In adjusting our lamps we had to remove our gas
helmets, and after waiting some time for the expected explosion and
hearing none, I looked up; white fumes were rising from the ground at
about the spot the shell had entered; there had been no explosion of
splinters.
This particular shell is very thin, is fired with great velocity, and
when meeting resistance it breaks and cracks and the white gas fumes
like steam come floating out. "What do you think of that, Grant!" from
Dory in the shell hole; "I thought the blankety-blank was a Jack
Johnson." His thought had cost him a soaking and the reflex action of
his thought was strongly in evidence during the balance of our watch.
The remainder of our lonely duty was not enhanced in pleasure by the
contemplation of scores of stretcher bearers carrying out men who had
been caught unprepared by the gas and who were choking and suffocating
from its effects.
So earnestly pernicious is the gas device as a fighting weapon that it
is a matter of common talk among the boys that Fritz, when he invented
his contrivance, must have been in direct communication with his Satanic
Majesty.
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