The German gas attack in the early hours of May 24, was described as being about three miles long and forty feet deep. The Allied troops in the trenches had little hope of escape. The 2nd Battalion of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers were serving at the front that night. The gas bleached the grass, blighted the trees and left a 'broad scar of destruction in its wake'.

The Menin Gate Memorial in the city of Ypres, records the 54,000 men who died in the Ypres Salient and have no known grave. 42 year old Peter McDonnell from Bride Street, Dublin, was killed in April 1915, his younger brothers, Patrick, aged 32 and John, only 22, died in the St. Julien gas attack on May 24, 1915.

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