A complex and binding system of alliances among the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey) and the Allied Powers (Britain, France, Russia, and beginning in 1917, the United States) placed peace in a delicate balance. World War I had numerous causes, including colonial competition, economic rivalry, and various ideological and cultural clashes among the rising nation states of Europe. THE MILITARIZATION OF ACADEMIC AND INDUSTRIAL CHEMISTRY Understanding the origins of chemical warfare during World War I and its emergence during that conflict as a physical and psychological threat to both military and civilian populations can provide historical insight into possible contemporary medical responses to this enduring and technologically pervasive threat. 5Īlthough chemical weapons killed proportionally few soldiers in World War I (1914–1918), the psychological damage from “gas fright” and the exposure of large numbers of soldiers, munitions workers, and civilians to chemical agents had significant public health consequences. 4 If, in the world since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the threat of terror weapons seems a ubiquitous part of the daily news and the term WMD is now as familiar to soccer moms as to beltway defense planners, it is important to remember that the medical and public health consequences of chemical weapons use are as real today as they were in 1915.
Defined today as “man-made, supertoxic chemicals that can be dispersed as a gas, vapor, liquid, aerosol (a suspension of microscopic droplets), or adsorbed onto a fine talcum-like powder to create ‘dusty’ agents,” chemical weapons remain a viable public health threat for civilians and soldiers across the globe. Here, I offer a window into the first weapon of mass destruction (WMD) by charting the development and use of gas warfare during World War I. The attack that spring day, nonetheless, marked a turning point in military history, as it is recognized as the first successful use of lethal chemical weapons on the battlefield. Within days, both armies once again faced each other from the same opposing fortifications.
Surprised by the apparent success of the attack, and having no plan to send a large offensive force in after the gas, the Germans were unable to take advantage of the situation. However, their faith in this wonder weapon was limited. The German High Command sanctioned the use of gas in the hope that this new weapon would bring a decisive victory, breaking the enduring stalemate of trench warfare. Then there staggered into our midst French soldiers, blinded, coughing, chests heaving, faces an ugly purple color, lips speechless with agony, and behind them in the gas soaked trenches, we learned that they had left hundreds of dead and dying comrades. Greenish-gray clouds swept down upon them, turning yellow as they traveled over the country blasting everything they touched and shriveling up the vegetation. figures running wildly in confusion over the fields. 2 A British soldier described the pandemonium that flowed from the front lines to the rear. Within a matter of minutes, this slow moving wall of gas killed more than 1000 French and Algerian soldiers, while wounding approximately 4000 more. The surprise use of chlorine gas allowed the Germans to rupture the French line along a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) front, causing terror and forcing a panicked and chaotic retreat. Disregarding intelligence reports about the strange cylinders prior to the attack, the French troops were totally unprepared for this new and horrifying weapon. The order to release the gas was entrusted to German military meteorologists, who had carefully studied the area’s prevailing wind patterns.
Filled with pressurized liquid chlorine, the cylinders had been clandestinely installed by the Germans more than 3 weeks earlier. Within 10 minutes, 160 tons of chlorine gas drifted over the opposing French trenches, engulfing all those downwind. IN THE LATE AFTERNOON OF April 22, 1915, members of a special unit of the German Army opened the valves on more than 6000 steel cylinders arrayed in trenches along their defensive perimeter at Ypres, Belgium.
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