DAWN OF GAS WARFARE YPRES
Maurice Balfourier, general commanding the vaunted XXe or ‘Iron’ Corps d’Armée, was presented with startling intelligence over a period of weeks in April 1915. His corps was positioned in a salient protecting Ypres, an important centre of the old Flemish domain with roots dating back as far as Rome. There had been warnings that the Germans opposite were preparing to launch a new and devastating chemical weapon upon his troops. On the night of 13/14 April a German deserter by the name of August Jäger of the 243rd Infantry Regiment presented himself to men of Balfourier’s 11th (Iron) Division. He confirmed that a chemical attack with chlorine gas was imminent, and even produced his crude gas mask as evidence of his claims. The interrogation was led by General Ferry, commanding the Iron Division, who then passed on his findings to his superior officer, Balfourier.
We do not know exactly where Balfourier was when he made his ultimate decision on the intelligence. Most likely in an office dug out underground, not far from the front. French generals often liked to position themselves close to the front to respond more quickly to changing battlefield conditions. We do, however, know Balfourier’s response. He looked at the intelligence sitting before him and brushed it aside in one word: billevesée. ‘Nonsense’. Major-General Charles Foulkes, the famed British Army expert on gas, also disregarded the evidence of
