Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Germany developed the poison gases tabun, sarin, and soman during the war, and used Zyklon B in their extermination camps. Neither Germany nor the Allied nations used any of their war gases in combat, despite maintaining large stockpiles and occasional calls for their use. [nb 1] Poison gas played an important role in the Holocaust.
The incident received its grim name from the bloodied, corpse-like appearance of the Russian combatants after they were bombarded with a mixture of poison gases, chlorine and bromine by the Germans. While coughing up blood and often pieces of their inner organs, the Russians covered their faces with cloths and managed to rout the German troops.
German gas attacks were made at night or in the early morning, when the wind was favourable and darkness made it difficult for the defenders to see the gas cloud. [20] [b] Phosgene made the gas cloud more poisonous and the Germans tried to increase the concentration of the gas by discharging it quickly, though this reduced the duration of the ...
The battle was the British part of the Third Battle of Artois, a Franco-British offensive (known to the Germans as the Herbstschlacht (Autumn Battle). Field Marshal Sir John French and Douglas Haig (GOC First Army), regarded the ground south of La Bassée Canal, which was overlooked by German-held slag heaps and colliery towers, as unsuitable for an attack, particularly given the discovery in ...
First mass use of poison gas by the German army. Around 100,000 casualties. Battle of Passchendaele (31 July – 10 November 1917) also known as the Third Battle of Ypres. Between 400,000 and 900,000 casualties. Battle of the Lys (7 – 29 April 1918) also known as the Fourth Battle of Ypres. Around 200,000 casualties.
Fritz Haber, a German chemist who proposed the use of the heavier-than-air chlorine gas as a weapon to break the trench deadlock. The German chemist Walther Nernst, who in 1914 was as a volunteer driver, proposed to Colonel Max Bauer, the German general staff officer responsible for liaison with scientists, that they could empty the opposing trenches by a surprise attack with tear gas.
On 22 April, the Germans launched the first poison gas attack near Ypres, divulging what might have been a decisive weapon merely to distract the Allies in the west. Mackensen had ten infantry and one cavalry divisions (126,000 men, 457 light guns, 159 heavy pieces, and 96 mortars) along the 42 km (26 mi) length of the breakthrough sector.
The Imperial Russian Army reportedly suffered roughly 500,000 chemical weapon casualties in World War I. [147] Civilians were not deliberately targeted but nearby towns were at risk from winds blowing the poison gases through. Only the French took precautions to avoid such collateral damage.