The use of toxic chemicals as weapons dates back thousands of years, but the first large-scale use of chemical weapons was during World War I. They were primarily used to demoralize, injure, and kill entrenched defenders, against whom the indiscriminate and generally very slow-moving or static nature of gas clouds would be most effective. The types of weapons employed ranged from disabling chemicals, such as tear gas, to lethal agents like phosgene, chlorine, and mustard gas. This chemical warfare was a major component of the first global war and first total war of the 20th century. The killing capacity of gas was limited, with about 90,000 fatalities from a total of 1.3 million casualties caused by gas attacks. Gas was unlike most other weapons of the period because it was possible to develop countermeasures, such as gas masks. In the later stages of the war, as the use of gas increased, its overall effectiveness diminished. The widespread use of these agents of chemical warfare, and wartime advances in the composition of high explosives, gave rise to an occasionally expressed view of World War I as "the chemist's war" and also the era where weapons of mass destruction were created.
The Battle of Loos took place from 25 September to 8 October 1915 in France on the Western Front, during the First World War. It was the biggest British attack of 1915, the first time that the British used poison gas and the first mass engagement of New Army units. The French and British tried to break through the German defences in Artois and Champagne and restore a war of movement. Despite improved methods, more ammunition and better equipment, the Franco-British attacks were largely contained by the Germans, except for local losses of ground. The British gas attack failed to neutralize the defenders and the artillery bombardment was too short to destroy the barbed wire or machine gun nests. German tactical defensive proficiency was still dramatically superior to the British offensive planning and doctrine, resulting in a British defeat.
During the First World War, the Second Battle of Ypres was fought from 22 April – 25 May 1915 for control of the tactically important high ground to the east and south of the Flemish town of Ypres in western Belgium. The First Battle of Ypres had been fought the previous autumn. The Second Battle of Ypres was the first mass use by Germany of poison gas on the Western Front.
A pulmonary agent, or choking agent, is a chemical weapon agent designed to impede a victim's ability to breathe. They operate by causing a build-up of fluids in the lungs, which then leads to suffocation. Exposure to the eyes and skin tends to be corrosive, causing blurred vision and severe deep burns. Inhalation of these agents cause burning of the throat, coughing, vomiting, headache, pain in chest, tightness in chest, and respiratory and circulatory failure.
The Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes or Winter Battle of the Masurian Lakes, known in Germany as the Winter Battle in Masuria and in Russia as the Battle of Augustowo, was the northern part of the Central Powers' offensive on the Eastern Front in the winter of 1915 during World War I. The offensive was intended to advance beyond the Vistula River and perhaps knock Russia out of the war. It was the last major battle fought on German soil during World War I.
The Gas Attacks at Hulluch were two German cloud gas attacks on British troops during World War I, from 27 to 29 April 1916, near the village of Hulluch, 1 mi (1.6 km) north of Loos in northern France. The gas attacks were part of an engagement between divisions of the II Royal Bavarian Corps and divisions of the British I Corps.
The Gorlice–Tarnów offensive during World War I was initially conceived as a minor German offensive to relieve Russian pressure on the Austro-Hungarians to their south on the Eastern Front, but resulted in the Central Powers' chief offensive effort of 1915, causing the total collapse of the Russian lines and their retreat far into Russia. The continued series of actions lasted the majority of the campaigning season for 1915, starting in early May and only ending due to bad weather in October.
The Hypo helmet, or British Smoke Hood, was an early British World War I gas mask, designed by Cluny Macpherson.
The Osovets offensive was part of the third and final phase of Operation Bagration, the Belorussian strategic offensive of the Red Army in summer 1944. The offensive began on 6 August and was officially declared over as of 14 August, although some of its objectives were not achieved until as late as January 1945.
