World War I chemical warfare agents

1914

At the beginning of World War I, chemicals of an irritating, rather than lethal, nature were used. The first in August 1914, they were used by the French: they were 26 mm grenades filled with tear gas ( ethyl bromoacetate ). But the allied stocks of ethyl bromoacetate quickly came to an end, and the French administration replaced it with another agent - chloroacetone . In October 1914, German troops fired shells, partially filled with a chemical irritant, against the British at the Battle of Nev-Chapelle , but the gas concentration achieved was small, so that its effect was barely noticeable.

1915: Widespread Fatal Gases

At the end of January 1915, Germany used tear gas against Russia at the Battle of Bolimov .

The first deadly gas used by the German military was chlorine . The German chemical companies BASF, Hoechst and Bayer (which formed the IG Farben conglomerate in 1925) produced chlorine as a by-product of the production of dyes. In collaboration with Fritz Gaber of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, they began developing methods for using chlorine against enemy soldiers in trenches.

On April 22, 1915, the German army sprayed 168 tons of chlorine near the Belgian city of Ypres . The attack began at 17:00, when a weak east wind blew. Gas began to move towards the French position in the form of yellowish-green clouds. It should be noted that the German infantry also suffered from gas and, lacking sufficient reinforcements, could not use the advantage gained until the arrival of British-Canadian forces. The Entente immediately stated that Germany violated the principles of international law, but Berlin countered this statement by the fact that the Hague Convention prohibited only the use of chemical shells, but not gases.

After the battle of Ypres, poisonous gases were used by Germany several times: on April 24 against the 1st Canadian Division, on May 2 near the Mousetrap Farm, on May 5 against the British and on August 6 against the defenders of the Russian fortress Osovets . On May 5, immediately 90 people died in the trenches; Of the 207 who were in field hospitals, 46 died on the same day, and 12 later, after prolonged torment. However, the action of gases against the Russian army was not effective enough: despite serious losses, the Russian army drove the Germans away from Osovets. A counterattack of the Russian troops was described in Russian journalism as an “ attack of the dead ”: according to many historians and witnesses of those battles, the Russian soldiers alone shocked and shocked the German soldiers:

“All living creatures in the open air on the bridgehead of the fortress were poisoned to death, serf artillery suffered heavy losses during the shooting; people not participating in the battle escaped to the barracks, shelters, apartment buildings, locking doors and windows tightly, dousing them with plenty of water.
At 12 km from the place of gas production, in the villages of Ovechka, Zhodzi, Malaya Kramkovka, 18 people were seriously poisoned; cases of poisoning of animals are known - horses and cows. At the Monki station, located 18 km from the place of gas release, no cases of poisoning were observed.
Gas stagnated in the forest and near the water ditches, a small grove 2 km from the fortress along the highway to Bialystok was impassable until 16 o’clock. August 6th.
All the greens in the fortress and in the immediate vicinity along the gas flow path were destroyed, the leaves on the trees turned yellow, curled up and fell off, the grass turned black and lay on the ground, flower petals flew around.
All copper objects on the bridgehead of the fortress - parts of guns and shells, wash basins, tanks, etc. - were covered with a thick green layer of chlorine oxide; "food items stored without hermetic closure - meat, oil, lard, vegetables, were poisoned and unsuitable for consumption."

- S. A. Khmelkov “The struggle for the Osovets”

“The semi-poisoned ones wandered back, - this is already another author, - and, languishing with thirst, bent down to the sources of water, but here at low places the gases lingered, and the second poisoning led to death."

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1915: Toxic Gases

The shortcomings of chlorine as chemical weapons were overcome with the use of phosgene , which was synthesized by a group of French chemists led by Victor Grignard and first used by France in 1915. Colorless gas with a faint smell of moldy hay - phosgene - was harder to detect than chlorine, which made it a more effective weapon. Phosgene was used in its pure form, but more often in a mixture with chlorine - to increase the mobility of heavier phosgene. The Allies called this mixture “White Star”, since the shells with this mixture were marked accordingly.

Phosgene as a combat gas surpassed chlorine in greater toxicity . A potential disadvantage of phosgene was that the symptoms of poisoning sometimes occurred only 24 hours after inhalation. This made it possible for the poisoned soldiers to continue fighting for some time, although the next day they would either die or become disabled.

1917: mustard gas (mustard gas)

On July 12, 1917, at the same Ypres, Anglo-French troops were fired upon by mines containing oily liquid. This was Germany's first use of mustard gas .

Immediately after the first applications, it became obvious that those who did not sit in the trench, but were on any elevation, received less poisoning, because chlorine is heavier than air and it sinks to the ground, accumulating there in a higher concentration. Those who lie on the ground or on a stretcher are especially affected.

