The use of mustard gas in the First World War. Tears before death
World War I was rich in technical innovations, but, perhaps, none of them has acquired such an ominous halo as a gas weapon. Poisonous substances have become a symbol of senseless slaughter, and all those who have been under chemical attack will forever remember the horror of the deadly clouds creeping into the trenches. World War I was a real benefit gas weapons: they managed to apply 40 different types poisonous substances, from which 1.2 million people suffered and up to a hundred thousand more died.
By the beginning of the World War, chemical weapons were almost non-existent in service. The French and the British had already experimented with tear gas rifle grenades, the Germans had filled 105-mm howitzer shells with tear gas, but these innovations had no effect. Gas from German shells, and even more so from French grenades, instantly dissipated in the open air. The first chemical attacks of the First World War were not widely known, but soon combat chemistry had to be taken much more seriously.
At the end of March 1915, German soldiers captured by the French began to report: gas cylinders were delivered to the positions. One of them even had a respirator captured. The reaction to this information was surprisingly nonchalant. The command just shrugged and did nothing to protect the troops. Furthermore, French general Edmond Ferry, who had warned his neighbors of the threat and dispersed his subordinates, lost his post due to panic. Meanwhile, the threat of chemical attacks grew ever more real. The Germans were ahead of other countries in the development of a new type of weapon. After experimenting with projectiles, the idea arose to use cylinders. The Germans planned a private offensive in the area of the city of Ypres. The commander of the corps, to whose front the cylinders were delivered, was honestly informed that he should "exclusively test the new weapon." to serious effect gas attacks German command didn't really believe. The attack was postponed several times: the wind in the right direction stubbornly did not blow.
On April 22, 1915, at 17:00, the Germans released chlorine from 5,700 cylinders at once. Observers saw two curious yellow-green clouds, which were pushed by a light wind towards the Entente trenches. The German infantry moved behind the clouds. Soon the gas began to flow into the French trenches.
The effect of gas poisoning was terrifying. Chlorine affects the respiratory tract and mucous membranes, causes burns to the eyes and, if inhaled heavily, leads to death by suffocation. However, the most powerful was the psychological impact. French colonial troops, hit by a blow, fled in droves.
Within a short time, more than 15 thousand people were out of action, of which 5 thousand lost their lives. The Germans, however, did not take full advantage of the devastating effect of the new weapons. For them, it was just an experiment, and they were not preparing for a real breakthrough. In addition, the advancing German infantrymen themselves received poisoning. Finally, the resistance was not broken: the arriving Canadians soaked handkerchiefs, scarves, blankets in puddles - and breathed through them. If there was no puddle, they urinated themselves. The action of chlorine was thus greatly weakened. Nevertheless, the Germans made significant progress on this sector of the front - despite the fact that in a positional war, each step was usually given with huge blood and great labors. In May, the French had already received the first respirators, and the effectiveness of gas attacks decreased.
Soon chlorine was also used on the Russian front near Bolimov. Here, too, events developed dramatically. Despite the chlorine flowing into the trenches, the Russians did not run, and although almost 300 people died from the gas right on the position, and more than two thousand received poisoning of varying severity after the first attack, the German offensive ran into stiff resistance and broke. A cruel twist of fate: gas masks were ordered from Moscow and arrived at the positions just a few hours after the battle.
Soon a real "gas race" began: the parties constantly increased the number of chemical attacks and their power: they experimented with a variety of suspensions and methods of their application. At the same time, the mass introduction of gas masks into the troops began. The first gas masks were extremely imperfect: it was difficult to breathe in them, especially on the run, and the glasses quickly fogged up. Nevertheless, even under such conditions, even in clouds of gas with an additionally limited view, hand-to-hand combat occurred. One of the British soldiers managed to kill or seriously injure dozens in turn in a gas cloud. German soldiers, making his way into the trench. He approached them from the side or from behind, and the Germans simply did not see the attacker until the butt fell on their heads.
The gas mask has become one of the key items of equipment. On leaving he was thrown into last turn. True, this did not always help either: sometimes the concentration of the gas turned out to be too high and people died even in gas masks.
But unusual effective way fires turned out to be a protection: waves of hot air dissipated clouds of gas quite successfully. In September 1916, during a German gas attack, a Russian colonel took off his mask to give orders by telephone and lit a fire right at the entrance to his own dugout. In the end, he spent the entire fight yelling commands, at the cost of only a slight poisoning.
