– rain
Rain heavy all night.
Am still detained in Hospl. Micky Werick goes to Leicester on leave (special).
My temperature is up again 103.
Feeling weak
Still vomiting
Eyes weak & sore thru’ effect of gas. Damn the Hun & his blasted base methods.
Friday 4 May 1917
– fine
General McDonell goes to Bapaume & Somme battlefields for a sightseeing tour.
I lay in “bed” all the afternoon with weakness from effects of shell gas poisoning which I got at Petit Vimy while warning others of the danger today. Temperature is 104°. Awful pain in head and chest.
*”The wearing of a gas mask is a confounded nuisance. To tell men to put these queer appliances on, one must, of necessity, speak….with the thing off. This was being done when a voice behind me called, ‘Put your own on, Sergeant!’. Too late ……It was akin to swallowing finely broken sharp pieces of glass.” Excerpt from Draycott’s memoir “Pawn No. 883”.
Saturday 3 March 1917
Canadians make a big raid in which 2,000 men take part. Use gas but not so effective as was expected.
Wednesday 10 January 1917
Wednesday 10 January 1917
Gas attack on our left by the enemy.
Cold & misty rain.
I go to Neuville St. Vaast to survey north of the village, a piece of ground with many trenches over it.
Enemy busy with T. Mortars. Our Stokes guns reply vigorously. I make my survey & on way back visit P.P.C.L.I. H.Qtr. where I learn from Regtl. Sergt. Major Jordon that I’ve been “Mentioned in Dispatches”. It appeared in Regtl. Orders.
*Considered uncivilised prior to World War One, the development and use of poison gas was necessitated by the requirement of wartime armies to find new ways of overcoming the stalemate of unexpected trench warfare. Although it is popularly believed that the German army was the first to use gas it was in fact initially deployed by the French. In the first month of the war, August 1914, they fired tear-gas grenades (xylyl bromide) against the Germans. Nevertheless the German army was the first to give serious study to the development of chemical weapons and the first to use it on a large scale. (www.firstworldwar.com)
*Mention in Dispatches is awarded for valiant conduct, devotion to duty or other distinguished service. During the First World War, 5467 MIDs were awarded to Canadians. (www.forces.gc.ca)
