Gas training?

[CarylW]

Looking through the war diary of the 1st Battalion RSF, in the days leading up to the Somme offensive, on the 29th June 1916 the soldiers during training underwent a 'gas test'. The entry for that day reads "Training continued The Batn. underwent a gas test and passed through a gas cloud"

Can't remember reading/hearing about this before anywhere else. If I have read this correctly and they were having some sort of training to prepare for a gas attack, and presumably (and hopefully) would be wearing gas masks, what sort of gas would have been used?

[Simon Jones]

The gas would have been chlorine and the 'test' or training was designed to show the troops that their respirators worked.

[David B]

I know this is way out of the time frame but in our original training, as a final test we used to be put through a large shed filled with tear gas. Any leaks in the mask was instantly detected.

[CarylW]

The gas would have been chlorine and the 'test' or training was designed to show the troops that their respirators worked.

Thank you Simon
Must have been a claustrophobic experience David!

[Robert Dunlop]

... put through a large shed filled with tear gas.

This same process was used in WW1 too, though the examples I have seen related to smaller purpose-built facilities. Same principle though. Generate the equivalent of a gas attack which the men would have to sit through while wearing their masks. I guess it also helped find out who could not tolerate the claustrophobic effects of a mask?

Robert

[Moonraker]

From late 1916 gas rooms or chambers had been established at Bulford, Chisledon, Durrington and Fovant camps and at Tidworth Barracks (and doubtless many other camps), though which soldiers wearing masks would pass to accustom them as to what they might experience in the trenches in France. The New Zealander W J McKeon recalled in The Fruitful Years:

"We were introduced to lachrimatory [sic] or tear gas and had to face this with and without masks, just to get the feel of it! One particularly foul trick which we had to suffer was entering a sloping trench full of tear gas, running through it and up the other slope to ground level again. Completely blinded by the stinging gas, we staggered down the trench in an effort to get out as quickly as possible. In the lowest part of the trench some fiend had half buried a two-gallon petrol can, over which we tripped and sprawled into the bottom of the trench. Gasping and smarting, we staggered on, emerging at the other end done to a turn, to face the unfeeling laughter of the instructors who stood clear of the stinging atmosphere."

Moonraker

[Moonraker]

An expert on the Midland & South Western Junction Railway has forwarded to me the above photograph from a source that was already third-hand. It originated with the descendant of a Canadian soldier who took the photograph at Chisledon Camp, probably in 1917 or 1918, with the suggestion that the de-mounted railway coach was used as a "gas carriage". But the sign on the right reads "Headquarters", and I wonder if the vehicle was actually an office.

The MSWJR ran very close to the camp. My contact writes:

"I am sure the carriage isn't MSWJR, as the window and waist panel at the end are rectangles with rounded corners, not an upturned 'U' shape for the window nor a rectangular box with square corners for the waist mouldings, so I guess it is probably G[reat] W[estern] R[ailway]. The GWR records show 70-odd old coaches as 'made into military shelters', so the army had quite a few ex-GWR coaches available."

Moonraker

[Terry_Reeves]

Given the information above, the carriage is likely to have been the office for No 1 Area Anti-Gas School, Southern Command, which was based at Chisledon.

TR

[CarylW]

Until I read 'More than Bombs and Bandages' Kirsty Harris, I hadn't realised that nurses too, had in some cases, taken part in a form of gas training. One account states that in July 1917, nurses and other members of the surgical team of a forward CCS entered a trench filled with mustard gas (?!) to prepare them for a gas attack so that they could carry on with their work during such an event and to test the efficacy of their gas masks.

[centurion]

Until I read 'More than Bombs and Bandages' Kirsty Harris, I hadn't realised that nurses too, had in some cases, taken part in a form of gas training. One account states that in July 1917, nurses and other members of the surgical team of a forward CCS entered a trench filled with mustard gas to prepare them for a gas attack so that they could carry on with their work during such an event and to test the efficacy of their gas masks.

