Existing comment:
Gas Mask Discipline
"Gas mask discipline" was intended to enhance the training, self-control, and organization around the use of gas masks by soldiers on the battlefield. It was believed that gas mask discipline was the best way to limit casualties. Senior military leaders often failed to realize that the terror of gas attacks -- verging on hysteria -- made gas mask discipline extremely difficult for troops experiencing battlefield conditions for the first time.
"After a while I became aware of a different sound... the dull thud caused by gas shells. A moment later and I could smell the deadly poison. I reached for my trusted gas mask and, much as I dreaded to do so, pulled it on. The mask is safe, but it is the most uncomfortable thing I ever experienced. If [anyone wants to] know how a gas mask feels, let him seize his nose with a pair of fire tongs, bury his face in a hot feather pillow, then seize a gas pipe with his teeth and breathe through it for a few hours while he performs routine duties. It is safe, but, like the deadly poison which forced its invention, it is not sane..."
-- Major William E. Boyce, medical officer, 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry, near Chateau Theirry, July 1918. Boyce earned two Silver Stars and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. |