The influence of chemical weapons in the First World War. Chemical weapon

Chemical weapons are one of three types of weapons of mass destruction (the other 2 types are bacteriological and nuclear weapons). Kills people using toxins contained in gas cylinders.

History of chemical weapons

Chemical weapons began to be used by humans a very long time ago - long before the Copper Age. Back then people used bows with poisoned arrows. After all, it is much easier to use poison, which will surely slowly kill the animal, than to run after it.

The first toxins were extracted from plants - humans obtained them from varieties of the acocanthera plant. This poison causes cardiac arrest.

With the advent of civilizations, bans on the use of the first chemical weapons began, but these bans were violated - Alexander the Great used all chemicals known at that time in the war against India. His soldiers poisoned water wells and food warehouses. In ancient Greece, the roots of the earthen grass were used to poison wells.

In the second half of the Middle Ages, alchemy, the predecessor of chemistry, began to develop rapidly. Acrid smoke began to appear, driving away the enemy.

First use of chemical weapons

The French were the first to use chemical weapons. This happened at the beginning of the First World War. They say that safety rules are written in blood. Safety rules for using chemical weapons are no exception. At first there were no rules, there was only one piece of advice - when throwing grenades filled with poisonous gases, you must take into account the direction of the wind. Also, there have been no specific, tested substances that kill people 100% of the time. There were gases that did not kill, but simply caused hallucinations or mild suffocation.

On April 22, 1915, the German armed forces used mustard gas. This substance is very toxic: it severely injures the mucous membrane of the eye and respiratory organs. After using mustard gas, the French and Germans lost approximately 100-120 thousand people. And throughout the First World War, 1.5 million people died from chemical weapons.

In the first 50 years of the 20th century, chemical weapons were used everywhere - against uprisings, riots and civilians.

Main toxic substances

Sarin. Sarin was discovered in 1937. The discovery of sarin happened by accident - German chemist Gerhard Schrader was trying to create a stronger chemical against agricultural pests. Sarin is a liquid. Affects the nervous system.

Soman. In 1944, Richard Kunn discovered soman. Very similar to sarin, but more poisonous - two and a half times more poisonous than sarin.

After World War II, the research and production of chemical weapons by the Germans became known. All research classified as “secret” became known to the allies.

VX. VX was discovered in England in 1955. The most poisonous chemical weapon created artificially.

At the first signs of poisoning, you need to act quickly, otherwise death will occur in about a quarter of an hour. Protective equipment is a gas mask, OZK (combined arms protective kit).

VR. Developed in 1964 in the USSR, it is an analogue of VX.

In addition to highly toxic gases, they also produced gases to disperse rioting crowds. These are tear and pepper gases.

In the second half of the twentieth century, more precisely from the beginning of 1960 to the end of the 1970s, there was a heyday of discoveries and development of chemical weapons. During this period, gases began to be invented that had a short-term effect on the human psyche.

Chemical weapons in our time

Currently, most chemical weapons are banned under the 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction.

The classification of poisons depends on the danger that the chemical poses:

• The first group includes all poisons that have ever been in the arsenal of countries. Countries are prohibited from storing any chemicals from this group in excess of 1 ton. If the weight is more than 100g, the control committee must be notified.
• The second group is substances that can be used for both military purposes and peaceful production.
• The third group includes substances that are used in large quantities in production. If the production produces more than thirty tons per year, it must be registered in the control register.

First aid for poisoning with chemically hazardous substances

The First World War was going on. On the evening of April 22, 1915, opposing German and French troops were near the Belgian city of Ypres. They fought for the city for a long time and to no avail. But that evening the Germans wanted to test a new weapon - poison gas. They brought thousands of cylinders with them, and when the wind blew towards the enemy, they opened the taps, releasing 180 tons of chlorine into the air. The yellowish gas cloud was carried by the wind towards the enemy line.

The panic began. Immersed in the gas cloud, the French soldiers were blind, coughing and suffocating. Three thousand of them died from suffocation, another seven thousand received burns.

