The 43rd Division defensive line of the 20th Army of France, with Captain Claude arguing with Tijani over the map under a kerosene lamp in the bunker used as the command post.
Captain Claude was fortunate, when the Germans launched the gas warfare, he and his troops had just spent two weeks on the second line of defense.
At this time, the French front had adopted a rotation system. They divided the troops into several batches, first stationed and trained at the rear. After two weeks, they rotated forward along the trenches layer by layer until they stayed in the frontline for two weeks before returning to the rear for rest, and so on repeatedly.
Today happened to be the day for rotation. If the Germans had delayed their attack by just one day, it would have been Captain Claude's troops that would have suffered massive gas casualties in the frontline.
However, Captain Claude was also unfortunate.
