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Washington, Dec. 14.—At Port Meade,j Maryland, the 76th Infantry Is readying forDAILY KENNEBEC JOURNAL' - XUGt! -nsice in Wasnington !Bv Elisabeth May Cralf oversea*, training fcr what they will meet in f . battle. If your rhan writes you from campthat he is being gassed you’ll know he islearning what to do If the enemy resorts tothat final hprror. Your man will not go over there without knowjhg everything he has to1 meet, a group of women reporters were1 taken to Mendc to $nd out about this train-_ tng first hand. The 76th thought we didpretty good and we are going to get honorary insignia to show, it—and indeed we eam-l ed It! We were the|first group of women to? get this demonstration, first women to pull- th; lanyards that frcd the 155 mm guns in^ this country. For the honor of my papers beit said I was one of eight that pulled the S lanyards and I didn't need anybody to helpt me. The girl at Gun Two next to me had toj have help and my gun crew admonished me:You pull hard.” I did. j But I couldn’t go into the gas house, thef- HI lie shed in the middle of a big field wherethe cloraceto-phenone is used. They strappcc a gas mask on me so tight I thought my check bones would cave in but when the line y got up to the last officer on the threshold he- stuck Iwo fingers under my chin between thet edge of the rubber, then a finger beside mye car. and said my face was tdo small for thegas mask and I cculdn't go in. They only y had men’s size masks. Elizabeth Donahue,n daughter of Portland postmaster Helen C.g Donahue, who was there for the NEA news-l paper service, couldh't go in either. Her face,was bo small they didn’t even try to fit her,S We got all the different kinds of gas. Off0 one side of the fie.d were soldiers with gas masks on them. In front was a line of wooden signs that said Fir ng Line.” We stood about twenty feet back of this line An officer told, us what to'do through a loud speaker. Draw t] m a deep breath—exhale half of it—run for-e ward Into the gas—sniff lightly until youperceive two characteristic odors—then run s out—if you sniff tco deep It’s just too bad”1. We didn’t Shave any gas masks on now, youknow.n We got the mustard that smells of garlic0 the phosene that I smelled like silage In silo; lewisite like geraniums, though I e thought like gunpowder; chloropicrln,0 sweetish, like anise, or flypaper stickum.e And then that awlul smoke.. They have k. can like a big flour cannister and a sdldierscratches the top and lays it down In thefield. Then smoke billows out and you rur{if Into the smoke and stay there as long as youn . can. The bedraggled, gasping reporters that came out really deserved medals. The of- = fleers explained why we got smoke There Is C Ji lot of smoke in 'fighting, from Incendlnryis bombs, from artill?r; all kinds of burning; 41 You got to be u.sfd to smoke and not ge: panicky. There Is a peculiar sense of being lost, in- smoke. sa d the officer, and it was %y so. I never had such a feeling as when Ii- wandered around in that moke, besides they choking and the smarting eves.
Newspaper Details
Daily Kennebec Journal
Augusta, Maine, US
Tue, Dec 15, 1942
Page 6
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
NC, USA 16 Oct 2018
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