"At this point science lost its innocence," says science historian Ernst Peter Fischer. According to him, if before the goal of scientific research was to improve the living conditions of people, now science has created conditions that make it easier to kill a person.

"In war - for the fatherland"

A way to use chlorine for military purposes was developed by the German chemist Fritz Haber. He is considered the first scientist to subordinate scientific knowledge to military needs. Fritz Haber discovered that chlorine is an extremely poisonous gas, which, due to its high density, concentrates low above the ground. He knew: this gas causes severe swelling of the mucous membranes, coughing, suffocation and ultimately leads to death. In addition, the poison was cheap: chlorine is found in waste from the chemical industry.

“Haber’s motto was “In peace for humanity, in war for the fatherland,” Ernst Peter Fischer quotes the then head of the chemical department of the Prussian War Ministry. “Times were different then. Everyone was trying to find a poison gas that they could use in war.” And only the Germans succeeded."

The attack at Ypres was a war crime - already in 1915. After all, the Hague Convention of 1907 prohibited the use of poison and poisoned weapons for military purposes.

Arms race

The "success" of Fritz Haber's military innovation became contagious, and not only for the Germans. Simultaneously with the war of states, the “war of chemists” began. Scientists were given the task of creating chemical weapons that would be ready for use as soon as possible. “People abroad looked at Haber with envy,” says Ernst Peter Fischer. “Many wanted to have such a scientist in their country.” In 1918, Fritz Haber received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. True, not for the discovery of poisonous gas, but for his contribution to the implementation of ammonia synthesis.

The French and British also experimented with poisonous gases. The use of phosgene and mustard gas, often in combination with each other, became widespread in the war. And yet, poisonous gases did not play a decisive role in the outcome of the war: these weapons could only be used in favorable weather.

Scary mechanism

Nevertheless, a terrible mechanism was launched in the First World War, and Germany became its engine.

The chemist Fritz Haber not only laid the foundation for the use of chlorine for military purposes, but also, thanks to his good industrial connections, contributed to the mass production of this chemical weapon. Thus, the German chemical concern BASF produced toxic substances in large quantities during the First World War.

After the war, with the creation of the IG Farben concern in 1925, Haber joined its supervisory board. Later, during National Socialism, a subsidiary of IG Farben produced Zyklon B, which was used in the gas chambers of concentration camps.

Context

Fritz Haber himself could not have foreseen this. "He's a tragic figure," says Fisher. In 1933, Haber, a Jew by birth, emigrated to England, exiled from his country, to the service of which he had put his scientific knowledge.

Red line

In total, more than 90 thousand soldiers died from the use of poisonous gases on the fronts of the First World War. Many died from complications several years after the end of the war. In 1905, members of the League of Nations, which included Germany, pledged under the Geneva Protocol not to use chemical weapons. Meanwhile, scientific research on the use of poisonous gases continued, mainly under the guise of developing means to combat harmful insects.

"Cyclone B" - hydrocyanic acid - insecticidal agent. "Agent Orange" is a substance used to defoliate plants. Americans used defoliant during the Vietnam War to thin out dense vegetation. The consequence is poisoned soil, numerous diseases and genetic mutations in the population. The latest example of the use of chemical weapons is Syria.

“You can do whatever you want with poisonous gases, but they cannot be used as targeted weapons,” emphasizes science historian Fisher. “Everyone who is nearby becomes victims.” The fact that the use of poisonous gas today is “a red line that cannot be crossed,” he considers correct: “Otherwise the war becomes even more inhumane than it already is.”

By mid-spring 1915, each of the countries participating in the First World War sought to pull the advantage to its side. So Germany, which terrorized its enemies from the sky, from under water and on land, tried to find an optimal, but not entirely original solution, planning to use chemical weapons - chlorine - against the adversaries. The Germans borrowed this idea from the French, who at the beginning of 1914 tried to use tear gas as a weapon. At the beginning of 1915, the Germans also tried to do this, who quickly realized that irritating gases on the field were a very ineffective thing.

Therefore, the German army turned to the help of future Nobel laureate in chemistry Fritz Haber, who developed methods for using protection against such gases and methods for using them in combat.

