The shimmering yellow-green mist drifted towards the French Algerian troops in their trenches. Thinking it was smoke to mask a German assault, officers commanded the men to stand up and ready their weapons. But as the blinding green cloud poured into their trenches, they realized something was horribly wrong.
“The chlorine seared their eyes and burned the lining of their bronchial tubes, causing blindness, coughing, violent nausea, splitting headache, and a stabbing pain in the chest,” writes historian Jonathan Tucker. “Hundreds of soldiers collapsed in agony, their silver badges and buckles instantly tarnished greenish black by the corrosive gas.”
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