How the gas devil comes - Thick green mist came rolling towards the parapet"" On the 22nd April 1915 at Ypres, the Germans used poisonous chlorine gas for the first time. Despite warnings from captured Germans, the British and French were totally unprepared, with no protection, and began to suffer the effects within minutes. Most had to retreat in disarray, many stayed at their posts - hundreds died. The British press was outraged a this new, insidious raising of the game by the Germans. Sir John French reported of the use: "The quantity used produced long an deliberate preparation for the employment of devices contrary to the terms of the Hague Convention, to which the enemy subscribed."