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FOR NON-SPECIALISTS
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ACCOUNTING

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ELEVENTH EDITION

ACCOUNTING
AND FINANCE
FOR NON-SPECIALISTS
Peter Atrill
Eddie McLaney

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Dubai • Singapore • Hong Kong • Tokyo • Seoul • Taipei • New Delhi
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First published 1995 by Prentice Hall Europe (print)


Second edition published 1997 (print)
Third edition published 2001 by Pearson Education Ltd (print)
Fourth edition published 2004 (print)
Fifth edition published 2006 (print)
Sixth edition published 2008 (print)
Seventh edition published 2011 (print)
Eighth edition published 2013 (print and electronic)
Ninth edition published 2015 (print and electronic)
Tenth edition published 2017 (print and electronic)
Eleventh edition published 2019 (print and electronic)
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Names: Atrill, Peter, author. | McLaney, E. J., author.
Title: Accounting and finance for non-specialists / Peter Atrill, Eddie McLaney.
Description: Eleventh edition. | Harlow, England ; New York : Pearson, [2019]
Identifiers: LCCN 2018035220| ISBN 9781292244013 | ISBN 9781292244051 (PDF) |
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Brief contents

Preface xv
Acknowledgements xvii

1 Introduction to accounting and finance 1

Part One FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING 27

2 Measuring and reporting financial position 28


3 Measuring and reporting financial performance 72
4 Accounting for limited companies 113
5 Measuring and reporting cash flows 162
6 Analysing and interpreting financial statements 194

Part Two MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING 245

7 The relevance and behaviour of costs 246


8 Full costing 285
9 Budgeting 327

Part Three FINANCE 365

10 Making capital investment decisions 366


11 Financing a business 408
12 Managing working capital 456

Appendix A: Glossary of key terms 504


Appendix B: Solutions to self-assessment questions 517
Appendix C: Solutions to critical review questions 532
Appendix D: Solutions to selected exercises 544
Appendix E: Present value table 572
Index 574

BRIEF CONTENTS v

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Contents

Preface xv
Acknowledgements xvii

1 Introduction to accounting and finance 1


Introduction 1
What are accounting and finance? 2
Who are the users of accounting information? 2
Providing a service 5
Weighing up the costs and benefits 7
Accounting as an information system 10
Management accounting and financial accounting 11
Scope of this book 14
The changing face of accounting 14
Why do I need to know anything about accounting and finance? 16
The quest for wealth creation 17
Meeting the needs of other stakeholders 18
Balancing risk and return 20
Not-for-profit organisations 22
Summary 24
Key terms 25
Reference 26
Further reading 26
Critical review questions 26

Part One FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING 27

2 Measuring and reporting financial position 28


Introduction 28
The major financial statements – an overview 29
The statement of financial position 33
The effect of trading transactions 42

CONTENTS vii

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Classifying assets 44
Classifying claims 46
Statement layouts 47
Capturing a moment in time 49
The role of accounting conventions 51
Money measurement 55
Valuing assets 58
Meeting user needs 63
Summary 65
Key terms 67
Reference 68
Further reading 68
Critical review questions 68
Exercises 69

3 Measuring and reporting financial performance 72


Introduction 72
The income statement 73
Different roles 74
Income statement layout 75
Further issues 77
Recognising revenue 81
Recognising expenses 83
Depreciation 89
Costing inventories 98
Trade receivables problems 103
Uses and usefulness of the income statement 105
Summary 106
Key terms 108
Further reading 108
Critical review questions 109
Exercises 109

4 Accounting for limited companies 113


Introduction 113
The main features of limited companies 114
The role of the Stock Exchange 120
Managing a company 120
The UK Corporate Governance Code 123
Financing limited companies 125
Borrowings 133
Withdrawing equity 134

viii CONTENTS

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The main financial statements 137
Dividends 140
Additional financial statements 142
The directors’ duty to account 145
The need for accounting rules 145
Sources of accounting rules 146
The auditors’ role 147
Management commentary 148
Creative accounting 150
Summary 154
Key terms 156
Further reading 157
Critical review questions 157
Exercises 158

5 Measuring and reporting cash flows 162


Introduction 162
The statement of cash flows 163
Why is cash so important? 164
The main features of the statement of cash flows 166
A definition of cash and cash equivalents 166
The relationship between the main financial statements 168
The layout of the statement of cash flows 168
The normal direction of cash flows 171
Preparing the statement of cash flows 174
What does the statement of cash flows tell us? 184
Summary 187
Key terms 188
Further reading 188
Critical review questions 188
Exercises 189

6 Analysing and interpreting financial statements 194


Introduction 194
Financial ratios 195
Financial ratio classifications 196
The need for comparison 197
Calculating the ratios 199
A brief overview 200
Profitability 201
Efficiency 208
Relationship between profitability and efficiency 214

CONTENTS ix

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Liquidity 216
Financial gearing 219
Investment ratios 224
Trend analysis 233
Using ratios to predict financial failure 234
Limitations of ratio analysis 234
Summary 237
Key terms 239
Further reading 239
Critical review questions 239
Exercises 240

Part Two MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING 245

7 The relevance and behaviour of costs 246


Introduction 246
What is meant by ‘cost’? 247
Relevant costs: opportunity and outlay costs 248
Cost behaviour 252
Fixed cost 253
Variable cost 255
Semi-fixed (semi-variable) cost 256
Finding the break-even point 257
Contribution 262
Margin of safety 263
Operating gearing and its effect on profit 266
Weaknesses of break-even analysis 268
Using contribution to make decisions: marginal analysis 270
Summary 279
Key terms 281
Further reading 281
Critical review questions 281
Exercises 282

8 Full costing 285


Introduction 285
What is full costing? 286
Why do managers want to know the full cost? 286
Single-product businesses 288
Multi-product businesses 289

x CONTENTS

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Overheads as service renderers 295
Activity-based costing 308
Using full (absorption) cost information 316
Summary 319
Key terms 321
Further reading 321
Critical review questions 321
Exercises 322

9 Budgeting 327
Introduction 327
How budgets link with strategic plans and objectives 328
Time horizon of plans and budgets 330
How budgets help managers 331
Budgets and forecasts 333
Limiting factors 334
How budgets link to one another 334
Using budgets in practice 337
Preparing budgets 338
Non-financial measures in budgeting 345
Budgeting for control 345
Measuring variances from budget 346
Making budgetary control effective 353
Behavioural issues 354
The use of variance analysis 355
Summary 357
Key terms 359
Further reading 359
Critical review questions 359
Exercises 360

Part Three FINANCE 365

10 Making capital investment decisions 366


Introduction 366
The nature of investment decisions 367
Investment appraisal methods 368
Accounting rate of return (ARR) 370
Payback period (PP) 375
Net present value (NPV) 379