The method of gas attack was most often quite simple. A liquid poison was sprayed through the hoses from the cylinders, passed in the open air into gaseous state and, driven by the wind, crawled to the position of the enemy. Troubles occurred regularly: when the wind changed, their own soldiers were poisoned.
Often the gas attack was combined with conventional shelling. Let's say during Brusilov offensive the Russians silenced the Austrian batteries with a combination of chemical and conventional shells. From time to time, attempts were even made to attack with several gases at once: one was supposed to cause irritation through a gas mask and force the affected enemy to tear off the mask and expose himself to another cloud - suffocating.
Chlorine, phosgene, and other asphyxiating gases had one fatal flaw as weapons: they required the enemy to inhale them.
In the summer of 1917, under the long-suffering Ypres, a gas was used, which was named after this city - mustard gas. Its feature was the effect on the skin bypassing the gas mask. When exposed to unprotected skin, mustard gas caused severe chemical burns, necrosis, and traces of it remained for life. For the first time, the Germans fired shells with mustard gas on the British military who had concentrated before the attack. Thousands of people received terrible burns, and many soldiers did not even have gas masks. In addition, the gas proved to be very stable and continued to poison anyone who entered its area of action for several days. Fortunately, the Germans did not have sufficient supplies of this gas, as well as protective clothing, to attack through the poisoned zone. During the attack on the city of Armantere, the Germans filled it with mustard gas so that the gas literally flowed through the streets in rivers. The British retreated without a fight, but the Germans were unable to enter the town.
The Russian army marched in line: immediately after the first cases of the use of gas, the development of protective equipment began. At first, protective equipment did not shine with variety: gauze, rags soaked in a hyposulfite solution.
However, already in June 1915, Nikolai Zelinsky developed a very successful gas mask based on activated carbon. Already in August, Zelinsky presented his invention - a full-fledged gas mask, complemented by a rubber helmet designed by Edmond Kummant. The gas mask protected the entire face and was made from a single piece of high-quality rubber. In March 1916, its production began. Zelinsky's gas mask protected not only the respiratory tract from poisonous substances, but also the eyes and face.
The most famous incident involving the use of military gases on the Russian front refers precisely to the situation when Russian soldiers did not have gas masks. This, of course, is about the battle on August 6, 1915 in the Osovets fortress. During this period, Zelensky's gas mask was still being tested, and the gases themselves were a fairly new type of weapon. Osovets was attacked already in September 1914, however, despite the fact that this fortress is small and not the most perfect, it stubbornly resisted. On August 6, the Germans used shells with chlorine from gas-balloon batteries. A two-kilometer wall of gas first killed the forward posts, then the cloud began to cover the main positions. The garrison got poisoned varying degrees gravity is almost overwhelming.
But then something happened that no one could have expected. First, the attacking German infantry was partially poisoned by their own cloud, and then already dying people began to resist. One of the machine gunners, already swallowing gas, fired several tapes at the attackers before dying. The culmination of the battle was a bayonet counterattack by a detachment of the Zemlyansky regiment. This group was not at the epicenter of the gas cloud, but everyone got poisoned. The Germans did not flee immediately, but they were psychologically unprepared to fight at a moment when all their opponents, it would seem, should have already died under a gas attack. "Attack of the Dead" demonstrated that even in the absence of full-fledged protection, gas does not always give the expected effect.
As a means of murder, gas had obvious advantages, but by the end of the First World War, it did not look like such a formidable weapon. modern armies already at the end of the war, losses from chemical attacks were seriously reduced, often reducing them to almost zero. As a result, already in World War II, gases became exotic.
On the night of July 12-13, 1917 german army during World War I, was the first to use the poisonous gas mustard gas (liquid poisonous substance blister action). The Germans used mines, which contained an oily liquid, as a carrier of a poisonous substance. This event took place near the Belgian city of Ypres. The German command planned to disrupt the offensive of the Anglo-French troops with this attack. At the first application of mustard gas lesions varying degrees 2490 military personnel received gravity, of which 87 died. British scientists quickly deciphered the formula for this OB. However, it was only in 1918 that the production of a new poisonous substance was launched. As a result, the Entente managed to use mustard gas for military purposes only in September 1918 (2 months before the armistice).
