The attack at Ypres on 22 April 1915 was the first successful instance of gas warfare during the First World War. After these experiences, the Germans worked to innovate new methods of delivering poison gas. In both cases the chemical agents in the weapons were ineffective. The Germans developed and manufactured artillery shells filled with tear gas and other chemical irritants and used them first against the British at Neuve-Chapelle in October 1914 (not to be confused with the more famous battle fought there in March 1915) and then against the Russians at Bolimów in January 1915. However, it was the German gas warfare program that achieved the earliest success. In the early months of the war the British also researched the weaponized use of tear gas agents and more toxic gasses including sulfur dioxide. The French army used rifle grenades filled with tear gas against the Germans beginning in August 1914, but the weapons proved extremely ineffective. Official figures declare about 1,176,500 non-fatal casualties and 85,000 fatalities directly caused by chemical warfare agents during the course of the war.The introduction of gas warfare during the First World War was anticipated insofar as the Hague Peace Conference of 1899 admonished nations “to abstain from the use of projectiles the object of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or deleterious gasses.” The scientific and industrial assets available to the belligerent nations, which sought to use their national resources for strategic advantage, made possible the mass-production of gas weapons. A total of 50,965 tons of pulmonary, lachrymatory, and vesicant agents were deployed by both sides of the conflict, including chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas. The first full-scale deployment of deadly chemical warfare agents during World War I, was at the Second Battle of Ypres, on April 22, 1915, when the Germans attacked French, Canadian, and Algerian troops with chlorine gas.ĭeaths were light, though casualties were relatively heavy. Germany used another irritant, xylyl bromide, in artillery shells that were fired in January 1915 at the Russians near the town of Bolimów, nowadays in Poland. One of Germany’s earliest uses of chemical weapons occurred on October 27th, 1914 when shells containing the irritant dianisidine chlorosulfonate were fired at British troops near Neuve-Chapelle, France. The French were the first to use chemical weapons during the Great War, using tear gases, ethyl bromoacetate, and chloroacetone. The Hague Declaration of 1899 and the Hague Convention of 1907 forbade the use of “poison or poisonous weapons” in warfare, yet more than 124,000 tons of gas were produced by the end of World War I. The canaries were used to detect poisonous gas, and cats and dogs were trained to hunt rats in the trenches. Horses, donkeys, mules, and camels carried food, water, ammunition, and medical supplies to men at the front, and dogs and pigeons carried messages. However, animals remained a crucial part of the war effort. Horse and camel-mounted troops were used in the desert campaigns throughout the war, but on the Western Front, new weapons like the machine gun made cavalry charges increasingly difficult. In 1914, both sides had large cavalry forces. For years few knew of the unimaginable suffering of the beasts transported across the Channel to the Western Front. This is the forgotten tragedy of the Great War – a conflict that pitched as many animals into the line of fire as it did humans. Of the million British horses sent overseas to help with the war effort, only 62,000 returned home. Horses were equipped with gas masks over their muzzles and were protected from inhalation of poison gases such as phosgene.Įquine eyes were not affected by lachrymatory agents so that their masks consisted only of specially made nose bags but, unfortunately, these animal’s eyes were vulnerable to the effects of chlorine and vesicatory gases. Horses, mules, dogs, and pigeons were vulnerable to poison gases so that special protection was necessary for them. Many animals were used during World War One. Two German soldiers and their mule wearing gas masks in World War One, 1916
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |