"Gas! Gas! Quick, boys — An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime. . . "
Dulce et Decorum est.
Wilfred Owen
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| Tear gas casualties from the 55th Division in April, 1918. |
Owen's poem is well-known, as is the story of the "first" gas attack at Ypres in April, 1915, but gas had been around and used by all sides well before Owen or Ypres.
The French were the first to use gas as early as August, 1914. They used grenades filled with tear gas, but the concentration was so low that the German soldiers didn't even notice. Two months later, the Germans tried something similar against the British at Neuve Chapelle, with similar results.
The first large scale use of gas (although here were tests carried out locally) was on the Russian front on January 31, 1915. In this case, the gas froze before it could vaporize and was ineffective. So, the first effective use of gas on major scale was at Ypres.
The British, while screaming outrage at German use of gas, quickly developed their own program and used gas at Loos on 25th September, 1915. In this case the gas blew back on the British soldiers, hindering them more than the enemy. However, it did produce an extraordinary photograph of the advance.
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| The British advance through gas at Loos. |
Like bayonets during the war and machine guns after, gas has a fearsome reputation, but artillery killed far more soldiers than any of those weapons.
Gassed last night, and gassed the night before
Going to get gassed tonight;
If we never get gassed anymore.
When we're gassed, were sick as we can be
For Phosgene and Mustard Gas is much too much for me.
They're warning us, they're warning us,
One respirator for the four of us
Thank your lucky stars that three of us can run,
So one of us can use it all alone.
WWI Song
