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 ...
In 1923, Hans von Seeckt pointed the way, by suggesting that German poison gas research move in the direction of delivery by aircraft in support of mobile warfare. Also in 1923, at the behest of the German army, poison gas expert Dr. Hugo Stoltzenberg negotiated with the USSR to build a huge chemical weapons plant at Trotsk, on the Volga river.
The Livens Projector was a simple mortar-like weapon that could throw large drums filled with flammable or toxic chemicals. [6]In the First World War, the Livens Projector became the standard means of delivering gas attacks by the British Army and it remained in its arsenal until the early years of the Second World War.
Poison gas casualties from the Battle of Estaires, April 10, 1918. Following the first chlorine attack by the Germans in May 1915, the British quickly moved to recruit scientists for developing their own gas weapons. Gas research escalated on both sides, with chlorine followed by phosgene, a variety of tear gases, and mustard gas.
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.
Earlier versions of the gas mask prior to 1915s development of the small box respirator were crude and ineffective as no troops had yet experienced poison warfare. One of the first gas masks seen in the early part of the war was the British hypo helmet, after recent failure and ineffectiveness of the black veil respirator. The helmet was ...