Mustard gas has a pronounced local effect: OM affects the organs of vision and respiration, the skin and the gastrointestinal tract. The substance, absorbed into the blood, poisons the entire body. Mustard gas affects the skin of a person when exposed, both in a droplet and in a vapor state. From exposure to mustard gas, the usual summer and winter outfit the soldier was not protected, like almost all types of civilian clothing.
From drops and vapors of mustard gas, ordinary summer and winter army uniforms do not protect the skin, like almost any type of civilian clothing. Full-fledged protection of soldiers from mustard gas did not exist in those years, so its use on the battlefield was effective until the very end of the war. the first world war they even called it the "war of chemists", because neither before nor after this war, OM was used in such quantities as in 1915-1918. During this war, the fighting armies used 12,000 tons of mustard gas, which affected up to 400,000 people. In total, during the years of the First World War, more than 150 thousand tons of poisonous substances (irritant and tear gases, skin blister agents) were produced. The leader in the use of OM was the German Empire, which has a first-class chemical industry. In total, more than 69 thousand tons of poisonous substances were produced in Germany. Germany was followed by France (37.3 thousand tons), Great Britain (25.4 thousand tons), USA (5.7 thousand tons), Austria-Hungary (5.5 thousand), Italy (4.2 thousand . tons) and Russia (3.7 thousand tons).
"Attack of the Dead". The Russian army suffered the largest losses among all participants in the war from the effects of OM. The German army was the first to use poison gases as mass destruction on a large scale during the First World War against Russia. On August 6, 1915, the German command used the OV to destroy the garrison of the Osovets fortress. The Germans deployed 30 gas batteries, several thousand cylinders, and on August 6, at 4 am, a dark green fog of a mixture of chlorine and bromine flowed onto the Russian fortifications, reaching the positions in 5-10 minutes. A gas wave 12-15 m high and up to 8 km wide penetrated to a depth of 20 km. The defenders of the Russian fortress did not have any means of protection. All living things were poisoned.
Following the gas wave and the fire shaft (German artillery opened massive fire), 14 Landwehr battalions (about 7 thousand infantrymen) went on the offensive. After a gas attack and an artillery strike, no more than a company of half-dead soldiers, poisoned with OM, remained in the advanced Russian positions. It seemed that Osovets was already in German hands. However, the Russian soldiers showed another miracle. When the German chains approached the trenches, they were attacked by Russian infantry. It was a real “attack of the dead”, the spectacle was terrible: Russian soldiers marched into the bayonet with their faces wrapped in rags, shaking from a terrible cough, literally spitting out pieces of their lungs onto their bloodied uniforms. It was only a few dozen fighters - the remnants of the 13th company of the 226th Zemlyansky Infantry Regiment. The German infantry fell into such horror that they could not withstand the blow and ran. Russian batteries opened fire on the fleeing enemy, which, as it seemed, had already died. It should be noted that the defense of the Osovets fortress is one of the brightest, heroic pages of the First World War. The fortress, despite the brutal shelling from heavy guns and the assaults of the German infantry, held out from September 1914 to August 22, 1915.
Russian empire in pre-war period was a leader in various "peace initiatives". Therefore, it did not have in its arsenals OV, means of counteracting such types of weapons, did not conduct serious research work in this direction. In 1915, the Chemical Committee had to be urgently established and the issue of developing technologies and large-scale production of poisonous substances was urgently raised. In February 1916, the production of hydrocyanic acid was organized at Tomsk University by local scientists. By the end of 1916, production was also organized in the European part of the empire, and the problem was generally resolved. By April 1917, the industry had produced hundreds of tons of poisonous substances. However, they remained unclaimed in warehouses.
First use cases chemical weapons into World War I
The 1st Hague Conference in 1899, which was convened at the initiative of Russia, adopted a declaration on the non-use of projectiles that spread asphyxiating or harmful gases. However, during the First World War, this document did not prevent the great powers from using the OV, including en masse.
In August 1914, the French were the first to use tear irritants (they did not cause death). The carriers were grenades filled with tear gas (ethyl bromoacetate). Soon his supplies ran out, and french army started using chloracetone. In October 1914 German troops used artillery shells partially filled with a chemical irritant, against English positions on the Neuve Chapelle. However, the concentration of OM was so low that the result was barely noticeable.
