if the invention was to
advance over or occupy the ground.
The British and French continued to use, during 1918, the same methods which had
proved successful in the previous year. The Livens' projector was still a dangerous
weapon as it never lost its surprise effect. We were late, however, in coming into the field
with our mustard gas shell. The French were the first of the Allies to use it in June, and
they did so with great success the Germans were unprepared for its use by the Allies
and suffered heavy losses. Our own supplies were not ready until September, but gave
good results in the preparation for the successful attack on the Hindenburg Line on
September 30th. The Germans had assured their troops that it was quite impossible for
the Allies to make mustard gas, so that its employment by us and the French came as a
great surprise to them. In fact they were hoist with their own petard, since trusting in
