You’re a soldier in the trenches of the Western Front in the Great War.
You and your unit are keeping your eyes peeled for any sign of enemy soldiers, but you seem
to be clear to advance.
Suddenly, there’s a sound of a bang - but it’s not the familiar sound of bullets.
It’s different, and before you can react you see the trench filling with smoke.
But this isn’t a simple visual hazard to make your advance more difficult.
It’s a deadly weapon - and this gas may turn your trench into a tomb.
How did it come to this?
For ages, war was simple - the armies would charge at each other, and the side with more
manpower or tactical skill would win on the battlefield.
Sure, there were X-factors - like large animal mounts, familiar terrain, or even a wooden
horse disguising the enemy soldiers - but for the most part, armies knew what to expect
when it came to war.
That changed in the 16th and 17th centuries as gunpowder became more widely available,
and suddenly wars were more likely to be determined by the quality of one’s weapons.
Killing from a distance became easier, and a well-armed platoon could take a weaker army
by surprise and end the battle quickly.
The arms race was on - and it was about to turn deadly.
Chemical weapons weren’t a new idea, but until the 19th century they were rudimentary
at best.
Evidence of a battle site in the Syrian desert found evidence of chemical residue and sulfur
crystals indicating that toxic sulfur dioxide may have been used as a trap for Roman soldiers
invading the fortress.
The combination of pitch and sulfur would be lit, and create a cloud that would quickly
knock out the invading army.
But the industrial age would change everything.
Small and large wars broke out around the world in the 19th century, and many nations
were seeking an edge, sensing that something larger was right around the corner.
Many scientists, encouraged by their military leadership, began developing ways to mass-produce
deadly weapons that could asphyxiate or poison their enemies.
The reaction was swift - and the world was horrified.
While international law was still in its early phases and it was long before the United Nations
existed, a large group of national leaders met in The Hague, Netherlands in 1899 and
1907 to outline laws that would govern warfare.
Among other decisions, they outlawed the use of poison or poisoned weapons in combat.
A third conference was scheduled for 1914.
It would never happen.
Tensions in Europe had been rising for a while, but they would explode in 1914 when Gavrilo
Princip, a radical nationalist from Serbia, assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian
throne.
A war broke out between the two nations, quickly joined by Germany, and it soon swept across
the continent.
Great Britain, France, and Russia led one side, while Germany and Austria-Hungary led
the other, and the United States was eventually brought into the conflict several years in
by a series of sea attacks and diplomatic controversies.
It would be one of the largest and bloodiest wars in history, killing over twenty million
people total and leading to the mobilization of seventy million soldiers.
It would come to be known as “the war to end all wars.”
It would also be the war that led to the most significant use of chemical weapons in history.
The use of gas weapons in the war began quickly, only months after war broke out, but the first
ones used were anything but deadly.
France was the first country to experiment with gas, but their choice of tear gas didn’t
have the impact they wanted.
The ethyl bromoacetate grenades dispersed quickly in the open air and were little more
than an annoyance to the German soldiers.
When the Germans tried their own chemical irritants months later, the results were the
same - and the British troops were far more worried about the bullets.
These basic weapons weren’t considered a violation of any treaties.
But that was about to change.
It was 1915 when Germany deployed their next chemical weapon - a massive quantity of tear
gas made from xylyl bromide.
It targeted Russian troops near Warsaw, but they hadn’t accounted for one thing - it
was the dead of winter, and the gas didn’t vaporize.
It froze, and had no impact on the troops.
The use of tear gas became a dead end in the war, and the Germans turned their attention
to other - more deadly - chemicals.
It wouldn’t be long before they found lethal success.
Chlorine has long been a dangerous gas, albeit one with a lot of uses.
It’s used in keeping pools clean among other jobs, but every container on it comes with
a host of warnings - it’s a dangerous irritant that can cause damage to the eyes, throat,
and lungs if it makes contact.
When turned into a gas, it can even cause respiratory distress and asphyxiation if it’s
concentrated enough.
German companies produced chlorine as a by-product of creating industrial dyes, and they were
soon put to work weaponizing it for the German army.
It wasn’t long before the first successful chemical attack of WW1 would take place.
Although historians differ on the date, what is known is that Major Karl von Zigler observed
a chlorine gas attack on British troops, and it was a world of difference between that
and the earlier tear gas attacks.
This gas was potent, and it reportedly killed 140 English officers.
While von Zigler was reporting a great success, even he was shocked at what he saw - referring
to it as a horrible weapon.
No one is sure why this gas was so deadly, but some suspect it may have been a hybrid
of Chlorine and another gas.
The arsenal of chemical weapons would soon expand terribly.
By April 22nd, 1915, chlorine gas was a regular weapon of the German troops.
The next brutal attack came when 168 tons of the gas was turned into a massive cloud
targeting French Colonial troops from Martinique and Algeria.
As the gigantic greyish-green cloud floated towards the soldiers, they panicked, abandoning
their posts and creating a massive gap in the Allied line.
There was only one problem - the German troops were hesitant to advance into it as well.
And that was the double-edged sword of chemical warfare - it didn’t recognize your military
colors.