CONTENTS xi

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Why NPV is better 386
Internal rate of return (IRR) 387
Some practical points 392
Investment appraisal in practice 396
Investment appraisal and strategic planning 398
Summary 399
Key terms 401
Further reading 401
Critical review questions 402
Exercises 402

11 Financing a business 408


Introduction 408
The main objective of financing policy 409
Sources of finance 409
Internal sources of finance 409
Internal sources of long-term finance 410
Internal sources of short-term finance 411
External sources of finance 414
External sources of long-term finance 414
Forms of borrowing 418
External sources of short-term finance 428
Long-term versus short-term borrowing 430
Gearing and the financing decision 432
Share issues 433
The role of the Stock Exchange 438
The Alternative Investment Market 441
Providing long-term finance for the small business 442
Islamic finance 446
Summary 448
Key terms 451
References 451
Further reading 451
Critical review questions 452
Exercises 452

12 Managing working capital 456


Introduction 456
What is working capital? 457
The scale of working capital 459
Managing inventories 462
Managing trade receivables 473

xii CONTENTS

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Managing cash 484
Managing trade payables 492
Managing working capital 493
Summary 496
Key terms 499
Further reading 499
Critical review questions 499
Exercises 500

Appendix A: Glossary of key terms 504


Appendix B: Solutions to self-assessment questions 517
Appendix C: Solutions to critical review questions 532
Appendix D: Solutions to selected exercises 544
Appendix E: Present value table 572
Index 574

Lecturer Resources ON THE


WEBSITE
For password-protected online resources tailored to
support the use of this textbook in teaching, please visit
www.pearsoned.co.uk/atrillmclaney

CONTENTS xiii

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Preface

This book provides an introduction to accounting and finance. It is aimed at:

■ Students who are not majoring in accounting or finance, but who are, nevertheless,
studying introductory-level accounting and finance as part of their course. The course may
be in business, economics, hospitality management, tourism, engineering or some other
area. For these students, the book provides an overview of the role and usefulness of
accounting and finance within a business or some other organisation.
■ Students who are majoring in either accounting or finance. These students should find
the book a helpful introduction to the main principles, which can serve as a foundation
for further study.

The book does not focus on technical issues, but rather examines basic principles and
underlying concepts. The primary concern throughout is the ways in which financial state-
ments and information can be used to improve the quality of the decisions made by those
who use them. To reinforce this practical emphasis, throughout the text, there are numerous
illustrative extracts with commentary from real life including company reports, survey data
and other sources.
The text is written in an ‘open-learning’ style. This means there are numerous integrated
activities, worked examples and questions throughout each of the chapters to help you
understand the topics fully. In framing these questions and tasks, we have tried to encour-
age critical thinking by requiring analysis and evaluation of various concepts and tech-
niques. To help broaden understanding, questions and tasks often require readers to go
beyond the material in the text and/or to link the current topic with material covered earlier
in the book. Readers are encouraged to interact with the material and to check their prog-
ress continually. Irrespective of whether they are using the book as part of a taught course
or for personal study, we have found that this approach is more ‘user-friendly’ and makes
it easier for them to learn.
We recognise that most readers will not have studied accounting or finance before, and
we have therefore tried to write in a concise and accessible style, minimising the use of
technical jargon. We have also tried to introduce topics gradually, explaining everything as
we go. Where technical terminology is unavoidable we try to provide clear explanations. In
addition, you will find all of the key terms highlighted in the text. These are then listed at the
end of each chapter with a page reference. They are also listed alphabetically, with a con-
cise definition, in the glossary given in Appendix A towards the end of the book. This should
provide a convenient point of reference from which to revise.

PREFACE xv

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A further consideration in helping readers to understand and absorb the topics covered
is the design of the text itself. The page layout and colour scheme have been carefully
considered to enable easy navigation and digestion of material. The layout features a large
page format, an open design and clear signposting of the various features and assessment
material.
In this eleventh edition, we have taken the opportunity to make improvements suggested
by students and lecturers who used the previous edition. We have, for example, substantially
revised the discussion of the conceptual framework of accounting to reflect the very recent
statements of the International Accounting Standards Board. We have updated and
expanded the number of examples from real life and have continued to reflect the latest
international rules relating to the main financial statements. To aid understanding, we have
also increased the number of student progress questions (Activities) and explanatory
diagrams.
This text is supported by its own MyLab Accounting which is an environment that gives
unlimited opportunities for practice using a range of questions, and which provides timely
feedback. Updates to MyLab Accounting for the 11th Edition include the addition of Case
Studies that will be of use to encourage application of concepts to realistic business sce-
narios. Another notable tool within the MyLab is Accounting in Action: a feature that provides
an extended scenario focusing on a small business as it develops, which contains work for
readers to do; its aim is to bring together the reader’s understanding of a number of
concepts.
For access to MyLab Accounting, students need both a course ID and an access card
(see the advert on the inside back cover of the book).
For lecturers, the diagrams in the text, along with other diagrams and key learning points,
are available as PowerPoint slides. These, plus an Instructor’s Manual, can be downloaded
from the ‘Instructor resources’ section of the website www.pearsoned.co.uk/
atrillmclaney.
Finally, the editorial team at Pearson would like to thank the following reviewers for their
very valuable comments on the book:

Karen McFarlane, Glasgow Caledonian University


Steve Astbury, INTO University of Exeter
Dr Peng Wang, Southampton University
Dr Yasser Eliwa, Loughborough University
Mr David Carpenter, Aston University
Elayne Taylor, University of Dundee

We hope that you will find the book readable and helpful.

Eddie McLaney
Peter Atrill

xvi PREFACE

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Acknowledgements

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xvii

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xviii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

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small-medium-sized enterprises’, CIMA, p. 7. 317 CIMA: Copyright 2018 Chartered Institute
of Management Accountants. All rights reserved. Used by permission. 330 Greene King
plc: Greene King plc Annual Report 2017, page 47. 337 Rolls-Royce plc: Rolls-Royce

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xix

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Holdings plc, Annual Report 2016, p. 64. 337 Elsevier: Dugdale, D., Jones, C. and Green,
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cal Investigation of the Evolution of Management Accounting Practices, Working paper No.
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Management accounting practices of UK small-medium-sized enterprises, CIMA, July 2013,
p. 6. 338 BPM Forum: BPM Forum (2008) Perfect how you project. 346 Construction
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£245m below budget, Construction Enquirer, http://www.constructionenquirer.
com/2017/08/30/queensferry-crossing-opens-245m-below-budget/. 351–52 Babcock
International Plc and Associated British Food: Babcock International plc Annual Report
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xxi

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Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION TO
ACCOUNTING AND
FINANCE
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the world of accounting and finance! In this opening chapter,
we provide a broad outline of these subjects. We begin by considering
the roles of accounting and finance and then go on to identify the main
users of financial information. We shall see how both accounting and
finance can be valuable tools in helping users improve the quality of their
decisions. In subsequent chapters, we develop this decision-making
theme by examining in some detail the kinds of financial reports and
methods used to aid decision-making.

