GAS FUMES.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 6378, 7 May 1915, Page 5

GAS FUMES.

Cause Users' Deaths. London, May 5

t( Eye-witness " says that during the ughtiug near Ypros tho Germans bombarded with asphyxiating shells and shrapnel. The gas on this occasion looked like a great reddish cloud. Our batteries poured a concentrated fire on the German trenches. Between us wavered a poison belt, the upper parts being shredded, thin and vapourish; as it was shaken by the wind the lower and denser part sinkiag in the inequalities in the ground, and rolling down the trenches. Nevertheless the German infantry faced our hail of shrapnel. The troopi held firm and shot through the cloud at the advancing Germans, while the men holding the front line managed to move towards the flank beyond the influence of the gas. We waited until the Germans reached our trendies and then bayoneted them. On the extreme left of the supports the Germans charged through the vapour, but our men met the oncou:ing enemy with bayonets. The Germans fled. Large numbers were mowed down and fell in heaps. Many were unable to make their way through the gascloud and probably most of the German wounded perished in the fumes.

Before long wo occupied the trenches and re-established our original position.