Haber was a great patriot of Germany and even converted from Judaism to Christianity to show his love for the country.

The German army decided to use poisonous gas - chlorine - for the first time on April 22, 1915 during the battle near the Ypres River. Then the military sprayed about 168 tons of chlorine from 5,730 cylinders, each of which weighed about 40 kg. At the same time, Germany violated the Convention on the Laws and Customs of War on Land, signed in 1907 in The Hague, one of the clauses of which stated that “it is prohibited to use poison or poisoned weapons against the enemy.” It is worth noting that Germany at that time tended to violate various international agreements and agreements: in 1915, it waged “unrestricted submarine warfare” - German submarines sank civilian ships contrary to the Hague and Geneva Conventions.

“We couldn't believe our eyes. The greenish-gray cloud, descending on them, turned yellow as it spread and scorched everything in its path that it touched, causing the plants to die. French soldiers staggered among us, blinded, coughing, breathing heavily, with faces dark purple, silent from suffering, and behind them in the gas-poisoned trenches remained, as we learned, hundreds of their dying comrades,” one recalled the incident. of the British soldiers who observed the mustard gas attack from the side.

As a result of the gas attack, about 6 thousand people were killed by the French and British. At the same time, the Germans also suffered, on whom, due to the changed wind, part of the gas they sprayed was blown away.

However, it was not possible to achieve the main goal and break through the German front line.

Among those who took part in the battle was the young corporal Adolf Hitler. True, he was located 10 km from the place where the gas was sprayed. On this day he saved his wounded comrade, for which he was subsequently awarded the Iron Cross. Moreover, he was only recently transferred from one regiment to another, which saved him from possible death.

Subsequently, Germany began using artillery shells containing phosgene, a gas for which there is no antidote and which, in sufficient concentration, causes death. Fritz Haber, whose wife committed suicide after receiving news from Ypres, continued to actively participate in the development: she could not bear the fact that her husband became the architect of so many deaths. Being a chemist by training, she appreciated the nightmare that her husband helped create.

The German scientist did not stop there: under his leadership, the toxic substance “Zyklon B” was created, which was subsequently used for the massacres of concentration camp prisoners during the Second World War.

In 1918, the researcher even received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, although he had a rather controversial reputation. However, he never hid the fact that he was absolutely confident in what he was doing. But Haber’s patriotism and his Jewish origin played a cruel joke on the scientist: in 1933, he was forced to flee Nazi Germany to Great Britain. A year later he died of a heart attack.

The first known case of the use of chemical weapons was the Battle of Ypres on April 22, 1915, in which chlorine was used very effectively by German troops, but this battle was not the only one and far from the first.

Having switched to a positional war, during which, due to the large number of troops opposing each other on both sides, it was impossible to organize an effective breakthrough, the opponents began to look for other solutions to their current situation, one of them was the use of chemical weapons.

Chemical weapons were first used by the French; it was the French who used tear gas, the so-called ethyl bromoacenate, back in August 1914. This gas itself could not lead to death, but it caused enemy soldiers a strong burning sensation in the eyes and mucous membranes of the mouth and nose, due to which they lost orientation in space and did not provide effective resistance to the enemy. Before the attack, French soldiers threw grenades filled with this toxic substance at the enemy. The only drawback of the ethyl bromoacenate used was its limited amount, so it was soon replaced by chloroacetone.

Use of chlorine

Having analyzed the success of the French resulting from their use of chemical weapons, the German command already in October of the same year fired at the British positions at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, but missed the concentration of the gas and did not get the expected effect. There was too little gas, and it did not have the desired effect on the enemy soldiers. However, the experiment was repeated in January in the battle of Bolimov against the Russian army; the Germans were practically successful in this attack and therefore the use of toxic substances, despite the statement that Germany had violated international law received from Great Britain, was decided to continue.

