Posted on Apr 22, 2017
WWI The First Modern War: The Germans Release the First WMD | History
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World War I
Germans release statement on use of poison gas at Ypres
June 25, 1915, the German press publishes an official statement from the country’s war command addressing the German use of poison gas at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres two months earlier.
The German firing of more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres in Belgium on April 22, 1915, had shocked and horrified their Allied opponents in World War I and provoked angry outbursts against what was seen as inexcusable barbarism, even in the context of warfare. As Sir John French, commander in chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), wrote heatedly of the German attacks at Ypres: “All the scientific resources of Germany have apparently been brought into play to produce a gas of so virulent and poisonous a nature that any human being brought into contact with it is first paralyzed and then meets with a lingering and agonizing death.”
The German statement of June 25, 1915, was a response to this outraged reaction by the Allies; they considered it hypocritical, claiming that their opponents–namely the French–had been manufacturing and employing gas in battle well before the Second Battle of Ypres. “For every one who has kept an unbiased judgment,” the statement began, “the official assertions of the strictly accurate and truthful German military administration will be sufficient to prove the prior use of asphyxiating gases by our opponents.” It went on to quote from a memorandum issued by the French War Ministry on February 21, 1915, containing instructions for using “these so-called shells with stupefying gases that are being manufactured by our central factories?[that] contain a fluid which streams forth after the explosion, in the form of vapors that irritate the eyes, nose, and throat.”
This memo, the Germans concluded, proved that “the French in their State workshops manufactured shells with asphyxiating gases fully half a year ago at least” and that they must have manufactured sufficient numbers for the War Ministry to issue directions on how to use the shells. “What hypocrisy when the same people grow indignant because the Germans much later followed them on the path they had pointed out!”
Though the French were, in fact, the first to employ gas during World War I–in August 1914 they used tear-gas grenades containing xylyl bromide to confront the initial German advance in Belgium and northeastern France–Germany was undoubtedly the first belligerent nation during the war to put serious thought and work into the development of chemical weapons that were not merely irritants, like xylyl bromide, but could be used in large quantities to inflict a major defeat on the enemy. In addition to chlorine gas, first used to deadly effect by the Germans at Ypres, phosgene gas and mustard gas were also employed on the battlefields of World War I, mostly by Germany but also by Britain and France, who were forced to quickly catch up to the Germans in the realm of chemical-weapons technology. Though the psychological impact of poison gas was undoubtedly great, its actual impact on the war–like that of the tank–is debatable, due to the low rate of fatality associated with the gas attacks. In total, the war saw some 1.25 million gas casualties but only 91,000 deaths from gas poisoning, with over 50 percent of those fatalities suffered by the poorly equipped Russian army.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-release-statement-on-use-of-poison-gas-at-ypres
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Ypres
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs @ ltc frank LTC (Join to see) @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen C. @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen F. @ capt marty Maj Marty Hogan @ smsgt doc SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas @ tsgt joe TSgt Joe C. @ msg andrew MSG Andrew White @ sfc george SFC George Smith @ sgt david SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth @ sp5 robert SP5 Robert Ruck @ sp5 mark SP5 Mark Kuzinski @ po2 robert PO2 Robert M. Alan K. Cynthia Croft
Germans release statement on use of poison gas at Ypres
June 25, 1915, the German press publishes an official statement from the country’s war command addressing the German use of poison gas at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres two months earlier.
The German firing of more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres in Belgium on April 22, 1915, had shocked and horrified their Allied opponents in World War I and provoked angry outbursts against what was seen as inexcusable barbarism, even in the context of warfare. As Sir John French, commander in chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), wrote heatedly of the German attacks at Ypres: “All the scientific resources of Germany have apparently been brought into play to produce a gas of so virulent and poisonous a nature that any human being brought into contact with it is first paralyzed and then meets with a lingering and agonizing death.”
