the second account

Quickly they put on their masks and the cloud of agonising death rolled over the Dublin Fusiliers and Inniskillings who held the fire-trenches and thinned out among their comrades in the rear. The sergeants walked among the men where the poison fume was thickest, patting them on the shoulder and making pantomatic fun of the Hunnish method of warfare. As the gas was passing over the enemy's artillery which had been pounding all night at the salient, poured a final smashing fire, and then lifted against the Irish support trenches and deluged them with blinding gas shells and shrapnel to prevent any reinforcement of the fire-trenches. Two Columns of German infantry stormed across the neutral zone ( No Mans Land ) The Dublin battalion was composed mainly of young troops who had not withstood an infantry attack, but, despite the gas cloud, the lachrymal shells and hurricane fire of high-explosive shells, the men had that within that kept them steady as veterans. Not a German got through what remained of the barbed-wire defence. The Dublins shot down both columns. Then on the Northern side of the chalk-pit salient, held by the Inniskillings the hostile commander launched another attack in the same fashion. First came a great gas cloud, followed by a terrific artillery bombardment and a curtain fire on the Irish support line. In this case the German gunners were more expert, for they broke down the parapet at the angle of the trenches, blowing away the sand-bags and completely smashing up the wire fence in front of the position. The second German infantry attack meeting with no obstacle whatever reached the first Irish line, and the Inniskillings with some of the Dublins, fell back down the communication trenches towards the support line. But when the Germans entered the destroyed fire-trench they had good cause to wish they were bacck in their own lines. The traverses as well as the parapets had been destroyed and the result was that an Irish machine-gunner, surviving in a good position along the line was able to enfilade the attackers and turn the trench they had won into a death-trap. In a very few minutes the Inniskillings returned with fixed bayonets. Their blood was up and they did their work with fierce speed and terrible neatness. It was a complete clean up, for most of the Germans who tried to escape from the Irish bayonets were caught by the macchine-gun near the end of the salient. Such was the answer of the true fighting men of Erin to the German and Germanised conspirators in Dublin and the United States. The enemy then tried a third gas attack, but when the cloud was floated the wind changed and swept it over the poison users. So the action ended with the balance of losses in effectives lying heavily against the Germans, while the victorious Irish Battalions still held the chalk-pit salient, which they rebuilt in the night and made stronger.