The First Gas Attack, April 22, 1915

The document that I found talks about a first hand account of the first ever gas attack. It was written by Anthony R. Hossack who joined the Queen Victoria Rifles at the beginning of the War and served with them on the Western Front from early 1915 till after the Battle of Arras, where, in July 1917, he was wounded, returning to France at the end of February 1918, when he was attached to the M.G. Battalion of the 9th (Scottish) Division, and, after coming through the retreat from St. Quentin, was taken prisoner in the battle for Mt. Kemmel.

More curious than anything was a low cloud of yellow-grey smoke or vapour, and, underlying everything,a dull confused murmuring.Plainly something terrible was happening. What was it? Officers, and Staff officers too, stood gazing at the scene, awestruck and dumbfounded; for in the northerly breeze there came a pungent nauseating smell that tickled the throat and made our eyes smart. The horses and men were still pouring down the road. two or three men on a horse, I saw, while over the fields streamed mobs of infantry, the dusky warriors of French Africa; away went their rifles, equipment, even their tunics that they might run the faster.

One man came stumbling through our lines. An officer of ours held him up with levelled revolver, "What's the matter, you bloody lot of cowards?" says he. The Zouave was frothing at the mouth, his eyes started from their sockets, and he fell writhing at the officer's feet. "Fall in!" Ah! we expected that cry; and soon we moved across the fields in the direction of the line for about a mile. The battalion is formed into line, and we dig ourselves in."

This document shows one of the bad sides of advancement in war technology. The side that no one likes to see. The side where the new weapon is seen as a murderer. The side thats covered in blood. This was the first time that the horrible weapon known as poison gas was ever used. Imagine having something that you have never seen before attacking you, making your eyes water, making it impossible to breath, and then finally killing you. Its scary. Its like playing a friend of yours in a video game you have never played and them using tricks that you don't know against you. Its unexpected and you don't understand what happened or how they did them. Its almost unfair, sort of cheating. One side has technology that the other doesn't. It wasn't even until September of the same year that Britain got the technology.