Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915 Quotes

“The surrounding countryside as far forward as the reserve line was a hive of springtime activity. Everywhere farmers were on the land despite the artillery fire. If ever there was a determined attempt to ignore reality this was it.”
― James L. McWilliams, Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915

“Enormous one-ton shells from the Germans’ 17″ howitzers had begun crashing into the old town. These “Big Berthas” fired at the rate of ten rounds per hour and caused horrendous damage. A shell landing in the open blew a crater 15 feet deep and 40 feet wide.”
― James L. McWilliams, Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915

“But there is also that ultimate horror so characteristic of the “War to End War” — so many had died to achieve nothing.”
― James L. McWilliams, Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915

“General Ferry paid the penalty for being right when his superiors were wrong. His warnings of the impending gas attack were rewarded by years of obscurity.”
― James L. McWilliams, Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915

“But to throw away men’s lives where there is no reasonable chance of advantage is criminal … For such manslaughter, whether it springs from ignorance, a false conception of war, or a want of moral courage, commanders should be held accountable to the nation.”
― James L. McWilliams, Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915

“Who can understand two such commanders?”
― James L. McWilliams, Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915

“Sir John French, for his part, had co-operated fully with an uncharacteristic gullible acceptance of Foch’s promises. It had soon become evident that the roles had become reversed; the British were now expected to retake the lost ground assisted by the French. Sir John had evidently begun to realize this and had even opposed the idea. Yet every time he had met with the bombastic Foch he had come away committed to yet another hasty and ill-prepared attack.”
― James L. McWilliams, Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915

“General Foch was unwilling to commit troops in the numbers required to retake the lost ground. He had talked to his British counterpart of massive reinforcements but had ordered his subordinate, Putz, to carry out the attacks without anything approaching the strength required, in either infantry or artillery. Thus none of the French counterattacks had the slightest chance of success.”
― James L. McWilliams, Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915

“Yet in each repeat performance the only change in method had been to throw in a larger number of victims.”
― James L. McWilliams, Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915

“Second Ypres will endure as a monument to the sublime courage of the common man.”
― James L. McWilliams, Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915

“Perley Smith of the 7th British Columbians remarked, “They were not very sanitary in their mode of living and they left their dead on top of the ground and the dirt and filth was terrible. We had used the water that the French were using, but when it was baled down we found there was a number”
― James L. McWilliams, Gas! The Battle for Ypres, 1915