Exam practice Study Sources A and B in the Sources Booklet. How useful are Sources A and B for an enquiry into the effects of a gas attack? Explain your answer, using Sources A and B and your knowledge of the historical context. Sources for use with Section A.
Source A: From a diary account by Dr Harvey Cushing, 25 April 1915. Cushing worked as a surgeon on the Western Front.
When we got to the ambulances, we heard about a recent gas attack. A huge, greenish cloud of smoke with a yellowish top had rolled down from the German trenches. Only sixty men out of a thousand survived the attack. Later, I saw some of those who had been affected. Two of them were still conscious but gasping for breath, their faces discoloured, and they were about to die. I hoped they didn't have long to wait, poor chaps. Then we saw many of the severely gassed men who had arrived at the hospital this morning. It was a terrible business. One man's face was dark blue and with every cough, he coughed up a thick stream of discoloured phlegm. He was too busy struggling to breathe to bother much about anything else - a most horrible form of death.
Source B: A photograph taken in 1918. It shows British troops waiting for treatment at an Advanced Dressing Station, after a gas attack.​