A Higher Form of Killing (51 page)

 
“We were aware . . . uneasy.”: British Report, WO 32/5183.

 
“shells . . . gas”: German communiqué quoted Dancocks,
Welcome to Flanders Fields
, p. 154.

 
“the German mentality . . . were . . . in advance.”: British Official History quoted Dancocks,
Welcome to Flanders Fields
, p. 154.

CHAPTER NINE—“OPERATION DISINFECTION”

 
The nickname “Les Joyeux” is connected to the words sung to their bugle call:

Joyeux fais ton fourbi

Pas vu, pas pris,

Mais vu, rousti

Bat’d’Af!

         
Slang and double entendres make translation difficult but roughly:

Joyeux tend your kit [or do your “scam”]

Never seen, never caught,

But if seen, “busted”

Bat’ d’Af!

         
The “bugle song” is discussed in A. D. Lougheed,
Too Many Heroes
, vol. 1, (war diaries of 1er and 3e Bataillons de Marche d’Infanterie Legere d’Afrique), p. 16 (this author’s translation).

“In certain . . . anyone”: L. Botti,
Avec les Zouaves
, p. 99.

“looked like . . . unshaven”: Fusilier V. Packer quoted Arthur,
Forgotten Voices of the Great War
, p. 83.

“if Jerry . . . someone there.”: Ibid., p. 85.

“they would . . . things.”: Ibid.

the battlefield . . . old battlefield.”: R. Binding,
A Fatalist at War
, p. 64.

 
“a Frenchman . . . galore.”: Quoted Dancocks,
Welcome to Flanders Fields
, p. 143.

“It was not . . . King.”:
Toronto Globe
, ibid., p. 33.

 
Canada sends . . . fought: Ibid., p. 83.

“nothing . . . the Conqueror.”:
Times
, ibid., p. 83.

 
“enough . . . cry.”: W. A. Quinton, IWM/(D)4205.

 
“are the very deuce . . . chance”: Quoted Dancocks,
Welcome to Flanders Fields
, p. 124.

 
“Khaki” —a word found in Hindi and Urdu but originally Persian in origin—means literally “soil colored.”

 
“a mere . . . behind”: Quoted Dancocks,
Welcome to Flanders Fields
, p. 145.

“The French . . . latrines . . . used . . . hands with.”: Quoted ibid., pp. 145–46.

 
“The position . . . the toe.”: Major C. G. Lawson, IWM/(D)/7834.

 
“we . . . biscuits.”: Lieut. H. F. Maxwell-Scott, IWM/(D)/7200.

 
“the very . . . spring . . . when the . . . violets.”: G. C. Nasmith,
Canada’s Sons and Great Britain in the Great War
, p. 178.

 
“a dark red pall . . . smoke”: A. F. Duguid, op. cit.

“in scattered . . . storm”: Ibid.

 
“how extraordinary . . . living thing.”: Quoted
Times History of War
, vol. 5, p. 56.

 
“the north wind . . . products”: Quoted A. D. Lougheed,
Too Many Heroes
, p. 123.

“this panic . . . the sky . . . cloud . . . through green glasses . . . throat . . . lost.”: J. J. Mordacq,
Le drame de l’Yser
, pp. 74–75.

 
“a heavy . . . lines . . . the French . . . back . . . could . . . more.”: Lieut. H. F. Maxwell-Scott, IWM/(D)/7200.

 
“even before . . . waver.”: German official account Duguid,
Official History
, appendix 706.

 
“an enormous . . . landscape . . . The Joyeux . . . trench! . . . the . . . cloud . . .a horrible . . . burning . . . refused . . . air”: Capitaine Tremsal, quoted A. D. Lougheed,
Too Many Heroes
, p. 121.

 
“pouring . . . place.”: Quoted McWilliams and Steel,
Gas!
, p. 51.

 
“we distinctly . . . prisoner”: J. J. Mordacq,
Le drame de l’Yser
, pp. 68–69.