For many of you, accounting and finance are not the main focus of your
studies and you may well be asking, ‘Why do I need to study these
subjects?’ So, after we have considered the key features of accounting
and finance, we shall go on to discuss why some understanding of them
is likely to be important to you.

Learning outcomes
When you have completed this chapter, you should be able to:
■ explain the nature and roles of accounting and finance;
■ identify the main users of financial information and discuss their
needs;
■ distinguish between financial accounting and management
accounting; and
■ explain why an understanding of accounting and finance is likely to be
relevant to you.

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WHAT ARE ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE?
Let us begin by trying to understand the purpose of each. Accounting is concerned with
collecting, analysing and communicating financial information. The ultimate aim is to help
those using this information to make more informed decisions. Unless the financial informa-
tion being communicated can lead to better decisions being made, there really is no point
in producing it. We shall see who uses financial information and for what kind of decisions
it is useful a little later in the chapter.
Sometimes the impression is given that the purpose of accounting is simply to prepare
financial (accounting) reports on a regular basis. While it is true that accountants undertake
this kind of work, it does not represent an end in itself. These reports are prepared for a
reason. As already mentioned, the ultimate aim of the accountant’s work is to give users
financial information to improve the quality of their decisions. This decision-making per-
spective of accounting provides the theme for this book and shapes the way in which we
deal with each topic.
Finance (or financial management), like accounting, exists to help decision-makers. It
is concerned with the ways in which funds for a business are raised and invested. This lies
at the very heart of what business is about. In essence, a business exists to raise funds
from investors (owners and lenders) and then to use those funds to make investments (in
equipment, premises, inventories and so on) in order to create wealth. As businesses often
raise and invest large amounts over long periods, the quality of the financing and investment
decisions can have a profound impact on their fortunes.
Funds raised may take various forms and the particular forms chosen should fit with the
needs of the business. An understanding of finance should help in identifying:

■ the main forms of finance available;


■ the costs and benefits of each form of finance;
■ the risks associated with each form of finance; and
■ the role of financial markets in supplying finance.

Once funds have been raised, they must be invested in a suitable way. When deciding
between the investment opportunities available, an understanding of finance can help in
evaluating the risks and returns associated with each opportunity.
There is little point in trying to make a sharp distinction between accounting and finance;
we have seen that both are concerned with the financial aspects of decision-making. Fur-
thermore, there are many overlaps and interconnections between the two areas. Financial
(accounting) reports, for example, are a major source of information when making financing
and investment decisions.

WHO ARE THE USERS OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION?


For accounting information to be useful, the accountant must be clear for whom the infor-
mation is being prepared and for what purpose it will be used. There are likely to be various

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groups of people (usually known as ‘user groups’) with an interest in a particular organisa-
tion, in the sense of needing to make decisions about it. For a typical private sector busi-
ness, the more important of these groups are shown in Figure 1.1. Take a look at this figure
and then try Activity 1.1.

Owners Customers Competitors

Employees
Managers and their
representatives

Business

Lenders Government

Investment Community
Suppliers
analysts representatives

Several user groups have an interest in accounting information relating to a business. The majority
of these are outside the business but, nevertheless, have a stake in it. This is not an exhaustive
list of potential users; however, those groups identified are normally the most important.

Figure 1.1 Main users of financial information relating to a business

Activity 1.1
Ptarmigan Insurance plc (PI) is a large motor insurance business. Taking the user groups
identified in Figure 1.1, suggest, for each group, the sorts of decisions likely to be made
about PI and the factors to be taken into account when making these decisions.

Your answer may be along the following lines:

User group Decision

Customers Whether to take further motor policies with PI. This might
involve an assessment of PI’s ability to continue in business
and to meet customers’ needs, particularly in respect of any
insurance claims made.

WHO ARE THE USERS OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION? 3

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User group Decision

Competitors How best to compete against PI or, perhaps, whether to leave the
market on the grounds that it is not possible to compete profitably
with PI. This may involve competitors using various aspects of
PI’s performance as a ‘benchmark’ when evaluating their own
performance. They may also try to assess PI’s financial strength
and to identify changes that may signal PI’s future intentions (for
example, raising funds as a prelude to market expansion).
Employees Whether to continue working for PI and, if so, whether to
demand higher rewards for doing so. The future plans, profits
and financial strength of the business are likely to be of
particular interest when making these decisions.
Government Whether PI should pay tax and, if so, how much, whether it
complies with agreed pricing policies, whether financial support is
needed and so on. In making these decisions an assessment of
PI’s profits, sales revenues and financial strength would be made.
Community Whether to allow PI to expand its premises and/or whether to
representatives provide economic support for the business. When making these
decisions, PI’s ability to provide employment for the community,
its use of community resources and its willingness to fund
environmental improvements are likely to be important
considerations.
Investment analysts Whether to advise clients to invest in PI. This would involve an
evaluation of the likely risks and future returns associated with PI.
Suppliers Whether to continue to supply PI and, if so, whether to supply
on credit. This would require an assessment of PI’s ability to pay
for goods and services supplied at the due dates.
Lenders Whether to lend money to PI and/or whether to demand
repayment of any existing loans. PI’s ability to pay the interest
due and to repay the principal sum on time would be important
factors in such decisions.
Managers Whether the performance of the business needs to be improved.
Performance to date would be compared with earlier plans or
some other ‘benchmark’ to decide whether action needs to be
taken. Managers may also wish to consider a change in PI’s
future direction. This may involve determining whether it has the
financial flexibility and resources to take on new challenges.
Owners Whether to invest more in PI or to sell all, or part, of the
investment currently held. As with investment analysts (see
above) this would involve an evaluation of the likely risks and
returns associated with PI. Owners may also have to decide on
the rewards offered to senior managers. When doing so, the
financial performance and position of the business would
normally be considered.
Although this answer covers many of the key points, you may have identified other decisions
and/or other factors to be taken into account by each group.

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PROVIDING A SERVICE
One way of viewing accounting is as a form of service. The user groups identified in
Figure 1.1 can be seen as the ‘clients’ and the accounting (financial) information produced
can be seen as the service provided. The value of this service to the various ‘clients’ can
be judged according to whether the accounting information meets their needs.
To be useful to users, particularly investors and lenders, the information provided should
possess certain qualities, or characteristics. In particular, it must be relevant and it must
faithfully represent what it is meant to represent. These two qualities, relevance and faith-
ful representation, are regarded as fundamental qualities and require further
explanation:

■ Relevance. Accounting information should make a difference. That is, it should be capa-
ble of influencing user decisions. To do this, it should help to predict future events (such
as predicting next year’s profit), or help to confirm past events (such as establishing last
year’s profit), or do both. By confirming past events, users can check on the accuracy
of their earlier predictions. This can, in turn, help them to improve the ways in which they
make predictions in the future.

