HUN GAS SHELLS AT THE HUNS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 207, 8 September 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

HUN GAS SHELLS AT THE HUNS.

BRITISH RETURN SOME BOOTY From W. BEACH THOMAS. \V : tli tlic British Army in the Field. Sunday, July 16. To taste the full savour of a victory I like to walk deliberately over the ground which was just now the enemy's and then to feast the eyes on the new land beyond. This savour was never, in my personal experience, more pungent than today; and there were many small additions to the satisfaction. One was peculiar to this victory. Whcre,l stood —at a point west of Bernafay Wood — the air was tainted w'th the sickly odour of gas shells. To go there was to walk in a room where chloroform and sal volatile bottles had been upset. Thj smell was oozing from the shell holes and retentive ground, which was here and there coloured with a nasty, greondcherous stain. The gas was stl'l strong enough to irritate sens'tive eyes. as an officer who was my sole companion found. Of course it was not hurtful.

The only reason why I would lay any stress on .it :'s tha extra flourish of sat isfaction it gave me to know how prevailing this nasty smell must be on the enemy's side of the lino. For at this very minute some of the great shelU whinnying past mo were German gas shells fired at the Germans out of a German howitzer taken in the fighting —and the captured store is cons'derable. One could use the proverb "'Hoist by their own potard" 'without any metaphor in it. It is a fine thing to top a new ridge and see a new horizon. I could look to-day more familiarly at the Bois des Foureaux and the fields where the cavalry detachment galloped, than any ally could have looked at Mametz Wood \ fortn : ght ago. Mametz Wood was now on my left, smoking here and there, as if it conta'ned factory chimneys, from the enemy's ''crumps." For some reason he has pocul.iar fondness for this target. Indeed, his artillery has been concentrated with high intensity at several places.