poison gas

Poison gas

Poison (135)
Poison gas (11)
Poisonous (59)
Toxin (368)
Venom (91)

Synopsis: 5. medicine & health: Toxicity & poisons: Poisons and toxins: Poison gas:

popsci_2013 00370.txt

Weapons of War-Poison gas Considered uncivilised prior to World war One the development and use of poison gas was necessitated by the requirement of wartime armies to find new ways of overcoming the stalemate of unexpected trench warfare.

Introduction of Poison gas The debut of the first poison gas however-in this instance chlorine-came on 22 april 1915 at the start of the Second battle of ypres.

and the use of poison gas continued to escalate for the remainder of the war. Allied Retaliation Once the Allies had recovered from the initial shock of the Germans'practical application of poison gas warfare a determination existed to exact retaliatory revenge at the earliest opportunity.

The british were the first to respond. Raising Special Gas companies in the wake of the Germans'April attack (of approximately 1400 men) operating under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Charles Foulkes instructions were given to prepare for a gas attack at Loos in September 1915.

By 1918 the use of use of poison gases had become widespread particularly on the Western Front.

If the war had continued into 1919 both sides had planned on inserting poison gases into 30%-50%of manufactured shells.

The french army occasionally made use of a nerve gas obtained from prussic acid. However three forms of gas remained the most widely used:

In large part this was because of the increasing effectiveness of the methods used to protect against poison gas.

and disgust at the wartime use of poison gases that its use was outlawed in 1925-a ban that is at least nominally still in force today...

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