Ypres, the first gas attack – Yves Buffetaut

Ypres, the first gas attack is part of the collection « One day in the great War ». This collection presents, in 80 pages, the full story of a very important day in the First World War. Rare or previously unpublished photographs of the time illustrated each volume. The collection is a mine of informations concerning the 1914-1918 war.

On April 22, 1915, by the end of the afternoon, a strange yellow green cloud appears over no-man’s land and drifts on the wind toward the French Lines. This zone in the Langemark-Pilckem sector, is held by the 45th Division and the 87th Territorial Division. Within just a few minutes the french troops were suffocating under a cloud of chlorine gas and what few survivors remained were in full flight towards the rear. The Germans, meeting with little or no resistance, captured the Pilckem Ridge and right up to the Yser Canal. They thus opened a gaping breach between the French and the Canadian lines. This volume in the collection « One Day in the Great War » retraces events as they unfold, as well as describing the lead-up to the battle and its immediate consequences. A large majority of the photographs which illustrate this volume have never previously been published.

58 original photographs, 20 color photographs, three maps illustrate Ypres, the first gas attack.