A Case Of Mustard Gas

I wish those people who write so glibly about this being a holy war and the orators who talk so much about going on, no matter how long the war lasts and what it may mean, could see a case of mustard gas: the poor things burnt and blistered all over with great mustard-colored suppurating blisters, with blind eyes, all sticky and stuck together, and always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying their throats are closing and they know they will choke.

Vera Brittain in “Testament Of Youth”; Brittain served as a nurse on The Western Front during The Great War.