HUN GAS SHELLS.

Taihape Daily Times, Issue 160, 13 September 1916, Page 3

HUN GAS SHELLS.

BEITISH RETURN SOME BOOTY.

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 r land beyond. This savour was never, in my personal experience, more pungent than to-day; and there were many small additions to the satisfaction. One was peculiar to this victory Where I stood —at a point west of Bernafay Wood —the air was tainted with, the sickly odour of gas shells. To go there was to walk in a room where chloroform and sal volatile bottles had been upset. The smell was oozing from the shell holes and retentive ground, which was here and there coloured with a nasty, grccn-ochcrous stain. The gas was still strong enough to irritate senstive 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 is the extra flourish of satisfaction it gave me to know how prevailing this nasty smell must be on the enemy's side of the line. For at this very minute some of the great shells whinnying past me were German gas shells fired at the Germans out of a German howitzer taken in the fighting—and the captured store is considerable. One could use the proverb "Hoist by their own petard" 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 Fourcaux and the fields where the cavalry detachment galloped, than any ally could have looked at Mametz Wood a fortnight ago. Mametz Wood was now on my left, smoking here and there, as if it contained factory chimneys, from the enemy's "crumps." For some reason he has peculiar fondness for this target. Indeed, his artillery has been concentrated with high intensity j at several places.