To be relevant, accounting information must cross a threshold of materiality. An item of


information is considered material, or significant, if its omission or misstatement would
change the decisions that users make.

Activity 1.2
Do you think that what is material for one business will also be material for all other
businesses?

No, it will normally vary from one business to the next. What is material will depend on fac-
tors such as the size of the business, the nature of the information and the amounts involved.

Ultimately, what is considered material is a matter of judgement. When making this kind of
judgement, managers should consider how this information is likely to be used by users. If
a piece of information is not considered material, it should not be included within the
accounting reports. It will merely clutter them up and, perhaps, interfere with the users’
ability to interpret them.

■ Faithful representation. Accounting information should represent what it is meant to


represent. To do so, the information provided must reflect the substance of what has
occurred rather than simply its legal form. Take, for example, a manufacturer that pro-
vides goods to a retailer on a sale-or-return basis. The manufacturer may wish to treat
this arrangement as two separate transactions. Thus, a contract may be agreed for the
sale of the goods and a separate contract agreed for the return of the goods if unsold
by the retailer. This may result in a sale being reported when the goods are delivered to
the retailer even though they are returned at a later date. The economic substance,

PROVIDING A SERVICE 5

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however, is that the manufacturer made no sale as the goods were subsequently
returned. They were simply moved from the manufacturer’s business to the retailer’s
business and then back again. Accounting reports should reflect this economic sub-
stance. To do otherwise would be misleading.

To provide a perfectly faithful representation, the information should be complete. In other


words, it should incorporate everything needed to understand what is being portrayed.
Thus, information relating to a particular item would normally contain a description of its
nature, some suitable numerical measurement and, where necessary, explanations of
important facts. Information should also be neutral, which means that the it should be pre-
sented and selected without bias. No attempt should be made to manipulate the information
in such a way as to influence user attitudes and behaviour. Finally, it should be free from
error. This is not the same as saying that it must be perfectly accurate. Accounting informa-
tion often contains estimates, such as futures sales or costs, which may turn out to be
inaccurate. Nevertheless, estimates may still be faithfully represented providing they are
accurately described and properly prepared.

Activity 1.3
In practice, do you think that each piece of accounting information produced will be
perfectly complete, neutral and free from error?

Probably not – however, each piece of information should be produced with these aims in
mind.

Accounting information should contain both fundamental qualities – relevance and faithful
representation – in order to be useful. There is usually little point in producing information
that is relevant, but which lacks faithful representation, or producing information that is
irrelevant, even if it is faithfully represented.

Further qualities
Where accounting information is both relevant and faithfully represented, there are other
qualities that, if present, can enhance its usefulness. These are comparability, verifiability,
timeliness and understandability. Each of these qualities is now considered.

■ Comparability. When choosing between alternatives, users of accounting information


seek to make comparisons. They may want to compare performance of the business
over time (for example, profit this year compared to last year). They may also want to
compare certain aspects of business performance (such as the level of sales achieved
during the year) to those of similar businesses. To help users make comparisons, items
that are alike should be treated in the same way – both over time and between busi-
nesses. Items that are not alike, on the other hand, should not be treated as though they
are. Users must be able to detect both similarities and differences in items being
compared.

6 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION TO ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE

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Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
decrease his load of a given material just as its efficiency warrants. If
he finds that gas will get casualties and help him win victories more
readily than an equal weight of any other material, he will carry gas
material. A study of the articles of equipment abandoned by 10,000
stragglers in the British Army picked up during the great German
drive towards Amiens in March, 1918, illustrates this very clearly. Of
the equipment carried by these stragglers, more than 6,000 had
discarded their rifles. The helmets were thrown away to a somewhat
less extent, but the gas mask had been thrown away by only 800 out
of the 10,000. Now the gas mask is not a particularly easy thing to
carry, nor was the English type comfortable to wear, but the English
soldier had learned that in a gas attack he had no chance whatever
of escape if his gas mask failed him. Accordingly, he hung on to the
mask when he had discarded nearly everything else in his
possession. The same thing will be true of any gas equipment if it
proves its worth.

Smoke and Incendiary Materials


So far nothing has been said in regard to smoke or incendiary
materials. This has been due to the fact that their use is not
dependent upon weather conditions to anything near the extent that
gas is. Second, the smokes, not being poisonous, are not a danger
to our own troops, although they may hamper movements and add
to the difficulty of taking a position, if used improperly. Of the two
classes of materials, smoke and incendiary, smoke materials may be
said to be at least a thousand times as important as the incendiary
materials. A material that will burst into flame when a shell is opened
or that will scatter balls of burning fire appeals to the popular
imagination, and yet actual results achieved by such materials on the
field of battle have been almost nil. About the only results worth
while achieved by incendiary materials have been in occasionally
firing ammunition dumps and more frequently, setting fire to
warehouses and other storage places. This will undoubtedly
continue in the future.
Flame Thrower

Of the incendiary materials the least valuable is the flame


thrower. In the Chemical Warfare Service it has been the habit for a
long while not to mention the flame thrower at all, unless questions
were asked about it. It is mentioned here to forestall the questions.
Even the German, who invented it and who, during the two years of
trench warfare, had full opportunity for developing its use, finally
came to using it largely as a means of executing people that he did
not want to shoot himself. Men falling in that class were equipped
with flame throwers and sent over the top. The German knew, as did
the Allies, that each man with a flame thrower became a target for
every rifle and machine gun nearby. The flame thrower is very
quickly exhausted and then the one equipped with it has no means
of offensive action, and in addition, is saddled with a heavy load,
hampering all movements, whether to escape or to advance.

Inflammable Materials

There will probably be some use for materials such as metallic


sodium, spontaneously inflammable oils, etc., that will burst into
flame and burn when exposed to the air, though white phosphorus is
probably equal, and in most cases vastly superior to anything else so
far suggested. Phosphorus burns with an unquenchable flame when
exposed to the air, whether wet or dry. It is of great value for
screening purposes, and for use against the enemy’s troops. The
German did not use phosphorus simply because he did not have it,
just as he did not use helium in his observation balloons because he
did not have it.
The value of phosphorus was just beginning to be realized
slightly when the Americans entered the war, while its full value was
not appreciated even by the American troops when the war closed.
The work of the First Gas Regiment with phosphorus against
machine gun nests proved how valuable it is against the enemy’s
troops. It proved also its tremendous value as a screen.
The Chemical Warfare Service was prepared to fill a great
number of artillery shell with phosphorus, but due to the failure of our
shell program to mature before the Armistice, phosphorus was not
used by American artillery to any appreciable extent.

