Poison Gas Use During WWI

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Poison Gas Use During WWI
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Types of Poison Gas
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Tearing Agent (lachrymatory)

• France used it first in 1914
• Causes temporary blindness
• Inflames the nose and throat
• Gas mask offered good protection
• Similar to mace and pepper spray
• No long term effects if used properly
• Some forms would freeze in cold weather and not
  work (Eastern Front)

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Asphyxiant

• First Used by the Germans in 1915
• Poisonous gases
• Chlorine (First developed by Germany)
• Chlorine is a powerful irritant that can inflict
  damage to the eyes, nose, throat and lungs. At
  high concentrations and prolonged exposure it can
  cause death by asphyxiation
• Gas Masks were effective in filtering Chlorine

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British Use of Chlorine Gas

• Commander of British II Corps, Lt.Gen. Ferguson
  (officially) said of gas
• It is a cowardly form of warfare which does not
  commend itself to me or other English
  soldiers.... We cannot win this war unless we
  kill or incapacitate more of our enemies than
  they do of us, and if this can only be done by
  our copying the enemy in his choice of weapons,
  we must not refuse to do so
• First attempt was a disaster as wind blew gas
  back into British Trenches. Also many British
  troops were not equipped with gas masks

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Phosgene

• First Developed by the French in 1915
• Odorless and hard to detect
• Often used mixed with an equal volume of
  chlorine, with the chlorine helping to spread the
  denser phosgene.
• Some of the symptoms of exposure took 24 hours or
  more to manifest
• 85 of the 100,000 deaths caused by chemical
  weapons during World War I

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Blistering Agent

• Mustard gas
• Attacks any exposed, moist skin
• Eyes, lungs, armpits groin, etc.
• Caused huge blisters
• Heavy gas as it laid in areas for hours
  sometimes days
• Fatal victims sometimes took four or five weeks
  to die of mustard gas exposure.32

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How was poison gas used?
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Before gas masks soldiers used socks soaked in
urine to filter out poison gas
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Equipment
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Gas Victims
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Poison Gas Victim It seemed as if my
lungs were gradually shutting up and my heart
pounded away in my ears like the beat of a drum.
On looking at the chap next to me I felt sick,
for green stuff was oozing from the side of his
mouth
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Estimated gas casualties34 Nation Fatal
Non-fatal Russia 56,000 419,340 Germany
9,000 200,000 France 8,000 190,000
British Empire 8,109 188,706
Austria-Hungary 3,000 100,000 USA 1,462
72,807 Italy 4,627 60,000 Total
88,498 1,240,853