In the early April morning of 1915, a gentle breeze blew from the German positions opposing the line of defense of the Entente forces twenty kilometers from the city of Ypres (Belgium). Together with him in the direction of the trenches of the Allies began to move suddenly appeared dense yellowish-green cloud. At that moment, few knew that it was a breath of death, and in the mean language of front-line reports, it was the first use of chemical weapons on the Western Front.
Tears before death
To be absolutely precise, the use of chemical weapons in World War I began as early as 1914, and the French launched this disastrous initiative. But then a tear gas of ethyl bromoacetate, which belongs to the group of irritating chemicals, and not lethal ones, was launched. They were filled with 26-mm grenades, which fired at the German trenches. When the supply of this gas came to an end, it was replaced by a similar chloroacetone.
In response, the Germans, who also did not consider themselves obligated to abide by the generally accepted legal norms enshrined in the Hague Convention, fired at the British with shells filled with chemical irritants at the Battle of Nev Chapelle in October of that year. However, then they failed to achieve its dangerous concentration.
Thus, in April 1915 was not the first case of the use of chemical weapons, but, unlike the previous ones, the deadly chlorine gas was used to destroy the enemy’s manpower. The result of the attack was overwhelming. One hundred eighty tons of the sprayed poisonous substance claimed the lives of five thousand soldiers of the allied forces and another ten thousand became disabled as a result of the poisoning. By the way, the Germans themselves suffered. The cloud that carries death in itself touched its edge with their edge, the defenders of which were not fully provided with gas masks. In the history of the war, this episode was designated "the black day of Ypres."
Further use of chemical weapons in World War I
Wanting to develop success, the Germans a week later in the Warsaw area repeated a chemical attack, this time against the Russian army. And here the abundant harvest went to death - more than one thousand two hundred dead and several thousand remaining crippled. Naturally, the Entente countries tried to protest against such a gross violation of the principles of international law, but Berlin cynically stated that the Hague Convention of 1896 mentioned only poisonous shells, and not gases in themselves. Admittedly, they did not try to object to them - war always crosses out the works of diplomats.
The specifics of that terrible war
As military historians have repeatedly emphasized, during World War I, tactics of positional actions were widely used, in which solid front lines were clearly defined, characterized by stability, density of concentration of troops and high engineering and technical support.
This greatly reduced the effectiveness of offensive operations, as both sides met resistance from the enemy’s powerful defense. The only way out of the deadlock could be an unconventional tactical solution, which was the first use of chemical weapons.
New War Crimes Page
The use of chemical weapons in the First World War was a major innovation. The range of its effects on humans was very wide. As can be seen from the above episodes of the First World War, it extended from the harmful, which caused chloroacetone, ethyl bromoacetate and a number of others, which had an irritating effect, to the deadly - phosgene, chlorine and mustard.
Despite the fact that statistics indicate a relative limitation of the lethal potential of the gas (only 5% of the total number of affected people), the number of dead and mutilated was huge. This gives the right to assert that the first use of chemical weapons has opened a new page in war crimes in the history of mankind.
At later stages of the war, both sides were able to develop and put into use fairly effective defenses against chemical attacks of the enemy. This made the use of toxic substances less effective, and gradually led to the abandonment of their use. However, it was precisely the period from 1914 to 1918 that went down in history as the “war of chemists", since the first use of chemical weapons in the world took place on the battlefields.
The tragedy of the defenders of the fortress Osovec
However, let us return to the chronicle of military operations of that period. In early May 1915, the Germans carried out a chemical attack directed against the Russian units defending the Osowiec fortress, located fifty kilometers from Bialystok (the current territory of Poland). According to eyewitnesses, after prolonged shelling of shells filled with deadly substances, among which several of their species were used at once, all living things were poisoned at a considerable distance.
Not only people and animals who fell into the shelling zone were killed, but all the vegetation was destroyed. The leaves of the trees turned yellow and crumbled before our eyes, and the grass blackened and lay on the ground. The picture was truly apocalyptic and did not fit into the consciousness of a normal person.
But the defenders of the citadel, of course, suffered the most. Even those who escaped death, for the most part, received severe chemical burns and were terribly mutilated. It is no coincidence that their appearance was so terrifying to the enemy that the counterattack of the Russians, who finally threw the enemy away from the fortress, entered the history of the war under the name "attack of the dead."
