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A recent writer has shown us the future tank carrying war into the enemy's country and destroying his nerve centres by actually reaching and paralysing the G.H.Q.s. of armies and smaller formations. Such operations will have to occur through a wide zone of the new gas and will necessitate the anti-gas tank.
As we came toward the close of our brief we joined the anti-gas party, and prayed that before we came to the last written line something would burst, and leave us in the darkness.
Protection became a part of the duties of the Medical Services and was placed under the direct control of Colonel, afterwards Sir William Horrocks, who became chairman of the specially appointed Anti-Gas Committee. Further, a little later, the Chemical Sub-Committee above referred to became an advisory body to Colonel Jackson.
Anti-gas research was at first centred in the R.A.M. College, Millbank, and from the beginning of 1917 in the Physiological Institute, University College, London. The work done in research and production not only protected the whole of the British Army, but formed the backbone of American and a large part of Italian protection.
Since the QM and a lieutenant both had watches needing glasses I had no difficulty in getting a few goggles anti-gas diverted from the QM store. Nearly all of us smoked in those days and our favourite brands were not always available; matches were also in short supply so we doubled our stock by splitting them lengthwise with a razor blade. Swan Vestas were the easiest to split.
Flying-men and officers of all kinds waiting for trains crowded the Folkestone Hotel and restaurants, where they spent two hours over luncheon and three hours over dinner, drinking red wine, talking "shop" the shop of trench-mortar units, machine-gun sections, cavalry squadrons, air-fighting, gas schools, and anti-gas schools.
Although this change witnessed further centralisation by the incorporation of the Anti-Gas Department, thereby settling once and for all the inherent association between offensive and defensive research, a fact which had been apparent to many long before, yet it still ignored the fundamental connection between offensive research and supply.
Instruction was given from time to time in anti-gas precautions, but viewed from a subsequent standpoint these defensive measures were not good. Steel helmets were in possession of the bombers, who were then called "Grenadiers," and wore little red cloth grenades on their arms. These helmets were called "bombing hats," and regarded as a nuisance.
Altogether, more than fifty million masks and respirators of different kinds were manufactured by the British Anti-Gas Department for our own and Allied armies. We thus have some idea of the importance of protection in chemical warfare and of the absolutely imperative need of deciding whether or no work on protection must go on. There can be no doubt as to the answer to this question.
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