The mist of poisonous gas that drifted across no man's land from the
German trenches opposite the Ypres salient on 22 April 1915 caused
ghastly casualties and suffering among the unprepared defenders, and it
opened up a huge seven-mile gap in the defensive line. It also signaled
the beginning of a new and frightful era of industrialized warfare. John
Lee's graphic and perceptive reassessment of this milestone in the
history of the Great War - and of the grueling full-scale battle that
followed - is one of the few full-length studies of the event to have
been published in recent times.