On April 22, 1915, the German army used chemical agents against the French, spraying 168 tons of chlorine near the river. Ypres. The Entente Powers immediately declared that Berlin had violated the principles international law, but German government parried this accusation. The Germans stated that the Hague Convention only prohibited the use of shells with explosive agents, but not gases. After that, attacks using chlorine began to be used regularly. In 1915, French chemists synthesized phosgene (a colorless gas). It has become a more effective agent, having greater toxicity than chlorine. Phosgene has been used in pure form and mixed with chlorine to increase gas mobility.
The first gas attack in World War I was, in short, organized by the French. But poisonous substances were first used by the German military.
By virtue of various reasons, in particular the use of new types of weapons, the First World War, which was planned to end in a few months, quickly escalated into a positional, "trench" conflict. Similar fighting could go on for as long as you like. In order to somehow change the situation and lure the enemy out of the trenches and break through the front, all kinds of chemical weapons began to be used.
It was gases that became one of the reasons huge amount casualties in the First World War.
First experience
Already in August 1914, almost in the first days of the war, the French in one of the battles used grenades filled with ethyl bromoacetate (tear gas). They did not cause poisoning, but for some time they were able to disorient the enemy. In fact, this was the first combat gas attack.
After the reserves of this gas were depleted, French troops started using chloroacetate.
The Germans, who very quickly adopted innovate experience and what could contribute to the implementation of their plans, they took this method of fighting the enemy into service. In October of the same year, they tried to use chemical irritant shells against the British military near the village of Neuve Chapelle. But the low concentration of the substance in the shells did not give the expected effect.
From annoying to poisonous
April 22, 1915. This day, in short, went down in history as one of the darkest days of the First World War. It was then that the German troops carried out the first mass gas attack using not an irritant, but a poisonous substance. Now their goal was not to disorientate and immobilize the enemy, but to destroy him.
It happened on the banks of the river Ypres. 168 tons of chlorine were released by the German military into the air, towards the location of the French troops. A poisonous greenish cloud, followed by German soldiers in special gauze bandages, horrified the Franco-English army. Many fled, giving up their positions without a fight. Others, inhaling the poisoned air, fell dead. As a result, more than 15,000 people were injured that day, 5,000 of whom died, and a gap more than 3 km wide was formed in the front. True, the Germans could not take advantage of the advantage gained. Afraid to advance, having no reserves, they allowed the British and French to re-fill the gap.
After that, the Germans repeatedly tried to repeat their so successful first experience. However, none of the subsequent gas attacks brought such an effect and so many victims, since now all troops were supplied with personal protective equipment against gases.
In response to Germany's actions at Ypres, the entire world community immediately protested, but it was no longer possible to stop the use of gases.
On the Eastern front, the Germans also did not fail to use their new weapons against the Russian army. It happened on the river Ravka. As a result of a gas attack, about 8,000 Russian soldiers were poisoned here. imperial army, more than a quarter of them died from poisoning in the next day after the attack.
It is noteworthy that at first sharply condemning Germany, after some time almost all Entente countries began to use chemical poisonous substances.
The First World War was on. On the evening of April 22, 1915, German and French troops opposing each other were near the Belgian city of Ypres. They fought for the city for a long time and to no avail. But this evening the Germans wanted to test a new weapon - poison gas. They brought thousands of cylinders with them, and when the wind blew towards the enemy, they opened the taps, releasing 180 tons of chlorine into the air. A yellowish gas cloud was carried by the wind towards the enemy line.
The panic began. Submerged in a gas cloud french soldiers blind, coughing and suffocating. Three thousand of them died of asphyxiation, another seven thousand were burned.
"At this point, science lost its innocence," says science historian Ernst Peter Fischer. In his words, if before that the purpose of scientific research was to alleviate the conditions of people's lives, now science has created conditions that make it easier to kill a person.
"In the war - for the fatherland"
A way to use chlorine for military purposes was developed by the German chemist Fritz Haber. He is considered the first scientist who subordinated scientific knowledge military needs. Fritz Haber discovered that chlorine is an extremely poisonous gas, which, thanks to its high density concentrated low above the ground. He knew that this gas causes severe swelling of the mucous membranes, coughing, suffocation, and ultimately leads to death. In addition, the poison was cheap: chlorine is found in the waste chemical industry.