The German statement of June 25, 1915, was a response to this outraged reaction by the Allies; they considered it hypocritical, claiming that their opponents–namely the French–had been manufacturing and employing gas in battle well before the Second Battle of Ypres. “For every one who has kept an unbiased judgment,” the statement began, “the official assertions of the strictly accurate and truthful German military administration will be sufficient to prove the prior use of asphyxiating gases by our opponents.” It went on to quote from a memorandum issued by the French War Ministry on February 21, 1915, containing instructions for using “these so-called shells with stupefying gases that are being manufactured by our central factories?[that] contain a fluid which streams forth after the explosion, in the form of vapors that irritate the eyes, nose, and throat.”
This memo, the Germans concluded, proved that “the French in their State workshops manufactured shells with asphyxiating gases fully half a year ago at least” and that they must have manufactured sufficient numbers for the War Ministry to issue directions on how to use the shells. “What hypocrisy when the same people grow indignant because the Germans much later followed them on the path they had pointed out!”
Though the French were, in fact, the first to employ gas during World War I–in August 1914 they used tear-gas grenades containing xylyl bromide to confront the initial German advance in Belgium and northeastern France–Germany was undoubtedly the first belligerent nation during the war to put serious thought and work into the development of chemical weapons that were not merely irritants, like xylyl bromide, but could be used in large quantities to inflict a major defeat on the enemy. In addition to chlorine gas, first used to deadly effect by the Germans at Ypres, phosgene gas and mustard gas were also employed on the battlefields of World War I, mostly by Germany but also by Britain and France, who were forced to quickly catch up to the Germans in the realm of chemical-weapons technology. Though the psychological impact of poison gas was undoubtedly great, its actual impact on the war–like that of the tank–is debatable, due to the low rate of fatality associated with the gas attacks. In total, the war saw some 1.25 million gas casualties but only 91,000 deaths from gas poisoning, with over 50 percent of those fatalities suffered by the poorly equipped Russian army.
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-release-statement-on-use-of-poison-gas-at-ypres
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Battle_of_Ypres
@ col mikel COL Mikel J. Burroughs @ ltc frank LTC (Join to see) @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen C. @ ltc stephen LTC Stephen F. @ capt marty Maj Marty Hogan @ smsgt doc SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" Thomas @ tsgt joe TSgt Joe C. @ msg andrew MSG Andrew White @ sfc george SFC George Smith @ sgt david SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth @ sp5 robert SP5 Robert Ruck @ sp5 mark SP5 Mark Kuzinski @ po2 robert PO2 Robert M. Alan K. Cynthia Croft
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Thanks for reminding us SGT John " Mac " McConnell that on April 22, 1915 when the Central Powers nation of Germany launched the first major gas attack in history. They fired more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres, Belgium. The shocking attack devastated the Allied line and changed warfare forever.
Chemical weapons had been used before in warfare going back to flaming pitch and dead animal carcasses launched by catapult-like devices to cause diseases to break out in besieged walled areas.
However the wide-scale use of chemical weapons at Ypres changed warfare forever.
Protective masks, atropine and other nerve agent injectors, decontamination kits, chemical agent detecting devices, overpressure systems in sealed armored vehicles, etc.
Images: gassed; British_55th_Division_gas_casualties_10_April_1918; 1915-04-23 Ypres-post-gas; 1915-04-22 Canadian troops fighting at Ypres were among the first combatants to come under chemical attack on
"Battles - The Second Battle of Ypres, 1915
The Second Battle of Ypres comprised the only major attack launched by the German forces on the Western Front in 1915, Eric von Falkenhayn preferring to concentrate German efforts against the Russians on the Eastern Front.
Begun in April and used primarily as a means of diverting Allied attention from the Eastern Front, and as a means of testing the use of chlorine gas, it eventually concluded in failure in May. As a consequence of the failure of this attack the German army gave up its attempts to take the town, choosing instead to demolish it through constant bombardment. By the end of the war Ypres had been largely reduced to piles of rubble, the town's magnificent Cloth Hall a wreck (although rebuilt to the original designs in the 1950's).
