Gas and flame in modern warfareAuld, Samuel James Manson
History
Gas and flame in modern warfare
Auld, Samuel James Manson
Chemical warfare; Flame throwers; Gases, Asphyxiating and poisonous -- War use
Flammenwerfer attacks are made by the 3rd and 4th Guard Pioneer
Battalions and by the Guard Reserve Pioneer Regiment--all of which
troops are specially trained in flame tactics. Each battalion is
composed of six companies and each company is equipped with 18 small
or portable projectors similar to that described above, and with 20-22
large projectors of greater range. The latter larger flammenwerfer are
built on the same principle as the former, but are too heavy to be used
as mobile weapons. They are consequently built in to the trenches at
about 27 yards from the opposing lines, and, if the trenches are not
close enough together for the purpose, special saps are pushed out
and the flammenwerfer installed at the end. The range of these large
projectors is 33-44 yards and they can cover a front of 55 yards with
flames.
It is probable that in the attack at Hooge that both large and small
flammenwerfer were employed.
It is possible with the above equipment for a flame company to cover a
total front of 1100-1600 yards.
Service in the Guard Reserve Pioneers is apparently a form of
punishment. Men convicted of offences in other regiments are
transferred either for a time or permanently, and are forced under
threat of death to engage in the most hazardous enterprises and carry
out the most dangerous work. The following incident will serve to show
how the German soldiers are hounded to their death in these engagements.
In the summer of last year a small flammenwerfer attack was made
against our line at a point near Monchy, south of Arras. Two boches
armed with flame projectors of a modified pattern were instructed to
attack one of our advanced posts which was at the head of a sap running
out toward the German trenches. In broad daylight and with no covering
fire worth talking about these two poor devils were forced over the top
with revolvers pressed into their backs. One was shot down immediately.
The other managed to get clear of his own barbed wire and then
discarded his apparatus, with the intention of crawling over to us and
deserting. By this time, however, he had been badly shot up--whether
by his own people as well as by us, I cannot say. His left arm and his
right thigh were both smashed, and he had two bullets in his abdomen.
Nevertheless this man managed to crawl into our lines and was taken
care of. He was sent down to a Casualty Clearing Station in a perilous
condition, but despite his terrible injuries I understand the doctors
managed to patch him up, and that he recovered completely.
The portable flammenwerfer used in the attack just described was
brought in by our patrols the following night, the spot where he
had left it being accurately described by the wounded prisoner. It
was found to be of a new pattern and other specimens of the same
construction have since been captured, chiefly in the neighbourhood of
Lens where they were employed by the boche in the course of abortive
counter attacks against the Canadians.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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