Battery of Livens Projectors

Battery of Livens Projectors at Hanlon experimental testing field near Chau-mont, Prance, 1918. 

Meanwhile in France, Col. Amos A. Fries, head of the AEF Gas Service, had obtained permission from the French Government to convert a former research laboratory for tuberculosis at Puteaux, near Paris, into a chemical warfare laboratory. In January 1918 Colonel Bacon, accompanied by a small group of chemists, arrived from the United States to head the laboratory. Since it wotdd take several months for the equipment 

General Pershing established the Gas Service to supervise chemical warfere activity in the AEF. AEF GO 31, 3 Sep 17. 

Coupled to the Paris Laboratory was a field for experimental work and for training officers in gas warfare. Colonel Fries had asked for such an experimental field in December 1917. Receiving permission, he chose an area cov- 

Finally on 11 May 1918 the War Department placed Maj. Gen. William L. Sibert at the head of the Gas Service, and instructed him to 

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Being electrically fired, a battery of Livens projectors required extensive preparation and could not be moved once set up. Normally, a battery could only be emplaced and fired once a day. This limited mobility required the element of surprise to prevent the Germans from taking counter actions. 

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