Given that the Allies did not start production of mustard gas until 1918 one wonders where they got it from for training, or could this be an error for one of the other kinds of gas? Given that mustard gas attacks any exposed tissues doing medical procedures in its presence would be difficult and require more than good gas masks.

[CarylW]

Given that the Allies did not start production of mustard gas until 1918 one wonders where they got it from for training, or could this be an error for one of the other kinds of gas? Given that mustard gas attacks any exposed tissues doing medical procedures in its presence would be difficult and require more than good gas masks.

Perhaps an error in the original account. (I did wonder) The source for that is given as 'Effie Garden, p. 5, in Beryl Tregellis-Smith 'Brief Histories in the Australian Army Nurses Service in World War One', in IWM, Misc 47, item 790

[centurion]

It was more normal to use tear gas in such training trenches - that way you still encouraged the trainee to ensure that they put the gas mask on correctly without possibly killing them if they hadn't.

[Moonraker]

First-hand account here by Sgt F R Reeve, 70 Field Battery, 34 Brigade RFA, 1914 - 1918, as part of a six-week course at the Chemical Warfare School at Winterbourne, near Porton.

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

My grandfather, an Industrial Chemist in civilian life, refers to going through a Lachrymatory Gas Testing Hut for training purposes on two occasions at the Bull Ring at Etaples. That was in June 1917 when he was on his way back to the front after recovering from being wounded. Then in August 1917, while training with his unit (the 1/5 LF) at Gommecourt, he mentions going through "gas huts" as part of a "Gas Demonstration". Finally, on 22 December 1917, still with the 1/5 LF, while out of the line at Hinges near Bethune:

Maj Gen^l Townsley, Col M^cBride (Chief of Staff) came up in the afternoon to see a Gas Demonstration. We gave them a rather amusing demonstration of the efficiency of our helmet. The American troops weren’t used to gas helmets etc. and were very inquisitive. Col M^cBride wanted to actually test his so we made a latrine in the farmhouse airtight and filled it with lachrymator (DiChlor acetone); it was distinctly amusing to see a Major General, a Staff Colonel going into this place 'marked with a heart as usual' to test their helmets.

[FROGSMILE]

11 hours ago, A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy said:

My grandfather, an Industrial Chemist in civilian life, refers to going through a Lachrymatory Gas Testing Hut for training purposes on two occasions at the Bull Ring at Etaples. That was in June 1917 when he was on his way back to the front after recovering from being wounded. Then in August 1917, while training with his unit (the 1/5 LF) at Gommecourt, he mentions going through "gas huts" as part of a "Gas Demonstration". Finally, on 22 December 1917, still with the 1/5 LF, while out of the line at Hinges near Bethune:

Maj Gen^l Townsley, Col M^cBride (Chief of Staff) came up in the afternoon to see a Gas Demonstration. We gave them a rather amusing demonstration of the efficiency of our helmet. The American troops weren’t used to gas helmets etc. and were very inquisitive. Col M^cBride wanted to actually test his so we made a latrine in the farmhouse airtight and filled it with lachrymator (DiChlor acetone); it was distinctly amusing to see a Major General, a Staff Colonel going into this place 'marked with a heart as usual' to test their helmets.

Here are soldiers going through gas training very similar to that which you recount.  One popular method was a fabricated hut similar to the latrine you described, but formed from a wooden frame covered with stout cloth.  You can see the door has a sign both in English and Portuguese as it was a shared facility.

The other method simulates a trench that is enclosed on top and at entrance and exit sealed with stout cloth.  Soldier’s enter at one end, pass along the trench filled with gas and then exit at the other end.  The colour artwork depicts soldiers emerging from the trench through its canvas curtain seal into the fresh air surrounded by a fog of ghostly gas.

NB.  This type of training is still carried out today without much change at all to the methodology, the overall aim to instil a confidence in the masks and equipment issued.

Edited 20 November , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[A Lancashire Fusilier by Proxy]

Some great photos here, as always,  thank you, Frogsmile