Second Ypres is generally remembered today as marking the first use of gas on the Western Front. Although introduced with minimal effect on the Russian Eastern Front at Bolimov by the Germans earlier in the war (where it was so cold the gas had frozen), and in conflict with the Hague Convention which outlawed gas warfare, its impact during Second Ypres was startlingly effective.
5,700 canisters containing 168 tons of chlorine gas were released at sunrise on 22 April against French Algerian and territorial division troops following a brief preliminary bombardment by 17-inch howitzers. A veil of greenish-yellow mist could be clearly seen rolling across from the German front lines to the French positions.
Ruins of Ypres as seen from the airThe effectiveness of the gas attack was so complete that it surprised the German infantry who followed up the release of the chlorine gas. The stunned Allied troops fled in panic towards Ypres, the heavy gas settling and clogging the trenches where it gathered. (Click here to read the official German statement issued in the aftermath of the attack.)
Covering four miles of trench lines, the gas affected some 10,000 troops, half of whom died within ten minutes of the gas reaching the front line. Death was caused by asphyxiation. Those who lived were temporarily blinded and stumbled in confusion, coughing heavily. 2,000 of these troops were captured as prisoners of war.
The two advancing Germans corps wearing primitive respirators paced warily through a clear seven kilometre gap in the Allied lines, wary of traps. In planning the attack no reserves had been thought necessary, the German command considering it inconceivable that a major breakthrough could be achieved.
In consequence the actual breakthrough was not exploited to the full. After advancing three kilometres into Allied lines the Germans halted under the hail of a scrambled British General Smith-Dorrien's Second Army counter-offensive. Even so, the loss of high ground to the north significantly weakened the Allied position.
Respiration drill at the frontThe Germans released a second batch of chlorine gas two days later, on 24 April, this time directed against Canadian troops situated north-east of Ypres and again prefaced by a sharp artillery bombardment.
Again the German forces gained ground against the unprotected Canadian troops, although fighting was fierce, spreading far south to Hill 60. The novelty of gas warfare was wearing off, and the advancing German infantry sustained heavy losses from the defending Canadians, who were relieved by arriving British troops on 3 May. During this time the Canadians had suffered heavily, with 5,975 casualties, including 1,000 fatalities.
General Smith-Dorrien proposed a two and a half mile withdrawal closer to Ypres. He felt that nothing short of a large-scale counter-offensive was likely to push the German forces back to their original positions. The idea was met coolly by the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Sir John French, who effectively dismissed Smith-Dorrien by sending him home to England. (Click here to read Sir John French's reaction to the German use of poison gas.)
Ironically Smith-Dorrien's replacement, General Herbert Plumer (later famed for his successful Messines Offensive), also recommended a general withdrawal to French. The suggestion was this time accepted, taking place following a failed Allied counter-attack by two divisions presided over by French General Ferdinand Foch on 29 April. French executed the planned withdrawal on 1-3 May 1915.
General Herbert PlumerFighting renewed around Ypres on 8 May and continued until 13 May, and then again from 24-25 May, with repeated use of gas attacks. Still the Allied lines held, although German forces secured additional high ground to the east of the town from 8-12 May.
On 24 May a heavy German assault forced a further Allied withdrawal, although little extra ground was ceded. A want of supplies and manpower obliged the Germans to call off the offensive; all that they could do was to bombard the town. Even so, the German attacks had considerably reduced the size of the Allied salient. The highest ground had been lost and it was no more than three miles across and five miles deep.
Losses during the Second Battle of Ypres are estimated at 69,000 Allied troops (59,000 British, 10,000 French), against 35,000 German, the difference in numbers explained by the use of chlorine gas. The Germans' innovative use of gas set the trend for the rest of the war.
