[Tigers] OT: Chemical Gases in Combat

[Marc James Small]

An excerpt from "How to Tell the Gases" by
Fairfax Downey, Major, Field Artillery, as
printed in Brigadier General Adlen H. Waitt, GAS
WARFARE, New York:  Duell, Slon and Pearce, 1943.

Maud Muller on a summer day,
Smelled the odor of new-mown hay.
She turned to the Judge who was turning green,
"Put on your mask!  That there's Phosgene!"

and

Never take some chances if
Garlic you should strongly sniff.
Don't think Mussolini's passed.
Man, you're being mustard-gassed!

Their odors are quite distinct, as are their colors.

The later nerve agents are rather a different
story.  These tend to be colorless and odorless
and to have about the specific gravity of
air.  Since the late 1940's, at least in the NATO
nations, the response to seeing someone falling
on the ground and jerking about is to a) don your
own mask  b)  start yelling, "GAS!  GAS")  to the
limit your mask will permit (it isn't much) and
then telling your Next Higher HQ of the
incident.  You THEN pop some Atropine or Nerve
Gas Antidote on the fallen dudes, and send them
back to the rear as walking wounded.

Aren't you glad you asked?

Marc



>Marc
>
>msmall at aya.yale.edu
>Cha robh b`s fir gun ghr`s fir!

msmall at aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b`s fir gun ghr`s fir!