Lyffe
May 27 2009, 10:42 PM
I have a copy of letter from Lt C D Stewart, RE Special Brigade, 3 Battalion, in which he describes being gassed during a gas attack on the night of 31 Aug to 1 Sep 1916 near Messines. He never recovered to become fit for service and was invalided out in October 1918
I've been unable to find any reference to this in The Times - only British gas attacks - and would appreciate any advice as to what happened that night. I assume the Special Brigade was itself responsible for chemical warfare.
TIA
Brian
stevebecker
May 28 2009, 03:31 AM
Mate,
As far I can see the Germans made a counter attack on the 1st Sept 1917 around Inverness Corse where the 24th Div (2nd Corps) was attacked.
I can see no mention of gas at this time in my sourses.
S.B
Lyffe
May 28 2009, 06:55 AM
See if I can add a bit more Steve:
His letter, which is a request for a gratuity records:
"....... respect of injuries received by me on the night of the 31 August - 1 September 1916, when I was gassed in action near Messines."
An entry on his Casualty form records him as "Wounded" on 31 August, and the next, by the Casualty Clearing Station on 1 Sept, defines "Wounded" as "Gas poison. Drifting gas."
A GHQ communique, issued 2.30 pm 31 August, records the Army as "discharging gas over a broad front near Arras and Armentieres with good results" - but that must have been early on the 31st.
A communique issued at 1.55 pm the next day, reported a German counter attack along a front between Ginchy and High Wood but makes no mention of gas. It does, however, record "Gas was liberated by us from the Ypres salient with satisfactory results."
In the absence of any reports of the German Army using gas in this period I wonder if this second British use of gas went disasterously wrong and it affected the British troops as well as the German? GHQ would hardly have been likely to admit that it had gassed its own troops!
Stewart doesn't actually claim he was gassed by the enemy, simply that he was "gassed in action". In the light wind conditions required for the release of gas, the gas would just float around and a reversal of wind direction would bring it back to the release point.
If you are unable to find any reference to the Germans using gas I think the above explanation is probably the most logical.
Brian