The Great Retreat was a strategic withdrawal and evacuation on the Eastern Front of World War I in 1915. The Imperial Russian Army gave up the salient in Galicia and the Polish Congress Kingdom. The Russian Empire's critically under-equipped military suffered great losses in the Central Powers' July–September summer offensive operations, which led to the Stavka ordering a withdrawal to shorten the front lines and avoid the potential encirclement of large Russian forces in the salient. While the withdrawal itself was relatively well-conducted, it was a severe blow to Russian morale.
Osowiec Fortress is a 19th-century fortress built by the Russian Empire, located in what is now north-eastern Poland. It saw heavy fighting during World War I when it was defended for several months by its Russian garrison against German attacks.
Osowiec-Twierdza is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Goniądz, in Mońki County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. It lies approximately 5 kilometres (3 mi) south of Goniądz, 11 km (7 mi) north-west of Mońki, and 51 km (32 mi) north-west of the regional capital Białystok. Osowiec-Twierdza is home to Biebrza National Park.
The German phosgene attack of 19 December 1915 was the first use of phosgene gas against British troops by the German army. The gas attack took place at Wieltje, north-east of Ypres in Belgian Flanders on the Western Front in the First World War. German gas attacks on Allied troops had begun on 22 April 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres using chlorine against French and Canadian units. The surprise led to the capture of much of the Ypres Salient, after which the effectiveness of gas as a weapon diminished, because the French and British introduced anti-gas measures and protective helmets. The German Nernst-Duisberg-Commission investigated the feasibility of adding the much more lethal phosgene to chlorine. Mixed chlorine and phosgene gas was used at the end of May 1915 against French troops and on Russian troops on the Eastern Front.
The Gas attacks at Wulverghem were German cloud gas releases during the First World War on British troops at Wulverghem in the municipality of Heuvelland, near Ypres in the Belgian province of West Flanders. The gas attacks were part of the sporadic fighting between battles in the Ypres Salient on the Western Front. The British Second Army held the ground from Messines Ridge northwards to Steenstraat and the divisions opposite the German XXIII Reserve Corps had received warnings of a gas attack. From 21 to 23 April, British artillery-fire exploded several gas cylinders in the German lines around Spanbroekmolen, which released greenish-yellow clouds. A gas alert was given on 25 April when the wind began to blow from the north-east and routine work was suspended; on 29 April, two German soldiers deserted and warned that an attack was imminent. Just after midnight on 30 April, the German attack began and over no man's land, a gas cloud drifted on the wind into the British defences, then south-west towards Bailleul.
Chlorine gas poisoning is an illness resulting from the effects of exposure to chlorine beyond the threshold limit value.
The 137th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army in World War II. Raised in 1939 as a standard Red Army rifle division, it served for the duration of the Great Patriotic War in that role. The division fought in the central part of the Soviet-German front. It shared credit with other formations for the liberation of Bobruisk during Operation Bagration, and ended the war in the conquest of East Prussia.
The Small Box Respirator (SBC) was a British gas mask of the First World War and a successor to the Large Box Respirator. In late 1916, the respirator was introduced by the British with the aim to provide reliable protection against chlorine and phosgene gases. The respirator offered a first line of defence against these. The use of mustard gas, was begun by the Germans; a vesicant ("blister agent") that burnt the skin of individuals that were exposed to it. Death rates were high with exposure to both the mixed phosgene, chlorine and mustard gas, however with soldiers having readily available access to the small box respirator, death rates had lowered significantly. Light and reasonably fitting, the respirator was a key piece of equipment to protect soldiers on the battlefield.
Vladimir Karpovich Kotlinsky was a Russian Second Lieutenant and war hero during World War I. He was known for being the main commander during the famous Attack of the Dead Men as he led the counterattack of 60 to 100 men from the 226th Zemlyansky Infantry Regiment before being mortally wounded during the battle. He was posthumously awarded the 4th Class of the Order of St. George for his services in the battle.
First Battle of Przasnysz was a battle between Imperial German Army and Russian troops which took place between 7–28 February 1915, on the Eastern Front during World War I.
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