Although roundly condemned by the Allies as barbaric and reprehensible, sentiments echoed by many neutral nations, the Allies quickly developed their own form of gas warfare, with the British releasing gas canisters at Loos at the end of September 1915 (although the prevailing wind turned and wafted the gas back into the British trenches). All the allied countries had made extensive use of poison gas by the close of the war."
http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/ypres2.htm
COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown CW5 Charlie Poulton SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SSgt (Join to see) TSgt Joe C. SPC (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright Maj Marty Hogan PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SP5 Robert Ruck SCPO Morris RamseyCPL Eric Escasio SPC Margaret Higgins
Chemical weapons had been used before in warfare going back to flaming pitch and dead animal carcasses launched by catapult-like devices to cause diseases to break out in besieged walled areas.
However the wide-scale use of chemical weapons at Ypres changed warfare forever.
Protective masks, atropine and other nerve agent injectors, decontamination kits, chemical agent detecting devices, overpressure systems in sealed armored vehicles, etc.
Images: gassed; British_55th_Division_gas_casualties_10_April_1918; 1915-04-23 Ypres-post-gas; 1915-04-22 Canadian troops fighting at Ypres were among the first combatants to come under chemical attack on
"Battles - The Second Battle of Ypres, 1915
The Second Battle of Ypres comprised the only major attack launched by the German forces on the Western Front in 1915, Eric von Falkenhayn preferring to concentrate German efforts against the Russians on the Eastern Front.
Begun in April and used primarily as a means of diverting Allied attention from the Eastern Front, and as a means of testing the use of chlorine gas, it eventually concluded in failure in May. As a consequence of the failure of this attack the German army gave up its attempts to take the town, choosing instead to demolish it through constant bombardment. By the end of the war Ypres had been largely reduced to piles of rubble, the town's magnificent Cloth Hall a wreck (although rebuilt to the original designs in the 1950's).
Second Ypres is generally remembered today as marking the first use of gas on the Western Front. Although introduced with minimal effect on the Russian Eastern Front at Bolimov by the Germans earlier in the war (where it was so cold the gas had frozen), and in conflict with the Hague Convention which outlawed gas warfare, its impact during Second Ypres was startlingly effective.
5,700 canisters containing 168 tons of chlorine gas were released at sunrise on 22 April against French Algerian and territorial division troops following a brief preliminary bombardment by 17-inch howitzers. A veil of greenish-yellow mist could be clearly seen rolling across from the German front lines to the French positions.
Ruins of Ypres as seen from the airThe effectiveness of the gas attack was so complete that it surprised the German infantry who followed up the release of the chlorine gas. The stunned Allied troops fled in panic towards Ypres, the heavy gas settling and clogging the trenches where it gathered. (Click here to read the official German statement issued in the aftermath of the attack.)
Covering four miles of trench lines, the gas affected some 10,000 troops, half of whom died within ten minutes of the gas reaching the front line. Death was caused by asphyxiation. Those who lived were temporarily blinded and stumbled in confusion, coughing heavily. 2,000 of these troops were captured as prisoners of war.
The two advancing Germans corps wearing primitive respirators paced warily through a clear seven kilometre gap in the Allied lines, wary of traps. In planning the attack no reserves had been thought necessary, the German command considering it inconceivable that a major breakthrough could be achieved.
In consequence the actual breakthrough was not exploited to the full. After advancing three kilometres into Allied lines the Germans halted under the hail of a scrambled British General Smith-Dorrien's Second Army counter-offensive. Even so, the loss of high ground to the north significantly weakened the Allied position.
Respiration drill at the frontThe Germans released a second batch of chlorine gas two days later, on 24 April, this time directed against Canadian troops situated north-east of Ypres and again prefaced by a sharp artillery bombardment.
Again the German forces gained ground against the unprotected Canadian troops, although fighting was fierce, spreading far south to Hill 60. The novelty of gas warfare was wearing off, and the advancing German infantry sustained heavy losses from the defending Canadians, who were relieved by arriving British troops on 3 May. During this time the Canadians had suffered heavily, with 5,975 casualties, including 1,000 fatalities.
