German army, chlorine, phosgene and mustard gas. The first is chlorine. A greenish, yellow heavier than air gas which in its pure form is an oxidizing agent.
This means that it will react in the presence of water to cause a chemical burning effect on organic matter. This gas will make the victim vomiting,
difficulty in breathing, a burning sensation in the lungs, eyes, nasal and mouth passages and death.
The second is Phosgene. Phosgene is a colorless, odorless, and heavier than air gas formed by heating carbon tetrachloride. It is highly poisonous in that
it will preferentially replace oxygen in the cells and quickly causes an oxygen debt within the body, unconsciousness and death.
Third is Mustard gas. Mustard gas a caustic gas with a distinctive mustard smell, it causes blistering and huge sores on any exposed tissue, internal or
external. Probably the most used gas, with phosgene, in the war. Losses during the Second Battle of Ypres are estimated at 69,000 Allied
troops 59,000 British, 10,000 French, against 35,000 German, the difference in numbers explained by the use of poisonous gas bomb. The Germans’ innovative
use of gas set the trend for the rest of the war.
C. John McCrae’s Biography
John McCrae was born in Guelph, Ontario Canada, on November 30, 1872. He was the second son of Lieutenant David McCrae and Janet Simpson
Eckford. As a boy, John took a deep interest in the military. At age 14, he joined the Hatfield Cadet Corps. When he turned 17, he joined in the Militia field battery
commanded by his father. John began writing poetry while attending Guelph Collegiate Institute. He
graduated at age 16, and was the first Guelph Student to win a scholarship to the University of Toronto. After studying there for three years, John was forced to
take a year off due to severe asthma. During his absence from the university, John was Assistant Resident
Master at the Ontario Agricultural College in Guelph. He graduated in 1894, with a Bachelor’s Arts degree. He then attended the University of Toronto Medical
School. While becoming educated, John continued his military career. He became a gunner with the Number 2 Battery in Guelph in 1890; Quartermaster Sergeant in
1891; Second Lieutenant in 1893 and Lieutenant in 1896. The South African War started in 1899. John McCrae felt it his duty to
serve in South Africa. John and his company sailed to South Africa in December 1899. They spent one year there. John was still convinced of the need to fight for
his country but was shocked by the unsophisticated equipment and unprofessional treatment of the sick, injured and dying men, though he still believed that a man
must fight evil wherever he encountered it. Canada declared war on Germany August 14, 1914. John hurried to sign
up. He was appointed brigade-surgeon to the First Brigade of Canadian Forces Artillery. In 1915, John was in the trenches near Ypres, Belgium. This area is
traditionally known as Flanders. Some of the heaviest fighting of the war took place during the Second Battle of Ypres. On April 22, 1915 the Germans used
deadly chlorine gas against the Allies.
Granfield and Wilson 9 said that as a doctor, John McCrae was dedicated to saving lives of the injured soldiers; he was equally committed to the war effort.
“It is a terrible state of affair,” John McCrae wrote, “and I am going to war because every bachelor, especially if he has experience of war, ought to go. I am
really rather afraid, but more afraid to stay at home with my conscience”. In the trenches, John McCrae tended hundreds of soldiers and was
surrounded by dead and dying men. And it had been affected John McCrae personality. He spent more time alone and looked older than he actually was. “I
am very tired of it,” he wrote to his friend. It had been an ordeal that he had hardly thought possible. McCrae later wrote to his mother: Seventeen days of Hades At
the end of the first day if anyone had told us we had to spend seventeen days there, we would have folded our hands and said it could not have been done.
In the early morning battle, an armor burst killed his close friend, Alexis Helmer of Ottawa, Ontario. He was buried in a small cemetery outside John’s
covering station. In the absence of the chaplain, John performed the service. A rough, wooden cross marked Helmer’s grave.
Hundreds of crosses marked graves in the field. Already poppies were beginning to bloom between them. The next morning, May 22, while under heavy
fire, John wrote In Flanders Fields. It was the last poem he ever wrote. By mid-winter, the wet climate had affected John’s health. He was ordered
to a warmer location to no purpose. The night he arrived, he took to his bed. John died at 1:30 am on January 28 if complications from pneumonia and meningitis.
He was buried in Wimereux Cemetery, north of Boulogne, France, with full
military honors. In attendance were his many friends, military dignitaries, nursing sisters and colleagues. His horse, Bonfire led the procession with John’s riding
boots reversed in the stirrups. Following his death in 1918 the book In Flanders Fields and Other Poems
was published. McCrae House, the home where he was born in Guelph, Ontario, is now a museum and includes a garden of remembrance with a memorial
cenotaph.
D. Criticism