The first . . . suddenly turned mad.”: Colonel Mordacq’s account in these two paragraphs is from his
Le drame sur l’Yser
, pp. 62–63.

 
“It produces . . . stare.”: Quoted K. Coleman,
A History of Chemical Warfare
, p. 18.

 
“wriggling . . . throats . . . Look . . . for them.”: Private W. A. Quinton, IWM/(D)/4205.

 
“absolutely in rout . . . ambulances . . . away . . . tearing . . . agonies.”: Lieut. Col. Morrison, quoted Dancocks,
Welcome to Flanders Fields
, p. 161–62.

 
“running . . . distressing.”: Quoted, McWilliams and Steel,
Gas!
, p. 55.

 
“what . . . bayonets made.”: Quoted D. Dancocks,
Welcome to Flanders Fields
, p. 177.

 
“like hailstones . . . roof.”:
With the First Canadian Contingent
, p. 87.

“dreadful . . . conflict . . . We fought . . . rear.”:
New York Times
, May 8, 1915.

 
“No ground . . . itself.”:
British Official History
, quoted Moore,
Gas Attack!
, p. 36.

 
“the infantry . . . losses.”: War Diary, German Twenty-third Reserve Corps quoted ibid., p. 37.

CHAPTER TEN—“THIS FILTHY LOATHSOME PESTILENCE”

 
“in the ditch . . . trench.”: Quoted A. Iarocci,
Shoestring Soldiers: The 1st Canadian Division at War, 1914–15
, p. 137.

 
“powerful . . . effect . . . as a temporary . . . handkerchiefs.”: Quoted Moore,
Gas Attack!
, p. 37.

“I don’t mind . . . again!”: A. J. Bromfield, IWM/(D)/4038.

 
“men . . . parapet . . . much like . . . green gas.”: Quoted D. Dancocks,
Welcome to Flanders Fields
, p. 223.

 
“red stars . . . quite . . . sight . . . our gaze . . . of us.”: Lieut. H. F. Maxwell- Scott, IWM/(D)/7200.

 
“a heavy . . . came.”: Quoted McWilliams and Steel,
Gas!
, p. 104.

 
“Captain McLaren . . . breath.”: Lieut. H. F. Maxwell-Scott, IWM/(D)/7200.

“barely conscious . . . coaxed . . . pushed”: Ibid.

 
“managed . . . rum . . . the enemy . . . concussion!”: Lance Corporal J. Keddie, quoted Lyn Macdonald,
1915
, p. 222.

 
“all hell . . . high explosive . . . helped . . . strings . . . saliva . . . Some . . . lips.”: Quoted, McWilliams and Steel,
Gas!
, pp 105–6.

 
“a fiery steed . . . difficulty.”: Ibid., p. 111.

 
“started . . . of us.”: Ibid., p. 122.

 
“with some . . . clothing.”: War diary, Tenth Battalion quoted Dancocks,
Welcome to Flanders Fields
, p. 249.

 
“encountered . . . slowly.”: official German account quoted Dancocks,
Welcome to Flanders Fields
, p. 282.

 
“adventure . . . The Cloth Hall . . . imagine.”: Sergeant Cyril Lee quoted Arthur,
Forgotten Voices of the Great War
, p. 81.

 
“a whirling . . . flames.”: Lieut. Bruce Bairnsfather quoted McWilliams and Steel,
Gas!
, p.159.

 
“that the men . . . heat . . . a terrible . . . desolation.”: Trooper Stanley Down quoted Arthur,
Forgotten Voices of the Great War
, p. 86.

 
“Dante . . . Ypres.”: Quoted A. Iarocci,
Shoestring Soldiers
, p. 136.

 
“a huge effort . . . rear.”: P. Whitehouse, IWM/(D)/13108.

“the effects . . . yellow.”: R. Binding,
A Fatalist at War
, p. 64.

 
“
Versuch
”: F. L. Haber (son of Fritz Haber),
The Poisonous Cloud
, p. 34.