It killed everyone equally.
Chemical weapons were starting to define the war - and the other armies began to respond.
The first step was the nations opposing Germany issuing a formal condemnation of the attacks,
claiming they violated international law.
But Germany had a unique defense - the treaties only banned the use of chemical weapons in
shells or other weapons, but there was nothing regulating their use as a gas.
The Germans continued deploying gas regularly, including in a massive attack in Russia that
led to over a thousand fatalities.
This led to Russia opening its own division to study the mass delivery of chemical weapons.
But was there a way to neutralize this new deadly weapon?
It soon became clear that the ones who were overcome by poison gas were the ones who tried
to escape.
Moving made the effects of the gas worse, and the higher they stood, the less they were
affected.
The gas was denser near the ground, and it didn’t take much to minimize the effects.
Chlorine gas was a potent irritant but not hard to defend against.
Because it was visible as it approached, troops were taught to find high ground, cover their
mouth and nose, and protect their eyes.
It was even found that using urine to wet the cloth might be more effective since the
compound urea reacted with chlorine and weakened it.
Effective, if not appealing.
But poison gas wouldn’t stay on the German side - and it wouldn’t remain as easy to
neutralize.
When German forces refused to stop deploying the weapons in violation of the treaties,
the British quickly started developing their own Chlorine gas.
Their initial attempt at deploying it was foiled by the win, even blowing it back on
them at times, and the flannel gas masks they used to protect themselves weren’t effective.
The Germans were then able to shoot at the unused cylinders of chlorine, releasing it
against the British.
Chlorine was the first to be deployed, but it wouldn’t be the most deadly.
It was 1915 when French chemists introduced phosgene to the world.
This was created in 1812 by synthesizing carbon monoxide and chlorine with sunlight, and it
had a few advantages over chlorine gas.
For one thing, it had a less distinct smell - described somewhat like moldy hay.
Second, it was actively poisonous.
Its effects aren’t apparent like chlorine, and its poison levels are lower than many
deadly gases - but it can cause people to develop a pulmonary edema, resulting in a
potentially fatal reaction hours after the facts.
When combined with chlorine gas, it became a deadly weapon.
It would soon be produced by all of Germany, France, the UK, and the United States.
But it was 1917 when the deadliest gas would enter the fray.
It was known as mustard gas, but it was anything but a tasty topping for hot dogs.
A sulfur-based compound, it had a yellowish-brown tinge and its odor resembles mustard and horseradish.
Unlike chlorine, it was deployed in a fine mist rather than a gas, and its effects were
horrible.
While it could be fatal in high enough levels, for those who were exposed the pain would
be extreme.
Their skin would blister, their eyes would become painful and hard to open, and it would
cause uncontrolled vomiting.
If it settled in the lungs, it would attack the bronchial tubes and cause internal bleeding.
For those who were injured fatally, they could linger for weeks in agonizing pain.
But like all chemical weapons, it had its drawbacks.
Mustard gas would settle to the ground as an oily liquid, but it didn’t disperse quickly,
and an army that used it would then have to advance into the same area they had gassed.
Mustard gas was so potent that the German army chose to saturate the area they attacked
with it rather than mount a conventional attack, letting the enemy forces retreat rather than
moving on them.
It wouldn’t be long before the allied forces took on this deadly new weapon as well.
The United States even started developing a deadlier gas named Lewisite - but it wasn’t
deployed in the First World War because hostilities came to an end in November 1918.
And when both sides looked at what these new weapons had done, they were horrified.
In total, these poison gases and chemical weapons had claimed a total of 1.3 million
casualties.
But by the end of the war, armies were using protective gear to minimize its effects, and
it had become more of a brutal accent to the fighting than a game-changing weapon.
While the hostilities between world powers were over, these same world powers started
using chemical weapons in various colonial conflicts - where the opposing armies usually
didn’t have the resources to defend themselves.
This horrified the public when details got out, and momentum started to build against
poison gas once again.
But would it stick?
In 1925, most of the First World War nations had signed the Geneva Protocol, an expanded
ban on all poison weapons that closed the loophole that allowed the use of poison gas
clouds.
It also included all liquids, materials, or devices that were equivalent to the gases.
However, some nations - including the United States - did not officially sign it until
the 1970s.
It seemed like the mass use of chemical weapons was over.
But it would soon be seriously tested.
It would only be a few decades before war enveloped the world again - this one even
bigger and deadlier.
The nations, many of whom had been involved in both global conflicts, quickly stockpiled
chemical weapons, but there were only isolated uses in China and Ethiopia, and an accidental
mustard gas bombing of Warsaw in 1942.
While mustard gas in particular was stockpiled, it’s likely every nation was waiting for
someone else to use it first - but few did, and the arms race of chemical weapons didn’t
get out of control again.
It seemed like the horrible poison gas wars of the First World War had put this terrible
weapon on the shelf.
Of course, that didn’t mean a far deadlier arms race wasn’t about to begin…
For more on that terrible weapon, check out “50 Facts About Nuclear Weapons You Didn’t
Know”, or watch this video instead.