Historians of the First World War have often dismissed the important role of poison gas in the battles of the Western Front. In No Place to Run, however, Tim Cook shows that the serious threat of gas did not disappear with the introduction of gas masks. By 1918, gas shells were used by all armies to deluge the battlefield, and many soldiers were exposed to this new chemical plague.

Cook uses fascinating primary sources ? diaries, letters, reminiscences, published memoirs, and the official archival record ? to illustrate the horror of gas warfare for the average trench soldier....