Basically, the Germans used chlorine gas against enemy troops - a gas with an almost instantaneous lethal effect. The only disadvantage of using chlorine was its rich green color, because of which it was possible to carry out an unexpected attack only in the already mentioned Battle of Ypres, but later the Entente armies stocked up with a sufficient number of means of protection against the effects of chlorine and could no longer fear it. The production of chlorine was personally supervised by Fritz Haber, a man who later became well known in Germany as the father of chemical weapons.

Having used chlorine in the Battle of Ypres, the Germans did not stop there, but used it at least three more times, including against the Russian fortress of Osovets, where in May 1915 about 90 soldiers died instantly, and more than 40 died in hospital wards . But despite the terrifying effect that followed from the use of gas, the Germans failed to take the fortress. The gas practically destroyed all life in the area, plants and many animals died, most of the food supply was destroyed, the Russian soldiers received a terrifying form of injury, and those who were lucky enough to survive had to remain disabled for the rest of their lives.

Phosgene

Such large-scale actions led to the fact that the German army soon began to feel an acute shortage of chlorine, so it was replaced by phosgene, a gas without color and a strong odor. Due to the fact that phosgene emitted the smell of moldy hay, it was not at all easy to detect, since the symptoms of poisoning did not appear immediately, but only a day after use. The poisoned enemy soldiers successfully fought for some time, but without receiving timely treatment, due to basic ignorance of their condition, they died the next day in dozens and hundreds. Phosgene was a more toxic substance, so it was much more profitable to use than chlorine.

Mustard gas

In 1917, near the same town of Ypres, German soldiers used another toxic substance - mustard gas, also called mustard gas. In addition to chlorine, mustard gas contained substances that, when contacted with human skin, not only caused poisoning, but also caused the formation of numerous abscesses. Externally, mustard gas looked like an oily liquid with no color. The presence of mustard gas could be determined only by its characteristic smell of garlic or mustard, hence the name mustard gas. Contact of mustard gas in the eyes led to instant blindness, and the concentration of mustard gas in the stomach led to immediate nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. When the mucous membrane of the throat was damaged by mustard gas, the victims experienced immediate development of edema, which subsequently developed into a purulent formation. A strong concentration of mustard gas in the lungs led to the development of inflammation and death from suffocation on the 3rd day after poisoning.

The practice of using mustard gas showed that of all the chemicals used in the First World War, it was this liquid, synthesized by the French scientist Cesar Depres and the Englishman Frederick Guthrie in 1822 and 1860 independently of each other, that was the most dangerous, since there were no measures to combat poisoning she didn't exist. The only thing the doctor could do was to advise the patient to rinse the mucous membranes affected by the substance and wipe the areas of skin in contact with mustard gas with wipes generously soaked in water.

In the fight against mustard gas, which, when it comes into contact with the surface of skin or clothing, can be transformed into other equally dangerous substances, even a gas mask could not provide significant assistance; to remain in the mustard gas action zone, soldiers were recommended no more than 40 minutes, after which the poison began to penetrate through protective equipment.

Despite the obvious fact that the use of any of the toxic substances, be it the practically harmless ethyl bromoacenate, or such a dangerous substance as mustard gas, is a violation not only of the laws of war, but also of civil rights and freedoms, following the Germans, the British and French began to use chemical weapons and even Russians. Convinced of the high efficiency of mustard gas, the British and French quickly established its production, and soon it was several times larger in scale than the German one.

Russia first began producing and using chemical weapons before the planned Brusilov breakthrough in 1916. Ahead of the advancing Russian army, shells containing chloropicrin and vensinite were scattered, which had a suffocating and poisonous effect. The use of chemicals gave the Russian army a noticeable advantage; the enemy left the trenches en masse and became easy prey for artillery.

It is interesting that after the First World War, the use of any means of chemical influence on the human body was not only prohibited, but also charged with Germany as a major crime against human rights, despite the fact that almost all toxic elements entered mass production and were very effectively used by both warring parties.

Early on an April morning in 1915, a light breeze blew from the German positions opposing the Entente defense line twenty kilometers from the city of Ypres (Belgium). Together with him, a dense yellowish-green cloud that suddenly appeared began to move in the direction of the Allied trenches. At that moment, few people knew that this was the breath of death, and, in the terse language of front-line reports, the first use of chemical weapons on the Western Front.

