Meanwhile our guns had not been idle.
From a distance, perhaps owing to some peculiarity of the light, the gas
on this occasion looked like a great reddish cloud, and the moment it
was seen our batteries poured a concentrated fire on the German
trenches.
Curious situations then arose between us and the enemy. The poison belt,
the upper part shredding into thick wreaths of vapor as it was shaken by
the wind, and the lower and denser part sinking into all inequalities of
the ground, rolled slowly down the trenches. Shells would rend it for a
moment, but it only settled down again as thickly as before.
Nevertheless, the German infantry faced it, and they faced a hail of
shrapnel as well. In some cases where the gas had not reached our lines
our troops held firm and shot through the cloud at the advancing
Germans. In other cases the men holding the front line managed to move
to the flank, where they were more or less beyond the affected area.
Here they waited until the enemy came on and then bayoneted them when
they reached our trenches.
On the extreme left our supports waited until the wall of vapor reached
our trenches, when they charged through it and met the advancing Germans
with the bayonet as they swarmed over the parapets.
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