Smoke Used by Everyone

Smoke will be used by every fighting arm of the Service in


practically every battle, both by day and by night. If you have ever
tried on a target range to shoot at a target that was just beginning to
be obscured by a fog, you will recognize the difficulty of hitting
anything by firing through an impenetrable smoke screen. It is simply
a shot in the dark. Future battles will witness smoke formed by
smoke candles that are kept in the trenches or carried by the troops,
by smoke from bursting artillery shell and rifle grenades, by smoke
from aeroplane bombs and possibly even from what is known as the
smoke knapsack. The knapsack produces a very dense white smoke
and very economically, but will probably not be much used. This is
because, notwithstanding its efficiency, the knapsack cannot be
projected to a distance, that is, the smoke screen is generated on
the person carrying the knapsack. On the other hand the great value
of phosphorus is that it can be fired to great distances in rifle
grenades or artillery shell, and dropped from aviation bombs. The
smoke screen is thus established in front of the object it is desired to
cut off, whether it be a battery of artillery, an advancing wave of
infantry, or a lookout station. Thus smoke, for screening purposes
alone, will be used to a tremendous extent. It will also be used in
conjunction with gas.

Smoky Appearance of Gas Cloud

Due to the smoky appearance of an ordinary gas cloud and to the


coming use of poisonous smokes, no one on the field of battle in the
future will ever be certain that any given smoke cloud is not also a
poisonous cloud until he has actually tested it. And there lies an
opportunity for the most intense study and for the greatest use of the
proverbial American ingenuity that war has ever furnished.
In the variations that can be played with smoke containing gas, or
not containing gas, with smoke hurled long distances by the artillery
or dropped from aeroplanes, the possibilities indeed are unlimited.
Every officer will need to study the possibilities of smoke, both in its
use against him and in his use of it against the enemy. He can
probably save more casualties among his own troops by the skillful
use of smoke than by any other one thing at his command. On the
other hand, the unskilled use of smoke on the part of one side in a
battle may lead to very great casualties in proportion to those of the
enemy should the latter use his smoke skillfully. This is a subject that
deserves deep and constant study.

Protection by Smoke Clouds

Smoke in the future will be the greatest protective device


available to the soldier. It shuts out not only the view in daylight, but
the searching of ground at night by searchlights, by star bombs or
other means for illuminating the battlefield. It has already been used
extensively by the Navy and undoubtedly will be used far more
extensively in the future.

Shell Markings

Modern artillery shell have distinctive colors for high explosive,


for shrapnel, for incendiary materials, and for gases. A grayish color
has been adopted as the general color of the paint on all gas shells,
bombs and cylinders. In addition a system of colored bands has
been adopted. These bands are white to indicate poisonous non-
persistent substances, and red—persistent. Yellow is used to
indicate smoke. With any given combination of red and white and
yellow bands, the artillery-man at the front can tell, at a glance,
whether the gas is non-persistent or whether it is persistent, and also
whether or not it contains smoke. There will be secondary markings
on each shell which, to the trained Chemical Warfare Service officer,
will indicate the particular gas or gases in the shell. These markings
however, will be inconspicuous and no attempt will be made to give
the information to the soldier or even to the average officer firing gas.
These secondary markings are for the purpose of enabling the
Chemical Warfare Service officers in charge to use certain gases for
particular uses in those comparatively rare cases when sufficient gas
is on hand and sufficient time available to enable such a choice to be
made.
CHAPTER XXIV
DEFENSE AGAINST GAS

(From the Field Point of View)


The best defense against any implement of war is a vigorous
offense with the same implement. This is a military axiom that cannot
be too often, or too greatly emphasized, though like other axioms it
cannot be applied too literally. It needs a proper interpretation—the
interpretation varying with time and circumstances. Thus in gas
warfare, a vigorous offense with gas is the best defense against gas.
This does not mean that the enemy’s gas can be ignored. Indeed, it
is more important to make use of all defensive measures against gas
than it is against any other form of attack. Gas being heavier than air,
rolls along the ground, filling dugouts, trenches, woods and valleys—
just the places that are safest from bullets and high explosives.
There it remains for hours after it has blown away in the open, and,
since the very air itself is poisoned, it is necessary not only that
protection be general but that it be continuous during the whole time
the gas is present.

Earliest Protective Appliances


The earliest protection against gas was the crudest sort of a
mask. The first gas used was chlorine and since thousands of
people in civil life were used to handling it, many knew that certain
solutions, as hyposulfite of soda, would readily destroy it. They also
knew that if the breath could be drawn through material saturated
with those solutions, the chlorine would be destroyed. Thus it was
that the first masks were simple cotton, or cotton waste pads, which
were dipped into hyposulfite of soda solutions and applied to the
mouth and nose during a gas attack. These pads were awkward,
unsanitary, and, due to the long intervals between gas attacks, were
frequently lost, while the solution itself was often spilled or
evaporated. The net result of all this was poor protection and disgust
with the so-called masks.

Design of New Masks


After using these, or similar poor excuses for a mask, for a few
weeks, the British designed what was known as the PH helmet. In a
gas attack the sack was pulled over the head and tucked under the
blouse around the neck, the gas-tight fit being obtained by buttoning
the blouse over the ends of the sack. This PH helmet was quite
successful against chlorine and, to a much less extent, against
phosgene, a new gas introduced during the spring of 1916.
But it was warm and stuffy in summer—the very time when gas is
used to the greatest extent—while the chemicals in the cloth irritated
the face and eyes, especially when combined with some of the
poisonous gases.
Probably as a result of experience with oxygen apparatus in mine
rescue work, Colonel Harrison suggested making a mask of which
the principal part was a box filled with chemicals and carried on the
chest. A flexible tube connected the box with a mouthpiece of rubber.
Breathing was thus through the mouth and in order to insure that no
air would be breathed in through the nose, a noseclip was added.
This, of course, cared for the lungs, but did not protect the eyes.
Their protection was secured by making a facepiece of rubberized
cloth with elastics to hold it tight against the face. The efficiency of
this mask depends, then, first upon the ability of the facepiece to
keep out lachrymatory gases which affect the eyes, and, second,
upon a proper combination of chemicals in the box, to purify the air
drawn into the lungs through the mouthpiece. (Details are given in
Chapter XII).

Protection Against Smoke


While the charcoal and soda-lime granules furnished an
adequate protection against all known true gases, they did not
furnish protection against certain smokes or against minute particles
of liquid gas. Since certain smokes, as stannic chloride, though not
deadly, are so highly irritating as to make life unbearable, it early
became necessary to devise means for keeping them from going
through the masks. This was done in the first masks by adding a
sufficient thickness of cotton batting. The cotton was usually placed
in three layers alternating with the charcoal and granules, as it was
thought the latter would be held in place better by that means.
Some time after stannic chloride came into use the Germans
started firing shells containing a small quantity of
diphenylchloroarsine, popularly known as “Sneezing Gas.”
Protection against this is discussed in Chapter XVIII.

