No motor transport was allowed to pass Wieltze because the road beyond
was exceedingly rough, and it would only have been inviting disaster
from breakdowns and German shells to have proceeded farther.
As we tramped along towards St. Julien our attention was attracted to
a greenish yellow smoke ascending from the part of the line occupied
by the French. We wondered what the smoke was coming from. Half a mile
up the road we seated ourselves on a disused trench and lit
cigarettes, while I began to read a home letter which I had found at
Brielen.
An aeroplane flying low overhead dropped some fire-balls. Immediately
a violent artillery cannonade began. Looking towards the French line
we saw this yellowish green cloud rising on a front of at least three
miles and drifting at a height of perhaps a hundred feet towards us.
"That must be the poison gas that we have heard vague rumours about,"
I remarked to the Captain. The gas rose in great clouds as if it had
been poured from nozzles, expanding as it ascended; here and there
brown clouds seemed to be mixed with the general yellowish green
ones. "It looks like chlorine," I said, "and I bet it is." The Captain
agreed that it probably was.
The cannonade increased in intensity. About five minutes after it
began a hoarse whistle, increasing to a roar like that of a railroad
train, passed overhead.
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