POISON GAS OF YPRES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16477, 1 September 1915, Page 8

POISON GAS OF YPRES

A PICTON MAN'S ADVENTURES. WITH THE R.A.M.C. IN FLANDERS. (From Oub Own Cokhespondent.) ' , / LONDON, July 16. Lance-corporal Alfred Nuttall (Picton), serving at the, front with the No. 3 Field Ambulance, :Ist Canadian Division, sends me a- picturesque account of the events during the first German gas attack near Ypres. His relatives and friends in New Zealand will be glad to know that on July 10, the date of the letter, lie was alive and lie also, his best wishes for the continued successes of the New Zealanders in the Dardanelles. Lance-corporal Nuttall lives in hopes of seeing his native land again, and if - all goes well he should be able to come to London for a spell next He writes :

■. "At present we are having a Test after what may be called a.' pretty hot time.' But our recent engagements are not to be compared to our first ' mix-up' near Ypres. I don't think there is one who went through that ordeal who would like another similar experience. Particularly so wheri it comes unexpectedly. We are* not afraid of any such results happening again from the fumes of asphyxiating gas. Nearly every man out here "whp is likely to come in contact with the fumes is being supplied with the means to withstand any such attack. At first we blamed the Zouaves for' letting the Germans down on our men, but after knowing the reason of the retreat we were more inclined to sympathise with them. "It so happened that, on that memor able, evening four of us.—one has since died, of wounds received later—ohaneed going .into Ypres to. have a look at the ruins, of what must have been once a beautiful city/ The bombardment started' , just as we were on the verge of the city, •and foolishly we *ivent on, our idea being to see the sights, particularly, the. Cloth Hall. We got there all right, but it was : too hot to stay and examine the ruiris as we had planned. There's nothing like a 'Jack Johnson' or a 'Coal Box' tp make you decide quickly on your next move. When we landed on the other side of the building, just as we were coming out, we lost no time in getting clear of the place. The fragments—very small; —fell on the. road just like a hailstorm; fortunately ,/bhe building • protected us from the; explosion itself. After. Ifeaving. there .we were uncertain which was 'the safest road to take, because the shells were coming _ over at that point. from two opnosite directions. Anyway, we managed to reach the railway track, and we,/ walked /beside .it toward Vlamerlinghs. "We : had riot got; far when we - were horrified "at . the sight of what looked like a retreat across the canal. We were n6t long in doubt after we had got further/down the track to- the . cross road between the two places. There we saw that our fears were confirmed. . I shall. jaever forget the faces, of those Frenchmen as long as 'I live. It was. indeed an iiripressive sight." Some were, wounded, some werd overcome by the gas fumes, and others were almost frightened eto . death. There they . were, seated, as 1 best they could in -one Of their ammunition wagons" and ■ general:,service wagons. . ' Another aspect presented itself—the helplessness of the situation. None of us, was in a l position to do' anything to stop, the retreating. Frenchmen.- . 'A Canadian . officer ■ afterwards said, that it would haye, needed janother ATiriy jjut up agaipst thetti to keep • them ,in their place, and then they would have fought to., get away from the gas.-. Well,aftefr standing at the , tailway crossing awhile we thought we, might, be needed at the dressing, stations, ; Vent back and waited. _'While;, we waited' the retreating, forms . still and among the .'soldiers there'Vere a few- civir. lians who skins. They were—to use a Canadian phrase— ' beatirig 'it while the '-goirig, is' good.' It was not very long before there was a constant flow of refugees from a small village that was being shelled about a mile from bur place, also a number of refugees that had reiriairied: in; Ypres. There Tjvere_not very many of them left in that ruined ' city.-.'v.'; C ' " i " ,We had orders to ' stand by'; and be ready to leave at a minute's notice. But we didn't have to move our equipment,; although, before , longwe had to mover 5 pretty sharply ■' in the dressing, station,. be-, cause;, the wounded ■ men were, just beginning to come in.* And during the following .three days we were - kept hard at it, cepting tor a few intervals. Theoperating room was more bloody than any modern butcher's shop; but the blood was mostly on the removed- dressings that had been p-ut on by the' medical officer or the stretcher-bearers«' at' tie *regimeritalaid post. The medical officer of the battalion frequently has to do his work in the trenches, or close by"; ; Our dressing station (advanced) .is sometimes within' 400 yards of the trenches; but it is riot always wise to have them so near, because Of the constant exposure to -the rifle fire of the eneiriy ;:bu,t we are nearly always in danger of shell; fire; Ouradvanced dressing sta-. tion had to quit on account, of the heavy shell fire, and. during; the night we had 10 wounded and five missing. Later we learned that they 'w6re'. prisoners of the Germans, and that one of them had died from wounds.. Our advanced dressing station started up againand stayed ,with it until it was impossible to stay, any, longer. Most - were ' seeking shelter with the wounded in the cellar of a dressing ' station, when, a' shell ' went right through the rooi, but did no further injury. ". ./• -" , ;■■. "We also had to- move the -wounded a little further back from the dressing station, arid during this pocess three of .them were injured—two being from fjiri infanttv corps alongside and the other was one of our own boys—my best chuin. His wound proved fatal three days later. " After sending the patients down to. a clearing, hospital wo . went back to the dressing station and, began; work but we were shelled out twice soon after. Finally,' after six "days,, we weie ordered to: go back: During that time we beat all previous records in, field ambulance work. No fewer than-175 officers and 5005 men passed through our hands; most of them were put through during the first three, days; the rest of the time we were rff- ; lieved- .by NoS. 1 and 2 coming into the field. Tlie wounded were, thus- more evfinly distributed, arid we were, able to arrange to make.' tilings less: fatiguing for /orirselves. - After moving from there we had: a few days' glorious rest, and then were sent to a town in Northern France, where we Tan a clearing hospital for a; few daya and then journeyed further south-east, where we went into.the thick of it againahd got two of our boys killed and, two badly wounded. .' " 6bhsidering. all things, we have been very Some of the places, were even warmer than Hades is reputed to be, but most of us are still in good trim and none the worse for the experiences. Since coming : here we have,bteen in'2o different places in France and "Belgium, so you see iwe are'not" what ons would call Stationary, i like the' life and enjoy the work very much ; the weather is'very enjoyable, but I like i the Belgian weather better than that we had' in- France. In fact, I like everything in- Belgium—the weather, the country, the towns, and particularly thp :people:". . . ■ -; -, \- .