Choice of Masks for U. S. Troops


When it became necessary, with the creation of a Chemical
Warfare Service in France in August, 1917, to decide upon a mask
for American troops, there were available for purchase two types—
the British type and the French M-2. The French M-2 consisted
essentially of 32 layers of cloth impregnated with various chemicals,
through which the air was breathed both in and out. This mask was
quite effective against ordinary field concentrations of most gases,
but was utterly inadequate to care for the high concentration of
phosgene obtained in the front line from cloud gas or from projector
gas attacks. It was also poor against chloropicrin. The M-2 was,
however, very light and easy to carry and moreover was deemed
sufficient to protect against concentrations of cloud gas even, at
points more than five miles distant from the front line.
Furthermore, it was felt desirable at first to have an auxiliary or
emergency mask in addition to the principal one, for use in case the
principal mask was worn out or damaged. Accordingly both types of
masks were adopted and the day after Fries took charge of the
Chemical Warfare Service, A.E.F., on August 22, 1917, 100,000 of
each were purchased, although there were then only ten or twelve
thousand American troops in France requiring masks. Later
additional masks of both kinds were purchased to tide over the
American troops until a sufficient quantity of the British type masks
could be manufactured in the United States. The total of British
masks purchased amounted to about 700,000.
However, within a comparatively short time after American troops
got into the front line it was realized that a second mask, inferior in
protection to the first, was highly undesirable. During a gas attack
men seemed to acquire an uncontrollable desire to shift from one
mask to the other. This shifting in nearly every case resulted in a
casualty. We then came rapidly to the conclusion that one mask only
should be furnished, and that one the best that could be made, and
then to impress upon the soldier the fact that his life depended upon
the care he took of his mask. This proved to be an entirely sound
conclusion, as the number of men gassed through injuries to the
mask was comparatively small. An interesting proof of the value the
soldier placed upon his mask was shown by the articles of
equipment thrown away by 10,000 British stragglers in the great
German offensive of March, 1918. Of the articles thus thrown away
the gas mask came at the foot of the list, with only 800 missing. The
steel helmet is said to have come next with about 4,000 missing.

Sizes of Faces For Masks


When adopting the British respirator in August, 1917, it was
decided that the American face as well as the American stature was
probably larger than the English. Accordingly inquiry was made in
regard to the sizes of masks issued to the Canadians as it was
thought probable they required a greater proportion of the larger size
masks than did the English. When prescribing the relative quantities
of each size of mask to be furnished Americans, the Canadian
requirements were taken as a base but with the larger sizes
increased slightly over the Canadian requirements. As a matter of
fact even these increases proved considerably too small, so that the
numbers in the two sizes above normal had to be finally more than
doubled.
Objections to German Type Mask
The American Gas Service felt from the beginning that a design
which attached the box of chemicals to the facepiece was unsound
in principle (this design was used in the German mask and in the
French A. R. S. masks), since it did not allow proper flexibility for
increasing the size of the box to care for new gases. Furthermore,
the weight of the box during movement caused the facepiece to
swing slightly from side to side. This interfered with vision and
tended to lift the facepiece away from the face and allow gas to
enter. That the objections of the American Gas Service to this type
were correct was proved by the difficulty encountered toward the end
of the war by both the French and the Germans in trying to provide a
suitable filter for protection against particulate clouds and the
smokes, such as stannic chloride and diphenylchloroarsine.

Struggle Between Mask and Gas


As between the mask and poisonous gases, we have the old
struggle of the battleship armor against the armor-piercing projectile.
While the armor-piercing projectile has always had a little the better
of the game, it is just the reverse with gases. The gas mask has
always been just a little better than the gases, so that very few
casualties have occurred through failure of the mask itself. This
margin of safety has never been any too great, and that we have had
a margin at all is due to the energy, skill and enthusiasm of those
developing and manufacturing masks in England, France, and
particularly in the United States.
However, the mask at the best is uncomfortable, causes some
loss of vigor, and even with the very best American masks there is
some loss in vision. The wearing effect on troops results mostly from
the increased resistance to breathing. Accordingly a tremendous
amount of study and effort was made to decrease this breathing
resistance. In the English type masks this resistance was equal to
the vacuum required to raise a column of water about four and one-
half inches. Adding the sulfite paper to protect against
diphenylchloroarsine increased this resistance by about one inch.
This put a heavy burden on the wearer of the mask whenever it was
necessary for him to do any manual labor while wearing it. In
addition earlier masks left a good deal to be desired in the way of
reducing resistance by proper sized tubes, angles and valves
through which the air was drawn. This was much more easily
overcome than reducing the resistance through the chemicals and
charcoal and the materials for protection against
diphenylchloroarsine. In the latest type canister, devised after long
trials for the American forces, this resistance was brought down to
about two inches of water. What this reduction in resistance means
no one knows except one who has worn the old mask with its
mouthpiece and four to six inches’ resistance and has then replaced
that mask for one through which he breathes naturally with only two
inches’ resistance.

Design of New American Mask


The American Gas Service felt from the beginning that the
mouthpiece and noseclip must be abandoned and bent every effort
toward getting a mask perfected for that purpose. The English
opposed this view fiercely for nearly a year. This position on the part
of the English was more or less natural. They developed their mask
in the beginning for protection against cloud gas. In those days the
opposing trenches were close together. Moreover, front line trenches
were quite strongly manned. The result was that a large number of
men were exposed to a very high concentration of gas, but—and
highly important—for a short period only. Inasmuch as the German
feared this cloud gas even more than the English there was no
danger of his attacking in it. The English rules of conduct during a
gas attack called for all movement to stop and for every man to
stand ready until the cloud passed. Accordingly, the man was
breathing the easiest possible and hence did not suffer particularly
from the resistance.
With the advent of mustard gas, however, the whole general
scheme of protection changed. Mustard gas, as is well known, is
effective in extremely low concentrations and has very great
persistency. In dry warm weather mustard gas, scattered on the
ground and shrubbery, will not be fully evaporated for two to three
days and accordingly will give off vapors that not only burn the lungs
and eyes but the soft, moist parts of the skin as well. In cool, damp
weather the gas remains in dangerous quantity for a week and
occasionally longer. Since this gas, in liquid form, evaporates too
slowly for use in gas clouds, it is used altogether in bombs and
shells. Accordingly it could be expected to be and actually is fired at
all ranges from the front line to nearly eight miles back of that line.
Hence, with the coming of mustard gas, the need for protection
changed from high protection for a short period to moderate
protection for very long periods. Indeed, mustard gas makes it
necessary for men to wear masks just as long as they remain in an
area infected with it. There is still occasional need for high protection
for short periods, but with the increase in the efficiency of charcoal
alone, it is found that the amount of charcoal and chemicals in the
canister can be very greatly reduced and still maintain sufficient
protection for the high concentrations encountered in cloud gas and
projector attacks.