"Haber's motto was "In the world - for humanity, in the war - for the fatherland," Ernst Peter Fischer quotes the then head of the chemical department of the Prussian War Ministry. - Then there were other times. Everyone was trying to find poison gas that they could use in war And only the Germans succeeded."
The Ypres attack was a war crime - as early as 1915. After all, the Hague Convention of 1907 prohibited the use of poison and poisoned weapons for military purposes.
Arms race
The "success" of Fritz Haber's military innovation became contagious, and not only for the Germans. Simultaneously with the war of states, the "war of chemists" also began. Scientists were tasked with creating chemical weapons that would be ready for use as soon as possible. "Abroad, they looked with envy at Haber," says Ernst Peter Fischer, "Many people wanted to have such a scientist in their country." In 1918, Fritz Haber received Nobel Prize in chemistry. True, not for the discovery of poisonous gas, but for his contribution to the implementation of the synthesis of ammonia.
The French and British also experimented with poisonous gases. The use of phosgene and mustard gas, often in combination with each other, became widespread in the war. And yet the poison gases had no effect decisive role at the end of the war: it was possible to use this weapon only in favorable weather.
scary mechanism
Nevertheless, a terrible mechanism was launched in the First World War, and Germany became its engine.
The chemist Fritz Haber not only laid the foundation for the use of chlorine for military purposes, but also, thanks to his good connections in the industry, contributed to the establishment mass production this chemical weapon. For example, the German chemical concern BASF produced poisonous substances in large quantities during the First World War.
Already after the war with the creation of the IG Farben concern in 1925, Haber joined its supervisory board. Later, during National Socialism, a subsidiary of IG Farben produced the "cyclone B" used in gas chambers concentration camps.
Context
Fritz Haber himself could not have foreseen this. "He's a tragic figure," Fischer says. In 1933, Haber, a Jew by origin, emigrated to England, expelled from his country, in the service of which he placed his scientific knowledge.
Red line
In total, more than 90 thousand soldiers died on the fronts of the First World War from the use of poison gases. Many died of complications a few years after the end of the war. In 1905, the members of the League of Nations, which included Germany, under the Geneva Protocol pledged not to use chemical weapons. Meanwhile Scientific research on the use of poisonous gases were continued, mainly under the guise of developing means to combat harmful insects.
"Cyclone B" - hydrocyanic acid - an insecticidal agent. "Agent orange" - a substance for deleafing plants. The Americans used defoliant during the Vietnam War to thin out local dense vegetation. As a consequence - poisoned soil, numerous diseases and genetic mutations at the population. Last example use of chemical weapons - Syria.
"You can do whatever you want with poisonous gases, but they can't be used as a target weapon," emphasizes science historian Fisher. “Everyone who is nearby becomes a victim.” The fact that the use of poisonous gas is still “a red line that cannot be crossed” is correct, he considers: “Otherwise, the war becomes even more inhuman than it already is.”
Chemical weapons are one of the main ones in the First World War and in total about the 20th century. The lethal potential of the gas was limited - only 4% of deaths from total affected. However, the proportion of non-fatal cases was high, and the gas remained one of the main hazards to soldiers. Since it became possible to develop effective countermeasures against gas attacks, unlike most other weapons of this period, in the later stages of the war its effectiveness began to decline, and it almost fell out of circulation. But due to the fact that toxic substances were first used in the First World War, it was also sometimes called the war of chemists.
History of poison gases
1914
At the beginning of use chemical substances tear irritant preparations were used as weapons, and not with fatal. During the First World War, the French became the first to use gas using 26 mm grenades filled with tear gas (ethyl bromoacetate) in August 1914. However, the Allied stocks of bromoacetate quickly ran out, and the French administration replaced it with another agent, chloroacetone. In October 1914, German troops opened fire with shells partially filled with a chemical irritant against British positions on the Neuve Chapelle, despite the concentration achieved being so low as to be barely noticeable.
1915 Widespread deadly gases
On May 5, 90 people immediately died in the trenches; out of 207 field hospitals 46 died on the same day, and 12 - after prolonged torment.
On July 12, 1915, near the Belgian city of Ypres, Anglo-French troops were fired upon by mines containing an oily liquid. So for the first time, mustard gas was used by Germany.
Notes
Links
- De-Lazari Alexander Nikolaevich. Chemical weapons on the fronts of the World War 1914-1918.
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