The first reported use of gas was by the Germans on the eastern front on 3-Jan-1915. It was a tearing agent dispersed by artillery shell. The first use on the western front came several months later on 22-Apr-1915 at the village of Langemarck near Ypres. At 1700 hours the Germans released a 5 mile wide cloud of chlorine gas from some 520 cylinders (168 tons of the chemical). The greenish-yellow cloud drifted over and into the French and Algerian trenches where it caused wide spread panic and death. The age of chemical warfare had begun.....
Gas was invented (and very successfully used) as a terror weapon meant to instill confusion and panic among the enemy prior to an offensive. It was a sort of physiological weapon with the non-lethal tearing agents inflicting as much panic as the dreaded mustard gas.
Gas was available in three basic varieties:
Lachrymator (tearing agent)
Much like today's tear gas and mace, this gas caused temporary blindness and greatly inflamed the nose and throat of the victim. A gas mask offered very good protection from this type of gas. xylyl bromide was a popular tearing agent since it was easily brewed.
Asphyxiant
These are the poisonous gases. This class includes chlorine, phosgene and diphosgene. Chlorine inflicts damage by forming hydrochloric acid when coming in contact with moisture such as found in the lungs and eyes. It is lethal at a mix of 1:5000 (gas/air) whereas phosgene is deadly at 1:10,000 (gas/air) - twice as toxic! Diphosgene, first used by the Germans at Verdun on 22-Jun-1916, was deadlier still and could not be effectively filtered by standard issue gas masks.
Blistering Agent
Dichlorethylsulphide: the most dreaded of all chemical weapons in World War I - mustard gas. Unlike the other gases which attack the respiratory system, this gas acts on any exposed, moist skin. This includes, but is not limited to, the eyes, lungs, armpits and groin. A gas mask could offer very little protection. The oily agent would produce large burn-like blisters wherever it came in contact with skin. It also had a nasty way of hanging about in low areas for hours, even days, after being dispersed. A soldier jumping into a shell crater to seek cover could find himself blinded, with skin blistering and lungs bleeding.
List of gases used in World War I
benzyl bromide
German, tearing, first used 1915
bromacetone
Both sides, tearing/fatal in concentration, first used 1916
carbonyl chloride (phosgene)
both sides, asphyxiant, fatal with delayed action, first used 1915
chlorine
both sides, asphyxiant, fatal in concentration, first used in 1915, cylinder release only
chloromethyl chloroformate
both sides, tearing, first used in 1915, artillery shell
chloropircin
both sides, tearing, first used in 1916, artillery shell (green cross I)
cyanogen (cyanide) compounds
allies/Austria, asphyxiant, fatal in concentration, first used in 1916, artillery shell
dichlormethylether
German, tearing, first used 1918, artillery shell
dibrommethylethylketone
German, tearing, fatal in concentration, first used in 1916
dichloroethylsulphide (mustard gas)
both sides, blistering, artillery shell (yellow cross)
diphenylchloroarsine
German, asphyxiant, fatal in concentration, (dust - could not be filtered), first used in 1917, artillery shell (blue cross)
diphenylcyonoarsine
German, more powerful replacement for blue cross, first used in 1918
ethyldichloroarsine
German, less powerful replacement for blue cross, first used in 1918, artillery shell (yellow cross I, green cross III)
ethyl iodoacetate
British, tearing, first used in 1916
monobrommethylethylketone
German, more powerful replacement for bromacetone, first used 1916
trichloromethylchloroformate (diphosgene)
both sides, asphyxiant, fatal with delayed action, first used 1916
xylyl bromide
German, tearing, first used 1915
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