The Soldier at the Western Front – The Use of Poisonous Gas
Source 5: Diary of Theodor Zuhöne
„In the morning we left the Napoleon Island and went to Dessau to participate in a gas class that took place in the aniline factory in Greppin. The class was in the morning; by midday we were back in Dessau where we enjoyed a comedy.” 13th to 18th February 1916
„In Rixheim all is the same. An inspection of the regiment took place, furthermore a presentation of gas protection on the Habsheimer square by Lieutenant Riedlin and me. There I had the chance to take a look at different planes, from the outside as well as from the inside, to see the installation of a radio station and the like. 4th March 1916
„The following day the battalion trained with the gas masks in an artificial fog cloud.” 11th March 1918
„Early we got two severe gas poisoning with pulmonary edema. They are treated with an oxygen respirator. Both survived in spite of pneumonia.” 20th to 22nd July 1918
„Joy ride […] to the camp in Blankenburg behind Neuville. Our sickness rate increases we already have 350 injured. Sometimes these people ran in our own gas clouds. Most of them suffer from inflammation of the eyes, epiphora and conjunctivitis, nose- and lung catarrhs, burned skin. Some severe cases of bronchia-pneumonia.” 31st July 1918
„There are some severe cases among our gas victims. Therefore I have a lot of work with oxygen respirators, intravenal injections, and bloodletting. We often give one or more doses of tetanus antitoxin with good results: the fever falls, dissolving of slime and pus. The army doctor visited our gas victims.”