Exhaustion and Malingering


It seems physically impossible for the ordinary man to wear the
British mask with its mouthpiece and noseclip more than six to eight
hours and vast numbers are unable to even do that. How many
thousands of casualties were suffered through men losing their
mental balance from exhaustion and the discomfort of the
mouthpiece and noseclip no one knows. Such men tore off the
mask, stating that they would rather die than endure the torture of
wearing it longer. Furthermore, the poor vision of this mask led to the
habit of taking the facepiece off while still leaving the mouthpiece
and noseclip in place. This gave protection to the lungs, but exposed
the eyes, and as mustard gas affects the eyes very readily this alone
led to thousands of casualties. There was another interesting side to
this situation. The malingerer who wanted to get out of the front line
and was willing to take any action, however cowardly, to achieve that
end, deliberately removed the facepiece and thus suffered gassing
of the eyes. The effect of mustard gas soon became so well known
that the malingerer knew gassing of the eyes never resulted in death
or permanent loss of sight. With the new type of American mask, the
protection of eyes and lungs depends solely upon the fit around the
face and no such playing with the mask can be done.
Without going into further details in regard to masks it is sufficient
to state that at the end the Americans had produced a mask
thoroughly comfortable, giving complete protection against gases
and smoke clouds, and one that was easy to manufacture on the
huge scale (fifty to seventy-five thousand per day) which was
necessary to provide masks for an army of three to four million men
in the field.

Protection in War is Relative Only


Napoleon is credited with saying “In order to make an omelet, it is
necessary to break some eggs.” Every student of war realizes that
casualties cannot be avoided in battle and yet one American Staff
Officer went so far as to refuse to use gas offensively unless the
Chemical Warfare Service could absolutely guarantee that not a
single American casualty could occur under any circumstances. This
same idea early got into the heads of the laboratory workers on
masks. They seemed to feel that if a single gas casualty occurred
through failure of the mask, their work would be a failure or at least
they would be open to severe criticism. Accordingly efforts were
made to perfect masks and to perfect protection regardless of the
discomfort imposed upon the wearer of the mask. This idea was very
difficult to eradicate. The laboratory worker who accustoms himself
to experiment with a particular thing forgets that he develops an
ability to endure discomfort, that is not possible of attainment by the
ordinary man in the time available for his training.
Furthermore, if the need for such training can be avoided it is of
course highly desirable. This applies to the mouthpiece of the British
respirator; to elastics that cause undue discomfort to the face; to the
noseclip and to the large boxes that cause too great resistance to
breathing.
It may be taken as a general rule that when protection requires
so much effort or becomes so much of a burden that the average
man cannot or will not endure it, it is high time to find out what the
average man will stand and then provide it even if some casualties
result. Protection in battle is always relative. A man who cannot
balance protection against legitimate risk has no business passing
on arms, equipment or tactics to be used in battle.

Training
Bitter experience taught the Allies as well as the Americans that
no matter how efficient the gas mask and other defensive
appliances, they would not take the place of thorough and constant
training. One of the greatest difficulties at first was to get American
troops to realize that a thing as invisible as gas, with in many cases
no offensive smell and producing no immediate discomfort, could be
deadly. Nothing but constant drill and constant reiteration of these
dangers could get this fact impressed on them. Indeed it never was
impressed sufficiently in any of the earlier divisions of American
troops in the line to prevent their taking such chances that each
division suffered heavy loss on one or more occasions from gas
attacks.
A great deal of emphasis had been placed by the English upon
the adjustment of the mask in the shortest possible time, this time
having been officially set at six seconds after the alarm. The
Americans in adopting the mask in toto naturally had to adopt the
rules for adjusting it and wearing it. Experience, however, taught
them in a few months that the effort to attain too great speed was
dangerous. It tended to rattle the soldier and to result in poor
adjustment of the mask, both of which led to casualties. Accordingly
in the latest instructions for defense against gas all reference to six
seconds was eliminated and emphasis placed on the necessity of
accurate adjustment of the mask. Inasmuch as any man, practically
without effort or previous drill, can hold his breath for twenty
seconds, the need for great speed in adjusting the mask is not
apparent.

Holding the Breath


The first regulations and those in general use up to near the
close of hostilities, prescribed that the soldier should hold his breath
and adjust his mask. It seemed impossible to overcome the natural
inference that “holding the breath” meant first the drawing of a full
breath. This was obviously highly dangerous if gas were actually
present before the alarm was heard, as was often the case with
projector and artillery gas shell attacks. The change was then made
to the phrase “Stop Breathing and Stay Stopped until the Mask is
Carefully and Accurately Adjusted.”

Psychology in Training
While the importance of impressing upon the soldier the danger
of gas was early appreciated it was deemed necessary not to make
him unduly afraid of the gas. However, as gas defense training in our
Army got a big start over gas offense training, this became a matter
of very great importance. In fact, due to a variety of causes, training
in the offensive use of gas was not available for any troops until after
their arrival in France. This resulted in officers and men looking upon
the gas game, so far as they were individually concerned, as one of
defense only. Accordingly after their arrival in France it became very
difficult not only to get some of our officers to take up the offensive
use of gas but even to get them to permit its use along the front they
commanded.
Notwithstanding all the care taken in training Americans in gas
defense there arose an undue fear of the gas that had to be
overcome in order to get our troops to attack close enough to their
own gas to make it effective. This applied to the use of gas by
artillery as well as to its use by gas troops. However, it should be
said that in every instance where gas was once used on an
American front all officers in the Division, or other unit, affected by it
were always thereafter strongly in favor of it.

German Problems in Gas Training


The Germans also had serious troubles of their own over the
psychology of gas training. As stated elsewhere they were using
mustard gas nearly eleven months before the Allies began using it.
During that time, for purposes of morale, if not sheer boastfulness,
the Germans told their men that mustard gas could not be made by
the Allies; that it was by far the worst thing the war had produced—
and in that statement they were correct—and that they would win the
war with it—in which statement they were far from correct. When the
Allies began sending it back to them they had to reverse their
teachings and tell their men that mustard gas was no worse than
anything else, that they need not be afraid of it and that their masks
and other protective appliances gave full protection against it. They
thus had a problem in psychology which they never succeeded in
fully solving. Indeed there is no question but that the growing fear of
gas in the minds of the German is one of the reasons that prompted
him to his early capitulation.

