ow well the British had prepared
themselves against the gas, they met with disaster twice when using
it. On both occasions they had followed their gas cloud expecting
to find their foes writhing on the ground in choking agony--an
easy prey for an attack.

But the British had put on their curious-appearing headgear, and
were waiting for the men whom they knew would be following the
cloud at a safe distance. As soon as the Germans were near enough
the British turned loose everything that would hurl a projectile
large or small. By the time the gas cloud had cleared, or, to be
more accurate, passed on to the rear of the British line and spent
itself, the only Germans to be seen were in the piles of dead and
wounded in front of the British most advanced trenches. The first
time this occurred did not teach the Germans its lesson sufficiently
well. A second time the Germans did not follow their gas cloud so
closely. The gas-filled shells, however, the British found more
difficult. They did not give warning of their coming as did the
appearance of the comparatively slow-moving gas cloud. Thus in
the first week of May, 1915, Hill 60 was taken by the Germans in
a bombardment of asphyxiating shells. The bombardment had been
immediately followed by a charge of bomb throwers who made an assault
on the hill from three sides at once. That forced the British to
retreat to a trench line at the foot of the hill, and gave the
top of the hill to the Germans who immediately set up a lookout
post for their artillery back of the Zandvoord ridge.

This part of the British line was under the command of Sir Herbert
Plumer. His troops occupied themselves from the first week in May
to the middle of August, 1915, in fighting in the Hooge district.
Most of this fighting was important only because it kept the Germans
busy on that section of the line, and prevented them from being
able to reenforce the Crown Prince of Bavaria or adding men to
the force that was driving the Russians eastward.

The men, fresh from the training camps, fought alongside of hardened
veterans and learned much from them. From being what amounted to
auxiliaries in these actions the new troops became hardened to
actual fighting conditions. For this reason the personnel of the
British troops on this part of the line was changed frequently.
This was especially true at Hooge. Princess Patricia's Canadian
Regiment occupied the Chateau and village of Hooge on May 8, 1915.
The "