Tears Before Death

To be absolutely precise, the use of chemical weapons began back in 1914, and the French came up with this disastrous initiative. But then ethyl bromoacetate was used, which belongs to the group of chemicals that are irritating and not lethal. It was filled with 26-mm grenades, which were used to fire at German trenches. When the supply of this gas came to an end, it was replaced with chloroacetone, which has a similar effect.

In response to this, the Germans, who also did not consider themselves obliged to comply with generally accepted legal norms enshrined in the Hague Convention, fired at the British with shells filled with a chemical irritant at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, which took place in October of the same year. However, then they failed to achieve its dangerous concentration.

Thus, April 1915 was not the first case of the use of chemical weapons, but, unlike previous ones, deadly chlorine gas was used to destroy enemy personnel. The result of the attack was stunning. One hundred and eighty tons of spray killed five thousand Allied soldiers and another ten thousand became disabled as a result of the resulting poisoning. By the way, the Germans themselves suffered. The cloud carrying death touched their positions with its edge, the defenders of which were not fully equipped with gas masks. In the history of the war, this episode was designated the “black day at Ypres.”

Further use of chemical weapons in World War I

Wanting to build on their success, a week later the Germans repeated a chemical attack in the Warsaw area, this time against the Russian army. And here death received a bountiful harvest - more than one thousand two hundred killed and several thousand left crippled. Naturally, the Entente countries tried to protest against such a gross violation of the principles of international law, but Berlin cynically stated that the Hague Convention of 1896 only mentioned poisonous shells, and not gases themselves. Admittedly, they didn’t even try to object - war always undoes the work of diplomats.

The specifics of that terrible war

As military historians have repeatedly emphasized, in the First World War the tactics of positional actions were widely used, in which continuous front lines were clearly defined, characterized by stability, density of concentration of troops and high engineering and technical support.

This greatly reduced the effectiveness of offensive actions, since both sides encountered resistance from the enemy’s powerful defense. The only way out of the impasse could be an unconventional tactical solution, which was the first use of chemical weapons.

New war crimes page

The use of chemical weapons in the First World War was a major innovation. The range of its impact on humans was very wide. As can be seen from the above episodes of the First World War, it ranged from harmful, which was caused by chloroacetone, ethyl bromoacetate and a number of others that had an irritating effect, to fatal - phosgene, chlorine and mustard gas.

Despite the fact that statistics show the relative limitation of the gas’s deadly potential (only 5% of deaths out of the total number of those affected), the number of dead and maimed was enormous. This gives us the right to claim that the first use of chemical weapons opened a new page of war crimes in the history of mankind.

In the later stages of the war, both sides were able to develop and introduce fairly effective means of defense against enemy chemical attacks. This made the use of toxic substances less effective, and gradually led to the abandonment of their use. However, it was the period from 1914 to 1918 that went down in history as the “war of the chemists,” since the first use of chemical weapons in the world occurred on its battlefields.

The tragedy of the defenders of the Osowiec fortress

However, let us return to the chronicle of military operations of that period. At the beginning of May 1915, the Germans carried out an attack against Russian units defending the Osowiec fortress, located fifty kilometers from Bialystok (present-day territory of Poland). According to eyewitnesses, after a long period of shelling with shells filled with deadly substances, among which several types were used at once, all living things at a considerable distance were poisoned.

Not only did people and animals caught in the shelling zone die, but all vegetation was destroyed. Before our eyes, the leaves of the trees turned yellow and fell off, and the grass turned black and lay on the ground. The picture was truly apocalyptic and did not fit into the consciousness of a normal person.

But, of course, the defenders of the citadel suffered the most. Even those who escaped death, for the most part, received severe chemical burns and were terribly disfigured. It is no coincidence that their appearance inspired such horror on the enemy that the Russian counterattack, which eventually drove the enemy away from the fortress, entered the history of the war under the name “attack of the dead.”

