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1/18 The Easter Rising in Dublin lasted 6 days; within that timespan men of Irish regiments in France suffered heavy casualties from two chlorine gas attacks launched by the Germans, on 27th and 29th April 1916, from Hulluch in the Loos sector.
2/18 The Official History of the War quotes casualties from these attacks as 570 killed (232 from shelling, 338 from gas) and 1,410 wounded (488 from shelling, 922 from gas). The divisional front of 16th (Irish) Division bore the brunt of the attack.
3/18 Most casualties were from that division and, within that, most were from the centre battalions i.e 8th Royal Dublin Fusiliers & 7th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. Inflammatory statements post war alleged that the high losses were due to bad gas discipline by Irish regiments.
4/18 But the official historian concluded otherwise. Contrary to the claims of former personnel of 12th and 15th Divisions and I Corps, Edmonds said that the protective gas helmet in use at the time:-
5/18 “was obviously insufficient protection against the strong concentration of gas which the enemy was able to produce, the heaviest incidence of casualties and the highest mortality occurring at those parts of the line nearest to the enemy’s trenches.”
6/18 The men of Bavarian regiments had set up 3,800 chlorine cylinders to release gas into the front lines when the weather was favourable. They also released dense volumes of smoke which fooled some men into removing their gas masks too early once the smoke clouds had passed.
7/18 Some men had to temporarily remove their gas helmets in order to perform specific tasks, impeded by the helmet; some men were caught as they emerged from mines and saps, but some men clearly had defective helmets. Others were killed in vicious hand-to-hand fighting.
8/18 There are accounts of the attacks in the historiography of the war e.g. The Book of The 7th Battalion Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, G.A. Cooper-Walker, 1920, the private papers of Captain J.H.M. Staniforth held at Imperial War Museum, reference 14337 and many others.
9/18 Also, at National Archives: WO 158/269 various First Army Reports Numbered 136 (G) dated 5th May 1916 concerning Gas at Hulluch 1916 and CAB 45/289 Gas attacks: original correspondence, German replies concerning the use of Gas at Ypres, 1915, and Hulluch and Wolverghem, 1916
10/18 49th Inf Bde chaplain, Fr Willie Doyle wrote a long account home, including this after he was affected by gas while putting on his helmet: “As I made my way slowly up the trench, feeling altogether a ‘poor thing’, I stumbled across a young officer who had been badly gassed.
11/18 He had his helmet on … but was coughing and choking in a terrible way … I half carried, half dragged him up the trench to the medical aid post …
12/18 … I seemed to have lost all my strength: struggling with him to prevent him killing himself by tearing off his helmet made me forget almost how to breathe through mine.”
13/18 A newly commissioned officer in training at the end of 1916 heard an account from someone who was there. 2/Lieutenant Frank Laird: “One of the bombing instructors had had a remarkable escape in one of the early gas attacks in which the 8th Dublins were nearly wiped out.
14/18 When the gas came over he put on his mask, and began to fire steadily across the parapet. The barrage became very heavy and most of the men in his trench were killed. He tried to move along the trench, when a shell blew out part of the parapet near him ...
15/18 … and buried him under a sandbag or two. Here he lay while the German bombers came over, and having first bombed the trench took possession of it, and here he was found when the counter attack drove them out again.
16/18 He was taken up blackened and almost dead from gas poisoning, but, strange to say, recovered, though the effects remained to some extent in a pair of badly damaged lungs.”
17/18 Pte John Naylor, 8th RDF, was a victim of the second gas attack on 29th April 1916, a father of three children under six. He has no known grave and is remembered on the memorial to the missing at Loos. Sadly, his wife Margaret died the same day.
18/18 Amidst the fighting of the Easter Rising Margaret Naylor had left home to buy bread. She was shot and fatally wounded crossing Ringsend Drawbridge.
