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[Page 80]
Erquinghem
3/6/16
Up at 6 am and had early parade for the men available. After breakfast they went over to L'Estrade for a gas demonstration. I rode over on a bicycle with Curnow. In a small trench gas was liberated and the men walked through it. The smoke was yellowish in colour. Approaching without the helmet the smell strikes one as that of sulphur. Cartridges and other metal exposed to the gas became corroded and all round the crops are bleached a yellow colour.
Lachrymatory gas was then liberated and the spicer goggles tried and nothing at all was noticed except a pleasant sweet smell like tinned fruit. Walked through without goggles and the eyes were too blinded and stinging to see. A demonstration of a smoke cloud followed the bombs bursting vigorously and a dense wall of smoke coming forward on the breeze and obliterating everything in front of it.
Returned home for lunch clothes stinking of the gas. The inter relation of taste with the sense of smell was curiously exemplified today. Passing through the tear gas its sweet smell immediately made me think of tinned pears and the men coming out remarked "Pineapple" or "B----- sweet stuff", evidently receiving the same impression.
After lunch cycled with Major Matthews down to Rue Marle to attend a lecture on "Aeroplanes and their cooperation with Infantry" by a Major of the Royal Flying Corps. General Legge and the C.O's and Senior Officers of all the reserve Divisional units were present.
The lecturer was purely a flying man and was nervous. After a rather technical lecture in rambling fashion Colonel ("Gunner") Lloyd got up and in a speech said "our friend is evidently more at home in the air than on a lecture platform". Which tactless remark was enough to flatten the poor chap.
Returned via the Rue de Biez which is a splendid smooth road but the rough cobblestones jolt one up intensely.
Persistent furphies that the Brigade is going back to Boulogne as a labor brigade for ships unloading and cargo shifting. Volunteers called for a trench raid and myself, Bazeley, Mackay volunteered but I was told I was not to lead it. Nothing further has been said about the others.
Cherries are ripening on the trees.