General Smith-Dorrien proposed a two and a half mile withdrawal closer to Ypres. He felt that nothing short of a large-scale counter-offensive was likely to push the German forces back to their original positions. The idea was met coolly by the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), Sir John French, who effectively dismissed Smith-Dorrien by sending him home to England. (Click here to read Sir John French's reaction to the German use of poison gas.)
Ironically Smith-Dorrien's replacement, General Herbert Plumer (later famed for his successful Messines Offensive), also recommended a general withdrawal to French. The suggestion was this time accepted, taking place following a failed Allied counter-attack by two divisions presided over by French General Ferdinand Foch on 29 April. French executed the planned withdrawal on 1-3 May 1915.
General Herbert PlumerFighting renewed around Ypres on 8 May and continued until 13 May, and then again from 24-25 May, with repeated use of gas attacks. Still the Allied lines held, although German forces secured additional high ground to the east of the town from 8-12 May.
On 24 May a heavy German assault forced a further Allied withdrawal, although little extra ground was ceded. A want of supplies and manpower obliged the Germans to call off the offensive; all that they could do was to bombard the town. Even so, the German attacks had considerably reduced the size of the Allied salient. The highest ground had been lost and it was no more than three miles across and five miles deep.
Losses during the Second Battle of Ypres are estimated at 69,000 Allied troops (59,000 British, 10,000 French), against 35,000 German, the difference in numbers explained by the use of chlorine gas. The Germans' innovative use of gas set the trend for the rest of the war.
Although roundly condemned by the Allies as barbaric and reprehensible, sentiments echoed by many neutral nations, the Allies quickly developed their own form of gas warfare, with the British releasing gas canisters at Loos at the end of September 1915 (although the prevailing wind turned and wafted the gas back into the British trenches). All the allied countries had made extensive use of poison gas by the close of the war."
http://www.firstworldwar.com/battles/ypres2.htm
COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen C. Capt Seid Waddell Capt Tom Brown CW5 Charlie Poulton SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SFC William Farrell SSgt Robert Marx SSG James J. Palmer IV aka "JP4" SSgt (Join to see) TSgt Joe C. SPC (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright Maj Marty Hogan PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SP5 Robert Ruck SCPO Morris RamseyCPL Eric Escasio SPC Margaret Higgins
First World War.com - Battles - The Second Battle of Ypres, 1915
First World War.com - A multimedia history of world war one
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SP5 Robert Ruck
Interesting history about poison gas. I expect the lingering effects on those exposed caused great pain and death after the war ended. Horrible stuff.
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SGT John " Mac " McConnell
Horrible glimpse into the past LTC Stephen F. .. Thanks again for the addition... Great stuff !
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And here we are now talking about the same horrific weapon employment by the Syrians. It seems as though we (the world at large) do not learn from lessons of the past, and history does continue to repeat itself, SGT John " Mac " McConnell.
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SGT John " Mac " McConnell
Sad isn't it ? I am afraid history will always repeat itself LTC Stephen C.. I guess our time we live in now would be called the " Neo- Crusades". Or at least some facsimile there of.... Repeating history....
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Horrible read- not in context- but that it happened. Solid history to learn from SGT John " Mac " McConnell . Have an awesome weekend brother.
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Maj Marty Hogan
SP5 Mark KuzinskiCPT Gabe SnellSGT John " Mac " McConnell COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc" ThomasSFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSLLTC Greg Henning LTC Stephen F. SFC Giovanni Bennett TSgt Joe C.SGT (Join to see) SrA Christopher Wright LTC Stephen C. SFC (Join to see) CPL Crystal Pettway, MBA MSG Andrew White MSgt John McGowanPO1 John Crafton SP5 Robert Ruck CPL Eric Escasio
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