Development and beginning of use of phosgene

The first use of chemical weapons revealed a significant number of its technical shortcomings, which were eliminated in 1915 by a group of French chemists led by Victor Grignard. The result of their research was a new generation of deadly gas - phosgene.

Absolutely colorless, in contrast to the greenish-yellow chlorine, it betrayed its presence only by the barely perceptible smell of moldy hay, which made it difficult to detect. Compared to its predecessor, the new product was more toxic, but at the same time had certain disadvantages.

Symptoms of poisoning, and even the death of the victims themselves, did not occur immediately, but a day after the gas entered the respiratory tract. This allowed poisoned and often doomed soldiers to participate in hostilities for a long time. In addition, phosgene was very heavy, and to increase mobility it had to be mixed with the same chlorine. This hellish mixture was given the name “White Star” by the Allies, since the cylinders containing it were marked with this sign.

Devilish novelty

On the night of July 13, 1917, in the area of ​​the Belgian city of Ypres, which had already gained notorious fame, the Germans made the first use of chemical weapons with blister effects. At the place of its debut, it became known as mustard gas. Its carriers were mines that sprayed a yellow oily liquid upon explosion.

The use of mustard gas, like the use of chemical weapons in general in the First World War, was another diabolical innovation. This “achievement of civilization” was created to damage the skin, as well as the respiratory and digestive organs. Neither a soldier's uniform nor any type of civilian clothing could protect him from its effects. It penetrated through any fabric.

In those years, no reliable means of protection against getting it on the body had yet been produced, which made the use of mustard gas quite effective until the end of the war. The very first use of this substance disabled two and a half thousand enemy soldiers and officers, of whom a significant number died.

Gas that does not spread along the ground

It was not by chance that German chemists started developing mustard gas. The first use of chemical weapons on the Western Front showed that the substances used - chlorine and phosgene - had a common and very significant drawback. They were heavier than air, and therefore, in a sprayed form, they fell down, filling trenches and all kinds of depressions. The people in them were poisoned, but those who were on higher ground at the time of the attack often remained unharmed.

It was necessary to invent a poisonous gas with a lower specific gravity and capable of hitting its victims at any level. This was the mustard gas that appeared in July 1917. It should be noted that British chemists quickly established its formula, and in 1918 they put the deadly weapon into production, but large-scale use was prevented by the truce that followed two months later. Europe breathed a sigh of relief - the First World War, which lasted four years, was over. The use of chemical weapons became irrelevant, and their development was temporarily stopped.

The beginning of the use of toxic substances by the Russian army

The first case of the use of chemical weapons by the Russian army dates back to 1915, when, under the leadership of Lieutenant General V.N. Ipatiev, a program for the production of this type of weapon in Russia was successfully implemented. However, its use at that time was in the nature of technical tests and did not pursue tactical goals. Only a year later, as a result of work on introducing developments created in this area into production, it became possible to use them on the fronts.

The full-scale use of military developments coming out of domestic laboratories began in the summer of 1916 during the famous It is this event that makes it possible to determine the year of the first use of chemical weapons by the Russian army. It is known that during the military operation, artillery shells filled with the asphyxiating gas chloropicrin and the poisonous gases vencinite and phosgene were used. As is clear from the report sent to the Main Artillery Directorate, the use of chemical weapons provided “a great service to the army.”

Grim statistics of war

The first use of the chemical set a disastrous precedent. In subsequent years, its use not only expanded, but also underwent qualitative changes. Summing up the sad statistics of the four war years, historians state that during this period the warring parties produced at least 180 thousand tons of chemical weapons, of which at least 125 thousand tons found their use. On the battlefields, 40 types of various toxic substances were tested, causing death and injury to 1,300,000 military personnel and civilians who found themselves in the zone of their use.

A lesson left unlearned

Did humanity learn a worthy lesson from the events of those years and did the date of the first use of chemical weapons become a dark day in its history? Hardly. And today, despite international legal acts prohibiting the use of toxic substances, the arsenals of most countries in the world are full of their modern developments, and more and more often reports appear in the press about its use in various parts of the world. Humanity is stubbornly moving along the path of self-destruction, ignoring the bitter experience of previous generations.