Chlorine, however, was not as effective as the Germans believed, because already after the first applications against it began to use protective equipment. Chlorine has a specific odor and bright green color, which makes it quite easily detectable. The gas is soluble in water, so the easiest and most effective way to protect against it was to cover your face with a damp cloth. It was also believed ^{[by whom? ]} that it is more efficient to use urine instead of water, because ammonia neutralizes free chlorine by the reaction: NH ₃ + Cl ₂ → HCl + NH4Cl (it was probably not then known that chlorine and ammonia compounds, in turn, can produce toxic gases )

To obtain a lethal dose, a concentration of chlorine of 1 per 1000 is needed; getting into the respiratory tract, chlorine reacts with the moisture of the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, forming hydrochloric and hypochlorous acids (which are further decomposed with the release of active oxygen ). Despite its shortcomings, chlorine was an effective type of psychological weapon; the infantry fled in panic from only one type of green chlorine cloud.

After chlorine attacks, anti-chemical measures were developed and carried out. In German troops, soldiers began to distribute cotton-gauze respirators and bottles of soda solution. Instructions on the use of wet tissue dressings on the face during a gas attack were sent to the Entente troops.

In the UK, the Daily Mail called on women to manufacture cotton respirators, and within a month various respirators became available to the British and French troops, along with car glasses for eye protection. By July 6, 1915 the entire British army was equipped with a much more efficient smoke helmet created by Major Clany MacPherson of the Newfoundland Regiment, consisting of a flannel bag with a celluloid window that completely covers the head. The race between the introduction of new, more effective toxic gases and the development of adequate countermeasures, called the "gas war", continued until November 1918.

Britain expressed clear resentment that Germany used poisonous gases on Ypres. One of the commanders of the British forces, Lieutenant-General Ferguson called the behavior of Germany cowardice. Here are his words: "However, if the British want to win this war, they must destroy the enemy, and if he acts dishonestly, then why not use his method."

The British first used chlorine at the Battle of Loos on September 25, 1915, but this attempt turned against the British themselves. The successful use of chlorine requires a favorable wind blowing towards the enemy, but the wind that day was changeable - the gas was transported a short distance and remained between the positions of the opponents, and in some places was assigned back to the British positions.

The British army realized the need for gas attacks and conducted them in large numbers, and in 1917 and 1918 it was ahead of the German army. By this time, the military industry of the Entente countries produced a greater number of chemical warfare agents than the German one. German industry could not compensate for this lag even with the release of new, more toxic gases, since the production of the latter was more expensive. With the entry into the US war, the release of mustard gas by the Entente industry became much more German. In addition, the prevailing wind direction on the Western Front of World War I was from the west, which gave England an advantage in organizing gas attacks.

The issue of the production and use of chemical weapons was first raised by the Special Administrative Commission on the Artillery Unit on March 4, 1915. The proposal was rejected by the Supreme Commander for ethical reasons. However, the successful experience of using OMs by German troops forced us to reconsider this point of view. On June 2, 1915, our top general NN Yanushkevich ordered the start of work on the creation of chemical munitions and the supply of troops to them. On August 3, there was an order to form a special commission for the preparation of asphyxiating materials at the Main Artillery Directorate (GAU) , chaired by the head of the Central Scientific and Technical Laboratory of the military department.

In 1915, a chemical production deployment program was implemented in Russia, coordinated by Gen. Leith., Acad. V.N. Ipatiev . The rapid increase in output in the coke and basic chemical industries made it possible to alleviate the crisis and produce chemical weapons on a large scale. In August 1915, the first industrial chlorine was produced; in October, phosgene production began. In February 1916, the production of hydrocyanic acid was organized by local scientists at Tomsk University ^[1] .

By the autumn of 1916, the army’s requirements for 76-mm chemical shells were fully satisfied: the army received 5 parks (15,000 shells) every month, including 1 poisonous park and 4 strangulation. At the beginning of 1917, 107-mm cannon and 152-mm howitzer chemical shells were developed and prepared for use in combat conditions. In the spring of 1917, chemical munitions for mortars and hand-held chemical grenades began to enter the troops.

On a large scale, chemical weapons were used by the Russian army in the summer of 1916 during the Brusilovsky breakthrough . 76-mm shells with strangulation agents ( chloropicrin ) and poisonous (phosgene, vensinite ^[2] ) OM showed high efficiency in suppressing enemy artillery batteries. The field general inspector of artillery telegraphed to the chief of the GAU that in the May and June offensive of 1916, chemical 76-mm shells "did a great service to the army."

In addition to combating enemy artillery, where chemical shells were particularly effective, the tactics of using chemical weapons by the Russian army involved the use of chemical shells as an aid in order to force the enemy to leave cover and make it accessible to conventional artillery fire. Combined attacks were also carried out: the creation of a gas wave (gas-balloon attack) and the shelling of targets not affected by it with chemical shells ^[3] .

Their development, as a rule, was carried out in an atmosphere of strict secrecy.

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• De Lazari Alexander Nikolaevich. Chemical weapons on the fronts of the world war 1914-1918