Phosgene development and use
The first use of chemical weapons revealed a significant number of its technical flaws, which were eliminated in 1915 by a group of French chemists led by Victor Grignard. The result of their research was a deadly gas of a new generation - phosgene.
Absolutely colorless, unlike the greenish-yellow chlorine, it showed out its presence only with a faint smell of moldy hay, which made it difficult to detect. Compared with its predecessor, the novelty was more toxic, but at the same time had certain disadvantages.
Symptoms of poisoning, and even the death of the victims, did not occur immediately, but a day after the gas entered the respiratory tract. This allowed the poisoned and often doomed soldiers to participate in hostilities for a long time. In addition, phosgene was very difficult, and to increase its mobility it was necessary to mix everything with the same chlorine. This hellish mixture received the name "White Star" from the Allies, as it was with this sign that the containers containing it were marked.
Devil's novelty
On the night of July 13, 1917, in the area of the Belgian city of Ypres, which had already gained notoriety, the Germans made the first use of chemical weapons of skin-boiling effect. At the place of its debut, it began to be called mustard gas. Its carriers were mines that sprayed a yellow oily liquid during an explosion.
The use of mustard gas, as well as the general use of chemical weapons in the First World War, was another diabolical innovation. This “achievement of civilization” was created to affect the skin, as well as the respiratory and digestive organs. Neither soldier uniforms, nor any types of civilian clothes saved him from his influence. He penetrated through any tissue.
In those years, any reliable means of protection against its getting on the body were not yet issued, which made the use of mustard gas quite effective until the end of the war. Already the first use of this substance, disabled two and a half thousand soldiers and officers of the enemy, of which a significant number died.
Gas not spreading on the ground
The development of mustard gas by German chemists was not accidental. The first use of chemical weapons on the Western Front showed that the substances used - chlorine and phosgene - had a common and very significant drawback. They were heavier than air, and therefore in a dispersed form fell down, filling with themselves trenches and all kinds of hollows. The people inside them were poisoned, but those who were on the hills at the time of the attack often remained unharmed.
It was necessary to invent a poisonous gas with a lower specific gravity and capable of hitting its victims at any level. They became the mustard gas that appeared in July 1917. It should be noted that British chemists quickly established its formula, and in 1918 launched a deadly weapon into production, but the ceasefire that followed two months later prevented large-scale use. Europe breathed a sigh of relief - ended, lasting four years, the First World War. The use of chemical weapons became irrelevant, and its development was temporarily stopped.
The beginning of the use of toxic substances by the Russian army
The first case of the use of chemical weapons by the Russian army dates back to 1915, when, under the leadership of Lieutenant General V.N. Ipatiev, a program for the production of this type of weapon in Russia was successfully implemented. However, its use was then in the nature of technical tests and did not pursue tactical goals. Only a year later, as a result of work on introducing into production the developments created in this area, the possibility of their application at the fronts appeared.
Full-scale use of military developments that came out of domestic laboratories began in the summer of 1916 during the famous Brusilovsky breakthrough. It is this event that makes it possible to determine the year of the first use of chemical weapons by the Russian army. It is known that during the combat operation artillery shells were used, stuffed with the choking gas chloropicrin and the poisonous ones - vencinite and phosgene. According to a report sent to the Main Artillery Directorate, the use of chemical weapons rendered "a great service to the army."
Dark statistics of war
The first use of chemical weapons of the First World War was a disastrous precedent. In subsequent years, its use not only expanded, but also underwent qualitative changes. Summing up the sad statistics of the four war years, historians say that during this period the warring parties produced at least 180 thousand tons of chemical weapons, of which at least 125 thousand tons were used. On the battlefields, 40 types of various toxic substances were tested, bringing death and injuries to the 1,300,000 military and civilians who ended up in their area of use.
Lesson Left Out
Has mankind learned a worthy lesson from the events of those years and has the date of the first use of chemical weapons become a black day in its history? Hardly. And today, in spite of international legal acts prohibiting the use of toxic substances, the arsenals of most states of the world are full of their modern developments, and more and more often reports appear in the press about its use in various parts of the world. Humanity is stubbornly moving along the path of self-destruction, ignoring the bitter experience of previous generations.