The day the world turned green

Footsteps of the fallen

In this episode, we walk the battlefield of the first German gas attack in April 1915. We begin by surveying the battlefield from a German observation post at the Totemuhle or "Death Mill" and then visiting Vancouver Corner, the site of the magnificent Brooding Soldier Memorial. We hear the story of two women caught up in the gas attack and how a gardening chemist discovered that a common garden pest was, in fact, nature's greatest anti-gas device. Our visit to the vast cemetery at Langemarck concludes with the story of a British airman who lost his life to one of the German airforce's greatest aces.