Consequently the
enemy had fair warning and ample time to learn how to meet them and
methods of defense developed concurrently with methods of attack. For
instance, consider the motor fortresses to which Ludendorff ascribes his
defeat. The British first sent out a few clumsy tanks against the German
lines. Then they set about making a lot of stronger and livelier ones,
but by the time these were ready the Germans had field guns to smash
them and chain fences with concrete posts to stop them. On the other
hand, if the Germans had followed up their advantage when they first set
the cloud of chlorine floating over the battlefield of Ypres they might
have won the war in the spring of 1915 instead of losing it in the fall
of 1918. For the British were unprepared and unprotected against the
silent death that swept down upon them on the 22nd of April, 1915. What
happened then is best told by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in his "History of
the Great War."
From the base of the German trenches over a considerable length
there appeared jets of whitish vapor, which gathered and
swirled until they settled into a definite low cloud-bank,
greenish-brown below and yellow above, where it reflected the
rays of the sinking sun.
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