Tag Archives: Gas

Diary entries which mention the military use of gas during the war.

30 July 1916; Sunday

July 1916, , , ,

Up at 7 o’clock. Had breakfast. Marched down to the horse lines. Made big shelter with the big waggon sheet and the waggons. Hot day. Very tired. Finished writing little story. Germans shelled heavily to the right and left of us with big stuff. After tea a few squads went up in reserve to the 59th and the remainder of us came back to the château near Fricourt12. Told to be ready to fall in and go up the line any time. Slept with only Lavere again.

Gas alarm at night.

  1. Fricourt: This is the first time ALL mentions Fricourt by name although this château was very probably the same one mentioned on 7th July and again on several occasions since. Fricourt is between Albert and Mametz, about 2km from latter; map sq. I 7/8 in Michelin. The map accompanying this post shows the approximate location of the château. ↩

  2. Fricourt had been a salient in the German front line prior to July 1916 and was taken by the British on 1-2 July. It was presumably during this fighting that the château was ruined. ↩

26 July 1916; Wednesday

July 1916, , , , ,

Got piece of shrapnel out of the L & Y & L1 shoulder2. Stayed up until 1.30, then lay down until about 7 o’clock. Had quiet night although the Germans sent over gas shells all the while. Were relieved at 8 o’clock. Marched down to dressing station, then to the billets near the château, after calling at an Army Service park. Got to know a big ammunition dump had been fired. Sergeant Jones killed and Sergeant Brown wounded about 8 o’clock. 2 men gassed the night before and a few men down the line. Fine day. Returned to old billets with Lavere. A dead German buried in the side of the trench and his foot sticking out and smelled horribly. Got to know a day or two ago that Ted Trim had got a DCM3 on July 2nd. Received parcel from home and letter from Joe. Had eggs and brown bread and butter to tea.

Two pieces of trench art (the matchbox cover engraved "The Great War"; the paper- knife engraved "Albert", and "Ancre" on the reverse; the handle is a spent .303 cartridge, for a Lee Enfield rifle or a Lewis machine-gun); and a piece of shrapnel preserved by ALL (exact origin not known but possibly related to the July 26 diary entry).
Two pieces of trench art (the matchbox cover engraved “The Great War”; the paper- knife engraved “Albert”, and “Ancre” on the reverse; the handle is a spent .303 cartridge, for a Lee Enfield rifle or a Lewis machine-gun); and a piece of shrapnel preserved by ALL (exact origin not known but possibly related to the July 26 diary entry).

  1. Y & L: ALL first wrote “L & Y”, but corrected this to “Y & L”: the 8th and 9th Battalions of the Yorkshire & Lancashire Regiment were in 70th Brigade, 8th Division – not the 34th or 19th Division, but nevertheless in the central sector of the front. ↩

  2. ALL wrote in his more detailed 1976 narrative that he had kept this piece of shrapnel as a souvenir – possibly though by no means certainly the one in the illustration accompanying this entry. ↩

  3. “DCM”: the Distinguished Conduct Medal was for Other Ranks; officers got the Distinguished Service Cross. ↩

25 July 1916; Tuesday

July 1916, , , , ,

Slept badly from lice and a big naval gun. Up at 6 o’clock. Marched up to Captain Johnson for breakfast and had it there. Marched off about 7.30, up to the trenches. Our squad (Bascombe, Houghton, Hall and I) in the aid post near the Bosantine [sic] Wood1. Not much to do all day excepting a few slight wounds and sick cases. About 9 o’clock at night a man walked in with an ugly shrapnel wound in his shoulder, a man with his skull smashed and one with a knee wound besides two smaller cases. Carried the worst ones to the dressing station on the road. Germans shelled all day but stopped while we were down. Had two cases of shell shock in all day. Very heavy journey down with the stretchers. Dark, heavy ground. Only 3 to a stretcher. Got back safely. Sergeant Fraser and Hall went with a walking case and found the German using gas shells. I stayed up until half past one.

  1. “Bosantine Wood”: There are two woods near the village of Bazentin, about 10km NE of Albert. These are shown on old maps as Bazentin-le-Petit wood (A) and Bazentin-le-Grand wood (B). ALL could have been referring to either of these although Bazentin-le-Petit wood (A on the map and, somewhat counter-intuitively, the larger of the two woods then as it is now) seems the more likely as it is more easily accessible from the road. It seems quite likely that ALL had never seen the name Bazentin in writing, at least up to the time when he wrote his diary entry for 25 July, and this could account for his spelling. ↩

2 July 1916; Sunday

July 1916, ,

Were lost in trench all night. Passed through front line trenches where Cheshires and Welsh1 regiments were waiting to go over the top. After being under fire by a machine gun (and seeing many retreats†) we found our way to the dugout aid post. Germans shelling2, so we had to wait. Finally got a case. Took us until 5 o’clock to get it down through mud and crowded trenches. Had to wait for so long until Germans stopped shelling communication trench. Were nearly down when a regimental stretcher bearer followed us and asked us to go back. 3 went back and took over the stretcher. Lay about most of afternoon very much done up. No regular meals, only snatches of biscuits and cheese. Ordered to fall in at night. Frightened us a bit and Leaky suggested staying back. Orders about 3 o’clock to stand up with gas helmets. Lay down again. Met stretcher squads. Lay on side of trench part of the morning. Very heavy bombardment and fighting in front. Distances confusing.