Gas at Night
In the early days it was very difficult to get officers to realize the
absolute necessity of night drill in the adjustment of the mask. For
various reasons, including surprise, gas attacks were probably eighty
to ninety per cent of the time carried out at night. Under such
conditions confusion in the adjustment of the mask is inevitable
without a great deal of practice before hand, especially for duty in
trenches with narrow spaces and sharp projecting corners. There are
numerous instances of men waking up and getting excited, who not
only gassed themselves, but in their mad efforts to find their masks,
or to escape from the gas, knocked others down, disarranging their
masks and causing the gassing of from one to three or four
additional men. The confusion inherent in any gas attack was
heightened in the latter stages of the war by heavy shrapnel and
high explosive bombardments that accompanied nearly all projector
and cloud gas attacks for that very purpose. The bombardment was
continued for three or four hours to cause exhaustion and removal of
the mask and to prevent the removal of the gassed patients from the
gassed area.

Detection of Gases
Efforts were made by the enemy and by all the Allies throughout
the war to invent a mechanical detector that would show when gas
was present in dangerous quantities. While scores, perhaps
hundreds, of these were invented none proved simple, quick, or
certain enough in action to make their adoption desirable. In every
case it was necessary to rely on the sense of smell. Thus it was that
as the war wore on, more and more attention was given to training
officers and non-commissioned officers to detect various kinds of
gases in dangerous quantities by the sense of smell.
In the American Gas Defense School for officers this was done
wholly by using captured German gases. This was because certain
gases have quite different smells, depending upon the impurities in
the gas and also upon the solvents sometimes mixed with them.
Thus the German mustard gas has a mustard smell, while the Allies
mustard gas, due to a slight difference in the method of manufacture,
has a very perfect garlic odor. Not only must officers and men who
handle gas training know the smell of the various gases, but they
must know when the concentration of each is high enough to be
dangerous. This is not easy to learn because the strength of the
various gases in dangerous concentrations varies through wide
limits. Not only does the strength of the gases vary and the
sharpness of the odors accordingly, but the mingling of poisonous
gases with other gases from high explosive and shrapnel tends to
obscure these odors and make them more difficult of detection.

Deceptive Gases
A great deal of thought was given toward the end of the war to
the subject of deceptive gases which could by powerful or peculiar
odors mask the dangerous gases. This masking was to deceive the
enemy when dangerous gases were present or to admit an attack
without masks while the enemy was wearing his through thinking
there was a dangerous gas when as a matter of fact none existed.
In gas warfare, the German, as well as the Allies, was exercising
his ingenuity in devising new and startling methods of making gas
attacks. A well known trick with the German was to fire gases for
several days, particularly against green troops, in concentrations so
slight as to do no harm. When he felt that he had lulled those troops
to a sense of the ineffectiveness of his gas, he sent over a deadly
concentration. In spite of the warning that this was what was
happening, he often achieved too great a success. Before the war
closed, however, the American was beginning to out-think and out-
wit the German in this method of warfare.

Mustard Gas Burns


With the advent of mustard gas which burned the body, a new
and serious difficulty in protection arose. At first it was thought
mustard gas burned only when the liquid from the bursting shell
actually splashed on the clothing or skin. This was unfortunately
soon found to be not true. The gas itself rapidly penetrates clothing
and burns the skin even when the concentration of the gas is very
low. Probably the majority of burns from mustard gas arose from
concentrations of gas consisting of less than one part of gas to five
hundred thousand of air. Furthermore, the gas is fully fifty per cent
cumulative in its effects, that is, in extremely low concentrations over
a period of hours it will produce more than fifty per cent the effect
that a far higher concentration would produce in a relatively shorter
time.
The Allies were not long in discovering that oilcloth afforded very
complete protection against mustard gas. The ordinary oilcloth,
however, was too thick, too hot and too heavy for general use.
Experiments soon showed that cloth thoroughly impregnated with
boiled linseed oil would give protection. In order to make this
protection more perfect a certain amount of paraffin was added. All
this made the clothing air-tight, rather stiff and always uncomfortable.
Notwithstanding these discomforts, hundreds of thousands of oiled
suits, and as many pairs of oiled gloves were made and issued to
artillery troops, and to troops especially charged with handling
mustard gas shells, or to those employed in destroying mustard gas
in shell holes by spreading chloride of lime over them.
The importance of protection against mustard gas burns led to
extensive researches being made with a view to finding a cloth which
would be comfortable and porous and while stopping mustard gas
would yet be sufficiently durable and comfortable to be issued to
infantry troops as well as to artillery and other special troops. This, it
is understood, had been achieved, just prior to the Armistice. Still
more desirable would be the discovery of a chemical substance
which could be applied to all uniforms and Army clothing and thus
protect the regulation clothing against the penetration of mustard
gas, and thereby avoid carrying extra clothing for that special
purpose.

Protecting Troops by Moving Them


From Infected Areas
As soon as it was fully realized that mustard gas persisted for
several days it was decided to run complete reliefs of men into and
out of areas that had been heavily shelled with mustard gas, or
better still, where practicable, to completely evacuate the area.
Inasmuch as the gas is dangerous to friend and foe alike, this
method was comparatively safe and was used to a very considerable
extent. With the warfare of movement that existed over most of the
active front throughout the season of 1918, this moving of troops out
of infected areas became highly important and, when skillfully done,
often resulted in a great saving of troops and at the same time
prevented the enemy from receiving any particular tactical
advantage from his mustard gas attacks.
There was one very excellent example of this a few miles to the
northwest of Château-Thierry prior to the counter-offensive of July
18, 1918. At that time the Germans heavily shelled with mustard gas
four or five small woods and two or three villages. It was necessary
for the men to stay in these woods during the day, as they afforded
the only protection obtainable from machine guns, shrapnel and high
explosive. At the time this occurred American gas officers generally
understood the necessity of getting troops out of a mustard gas
infected area. Accordingly all began searching for places safe from
the mustard gas. In one particular instance the gas officer of a
regiment discovered that a portion of the woods his men were in was
free from the gas, and the regimental commander, promptly following
his advice, moved his troops into the free area. As a result of this
prompt action the regiment had only four light gas casualties,
although all told there were several hundred mustard gas casualties
in this attack, the number per thousand generally being from ten to
twenty times that of the thousand men just mentioned.

Mixing Poisonous Gases


On this as well as other occasions the Germans fired some
diphosgene and Blue Cross (Sneezing gas), as well as mustard gas.
This added to the difficulty of determining areas free from the latter.
In the future such mixing of poisonous gases may always be
expected and, in addition, gases which have no value other than that
of masking the poisonous ones will be fired. While with practically all
gases except mustard gas a man is comparatively safe while
breathing a concentration very noticeable to the sense of smell, the
only safe rule with mustard gas is to consider as dangerous any
concentration that can be smelled.
For the reason that this gas persists longer in calm areas, woods
are always to be avoided, where practicable, and also, since all
gases, being heavier than air, tend to roll into depressions and
valleys, they should be avoided. There have been a number of
authentic cases where batteries in hollows or valleys suffered
severely from mustard gas, while troops on nearby knolls or ridges

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