The first use of chemical weapons in the First World War

Early in the morning of April 1915, an easy breeze blew from the German positions opposing the line of defense of the Entente troops twenty kilometers from the town of Ypres (Belgium). Together with him, suddenly appeared dense yellowish-green cloud in the direction of the allies' trenches . At that time, very few people knew that it was the breath of death, and in the mean language of front-line reports - the first use of chemical weapons on the Western Front.

Tears that preceded death

To be absolutely accurate, the use of chemical weapons in the First World War began as early as 1914, and the French launched this pernicious initiative. But then a tear gas, ethyl bromoacetate, was used, which belongs to the group of chemicals of irritant action, and not lethal. They were filled with 26-millimeter grenades, which fired 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 obliged to comply with generally accepted legal norms enshrined in the Hague Convention, fired at the Battle of Nev-Chapel in October of the same year with shells filled with chemical irritants. However, then they failed to reach its dangerous concentration.

Thus, in April 1915 was not the first case of the use of chemical weapons, but, unlike the previous, for the destruction of the manpower of the enemy, lethal gas chlorine was used. The result of the attack was stunning. One hundred and eighty tons of atomized poisonous substance killed five thousand soldiers of the Allied forces and another ten thousand became invalids as a result of poisoning. By the way, the Germans themselves suffered. Bearing in itself the death cloud touched their edge of their position, the defenders of which were not fully provided with gas masks. In the history of the war, this episode was designated "a black day at Ypres."

Further use of chemical weapons in the First World War

Wishing to develop success, the Germans repeated a chemical attack in the Warsaw area a week later, this time against the Russian army. And here the death was given to the abundant harvest - more than a thousand two hundred dead and several thousand left 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 mentions only poisonous shells, and not gases in themselves. They did not try to object, they admit, the war always overthrows the works of diplomats.

Specificity of that terrible war

As was repeatedly stressed by military historians, a tactic of positional action was widely used in the First World War, where solid lines of the front were clearly marked, characterized by stability, density of concentration of troops and high engineering support.

This in many ways reduced the effectiveness of offensive operations, as both sides met resistance to the enemy's powerful defense. The only way out of the impasse was an unconventional tactical decision, which was the first use of chemical weapons.

A new page of war crimes

The use of chemical weapons in the First World War has become a major innovation. The range of his influence on man was very wide. As can be seen from the above episodes of the First World War, it stretched from the harmful that caused chloroacetone, ethyl bromoacetate and a number of others that had an irritating effect, to the deadly - phosgene, chlorine and mustard gas.

Despite the fact that the statistics testify to the relative limitations of the gas's mortal potential (of the total number of people affected - only 5% of deaths), the number of dead and mutilated was enormous. This gives the right to assert that the first use of chemical weapons opened a new page of war crimes in the history of mankind.

At later stages of the war, both sides were able to develop and introduce effective enough means of protection against chemical attacks by the enemy. This made the use of toxic agents less effective, and gradually led to the rejection of their use. However, it was the period from 1914 to 1918 that went down in history as a "war of chemists", as the first use of chemical weapons in the world occurred on the margins of its battles.

The tragedy of the defenders of the fortress Osovets

However, let us return to the chronicle of military operations of that period. In early May 1915, the Germans committed a chemical attack directed against the Russian units defending Osovets fortress, located fifty kilometers from Bialystok (present-day territory of Poland). According to eyewitnesses, after a long bombardment of shells, stuffed with deadly substances, among which several of their species were used at once, all living things at a considerable distance were poisoned.

They were killed not only by people and animals caught in the firing zone, but all vegetation was destroyed. The leaves of the trees gleamed yellow and crumbled, and the grass blackened and fell to the ground. The picture was truly apocalyptic and did not fit into the mind of a normal person.

But the defenders of the citadel, of course, suffered most of all. Even those who escaped death, in the majority received the strongest chemical burns and were terribly mutilated. It is no coincidence that their appearance caused such horror on the enemy that in the history of the war the counterattack of the Russians, who eventually threw the enemy away from the fortress, entered under the name "attack of the dead".

Development and use of phosgene

The first use of chemical weapons revealed a significant number of its technical shortcomings, which were eliminated in 1915 by a group of French chemists led by Victor Grignard. The result of their research was a new generation of deadly gas - phosgene.

Absolutely colorless, unlike the greenish-yellow chlorine, it gave out its presence only with a palpable smell of moldy hay, which made it difficult to detect it. Compared with its predecessor, the novelty had greater toxicity, but at the same time had some drawbacks.

Symptoms of poisoning, and even the death of the victims, did not come immediately, but a day after the gas hit the respiratory tract. This allowed the poisoned and often doomed to death soldiers for a long time to participate in hostilities. In addition, phosgene was very heavy, and to increase its mobility it was necessary to mix everything with the same chlorine. This infernal mixture was given to the Allies as the "White Star", since it was this sign that the cylinders containing it were labeled.

Devil's novelty

On the night of July 13, 1917, in the vicinity of the Belgian city of Ypres, which had already won glory, the Germans committed the first use of chemical weapons of blistering. In the place of its debut, it became known as mustard gas. Its carriers were mines that sprayed a yellow oily liquid during the explosion.

The use of mustard gas, as well as the use of chemical weapons in the First World War, was another diabolical innovation. This "achievement of civilization" was created to defeat the skin, as well as respiratory and digestive organs. From its impact, neither soldier's uniform nor any kinds of civilian clothes could save. It penetrated through any tissue.

In those years, there were still no reliable means of protection from getting into the body, which made the use of mustard quite effective until the end of the war. Already the first use of this substance, disrupted two and a half thousand soldiers and enemy officers, of which a significant number died.

Gas that does not spread along the ground

The development of mustard gas by German chemists did not accidentally. 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 sputtered downwards, filling themselves with trenches and all kinds of cavities. People who were in them were poisoned, but those who were at the height of the attack often remained unharmed.

It was necessary to invent a poison gas with a smaller specific gravity and capable of hitting its victims at any level. They also began to appear in July 1917 mustard gas. It should be noted that British chemists quickly established his formula, and in 1918 they launched deadly weapons into production, but the ceasefire was prevented by the truce that came after two months. Europe sighed with relief - was completed, lasted 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 poisonous 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 VN Ipatiev, the program for the production of this type of weapon in Russia was successfully implemented. However, its use was then the nature of technical tests and did not pursue tactical goals. Only a year later, as a result of work on the introduction of new developments in this field, it became possible to use them on the fronts.

The full-scale use of military developments that originated from 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 the first use of chemical weapons by the Russian army. It is known that during the combat operation artillery shells stuffed with asphyxiating chloropicrin and poisonous substances, vansinite and phosgene, were used. As can be seen from the report sent to the Main Artillery Directorate, the use of chemical weapons had a "great service to the army".

Gloomy statistics of the war

The first use of the chemical weapons of the First World War was a harmful precedent. In the following years, its use not only expanded, but also underwent qualitative changes. Summing up the sad statistics of four war years, historians ascertain 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 poisonous substances were tested, resulting in the death and injury of 1,300,000 troops and civilians trapped in the zone of their use.

The lesson left undigested

Did humanity extract a worthy lesson from the events of those years and did the date of the first use of chemical weapons become a black day in its history? Hardly. And nowadays, despite international legal acts that prohibit the use of poisonous substances, the arsenals of most states of the world are full of their modern developments, and increasingly in the press there are reports of its use in various parts of the world. Mankind is steadily moving along the path of self-destruction, ignoring the bitter experience of previous generations.