[This (2 July) and the adjoining pages are very difficult to read. Along the bottom edge of the 2 July page there has been a further line of shorthand, even fainter and more smudged than the rest of these pages. The words “time”, “distance” and “making” may be there, but nothing else can even be guessed.]

  1. ALL’s own records say that the 58th Field Ambulance was in the 57th Brigade. The 9th Cheshires, the 9th Welch and the 9th Royal Welch Fusiliers were also in the 19th Division, but in the 58th Brigade. ↩

  2. “Germans shelling”: whereas the British artillery barrage had as pre-arranged extended its range as soon as the first infantry attack began, so as to leave the first lines of German trenches clear for the British infantry (whose progress, if any, was however much slower than foreseen, thus giving the Germans time to emerge with their machine guns before the British infantry got there), the German artillery fire was concentrated on No Man’s Land as soon as the British infantry entered it. In readiness for this, the German field batteries had delayed firing during the British preliminary barrage, thus escaping observation (and avoiding getting shelled themselves), and reassuring the British Staff that they had been silenced by the British barrage. ↩

13 June 1916; Tuesday

June 1916,

Got up about 6 o’clock. Double along the road first thing. Breakfast dinner and tea as usual. Paraded 9.30 with skeleton equipment and overcoats and gas helmets. Marched about 8 miles. It rained heavily and the roads were fearful. Our coats wet through. Had to go to bed at night with nothing to cover us. Managed all right and had good night. Used newspaper to help me to keep warm.

7 June 1916; Wednesday

June 1916, ,

Up at 5 o’clock. Breakfast at 9 o’clock.Paraded for gas helmets. Had dinner at 11 o’clock. Paraded squad 11.45. Left some of the men including Green to follow 1.15. Marched down to station. Had a bit bother about getting into the train. Left at 3.50. Train moved very slowly. Stopped at siding place all night and we left the train about 8.30 and got some tea and cake at a canteen. Tried to sleep at night but pretty uncomfortable and cold.

Received news of the loss of Kitchener1 on the Hampshire.

  1. Field-Marshal Earl (Herbert) Kitchener of Khartoum (1850 – 1916): secured Sudan, 1898; Commander-in-Chief, 2nd Boer War, 1900 – 02; Commander-in-Chief, India (1902 – 09; the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, resigned), then Consul-General in Egypt; Secretary of State for War (1914 – 16); was going to Russia for negotiations in the Tyne-built cruiser HMS Hampshire (which had been present at the Battle of Jutland a few days before: see reference on 31 May.) It struck a mine West of Orkney, in bad weather, on 5 June. K’s home was Broome Park, at Denton near Canterbury.  ↩

3 June 1916; Saturday

June 1916, , ,

Up at 5 o’clock. Breakfast at 6 o’clock. Paraded at 8.45 and went to the big parade ground. Were lectured on gas helmets, given one each, and put through a gas test. Our buttons nicely blackened1. Very interesting. Heavy shower as we sat. Wrote letter to Mr Inwood in the afternoon. Went to lecture by an Indian doctor at night. Went to bed shortly after 9 o’clock.

Received news of North Sea fight2.

  1. “Our buttons nicely blackened”: Following the first use of gas by the Germans at Ypres, a team of scientists was sent to Belgium to find out what gas was being used. They identified chlorine from the way it had discoloured buttons on soldiers’ uniforms. Given the blackening of buttons noted here by ALL, it seems likely that chlorine was also the gas used for this test. ↩

  2. Presumably the news of the Battle of Jutland reaching ALL. ↩

29 April 1915; Thursday

April 1915, , ,

At work as usual. Busy all day. Finished late.

Germans using poisonous gases1  2 & made an advance near Ypres at this time.

  1. The first successful, large scale use of gas was in the German attack at Langemarck in the NW. angle of the Ypres Salient, on 22 April; initially against French African troops, but Canadian and British troops were soon involved. German prisoners had given detailed accounts of the preparations, but the French Corps commander, Balfourier, would neither believe the warnings nor transmit them to the British. ↩

  2. See also: Wikipedia: Chemical weapons in World War I and Wikipedia: Second Battle of Ypres ↩