Cases of the use of chemical weapons in history. Dangerous chemical weapon. The grim statistics of war

The First World War was on. On the evening of April 22, 1915, German and French troops opposing each other were near the Belgian city of Ypres. They fought for the city for a long time and to no avail. But this evening the Germans wanted to test a new weapon - poison gas. They brought thousands of cylinders with them, and when the wind blew towards the enemy, they opened the taps, releasing 180 tons of chlorine into the air. A yellowish gas cloud was carried by the wind towards the enemy line.

The panic began. Immersed in a gas cloud, the French soldiers went blind, coughed and suffocated. Three thousand of them died of asphyxiation, another seven thousand were burned.

"At this point, science lost its innocence," says science historian Ernst Peter Fischer. In his words, if before that the purpose of scientific research was to alleviate the conditions of people's lives, now science has created conditions that make it easier to kill a person.

"In the war - for the fatherland"

A way to use chlorine for military purposes was developed by the German chemist Fritz Haber. He is considered the first scientist who subordinated scientific knowledge military needs. Fritz Haber discovered that chlorine is an extremely poisonous gas, which, due to its high density, is concentrated low above the ground. He knew that this gas causes severe swelling of the mucous membranes, coughing, suffocation, and ultimately leads to death. In addition, the poison was cheap: chlorine is found in the waste chemical industry.

"Haber's motto was "In the world - for humanity, in the war - for the fatherland," Ernst Peter Fischer quotes the then head of the chemical department of the Prussian War Ministry. - Then there were other times. Everyone was trying to find poison gas that they could use in war And only the Germans succeeded."

The Ypres attack was a war crime - as early as 1915. After all, the Hague Convention of 1907 prohibited the use of poison and poisoned weapons for military purposes.

German soldiers were also exposed to gas attacks. Colorized photo: 1917 gas attack in Flanders

Arms race

The "success" of Fritz Haber's military innovation became contagious, and not only for the Germans. Simultaneously with the war of states, the "war of chemists" also began. Scientists were tasked with creating chemical weapons that would be ready for use as soon as possible. "Abroad they looked with envy at Haber," says Ernst Peter Fischer, "Many people wanted to have such a scientist in their country." Fritz Haber received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918. True, not for the discovery of poisonous gas, but for his contribution to the implementation of the synthesis of ammonia.

The French and British also experimented with poisonous gases. The use of phosgene and mustard gas, often in combination with each other, became widespread in the war. And yet, poison gases did not play a decisive role in the outcome of the war: these weapons could only be used in favorable weather.

scary mechanism

However, in the first world war a terrible mechanism was launched, and Germany became its engine.

Chemist Fritz Haber not only laid the foundation for the use of chlorine for military purposes, but also, thanks to his good connections in the industry, contributed to the mass production of this chemical weapons. For example, the German chemical concern BASF produced poisonous substances in large quantities during the First World War.

Already after the war with the creation of the IG Farben concern in 1925, Haber joined its supervisory board. Later, during National Socialism, a subsidiary of IG Farben was engaged in the production of "cyclone B", used in the gas chambers of concentration camps.

Context

Fritz Haber himself could not have foreseen this. "He's a tragic figure," Fischer says. In 1933, Haber, a Jew by origin, emigrated to England, expelled from his country, in the service of which he placed his scientific knowledge.

Red line

In total, more than 90 thousand soldiers died on the fronts of the First World War from the use of poison gases. Many died of complications a few years after the end of the war. In 1905, the members of the League of Nations, which included Germany, under the Geneva Protocol pledged not to use chemical weapons. Meanwhile Scientific research on the use of poisonous gases were continued, mainly under the guise of developing means to combat harmful insects.

"Cyclone B" - hydrocyanic acid - an insecticidal agent. "Agent orange" - a substance for deleafing plants. The Americans used defoliant during the Vietnam War to thin out local dense vegetation. As a consequence - poisoned soil, numerous diseases and genetic mutations in the population. The latest example of the use of chemical weapons is Syria.

"You can do whatever you want with poisonous gases, but they can't be used as a target weapon," emphasizes science historian Fisher. “Everyone who is nearby becomes a victim.” The fact that the use of poisonous gas is still “a red line that cannot be crossed”, he considers correct: “Otherwise, the war becomes even more inhuman than it already is.”

The ability of toxic substances to cause the death of people and animals has been known since time immemorial. In the 19th century, poisonous substances began to be used during large-scale hostilities.

However, the birth of chemical weapons as a means of conducting armed struggle in the modern sense should be attributed to the time of the 1st World War.

The First World War, which began in 1914, soon after the start acquired a positional character, which forced the search for new offensive weapons. The German army began to use massive attacks on enemy positions with the help of poisonous and asphyxiating gases. On April 22, 1915, a chlorine gas attack was carried out on the Western Front near the town of Ypres (Belgium), which for the first time showed the effect of the massive use of toxic gas as a means of warfare.

The first harbingers.

On April 14, 1915, near the village of Langemarck, not far from the then little-known Belgian city of Ypres, French units captured a German soldier. During the search, they found a small gauze bag filled with identical pieces of cotton fabric, and a bottle with a colorless liquid. It looked so much like a dressing bag that it was initially ignored.

Apparently, his appointment would have remained incomprehensible if the prisoner had not stated during interrogation that the handbag - special agent protection from the new "crushing" weapons that the German command plans to use on this sector of the front.

When asked about the nature of this weapon, the prisoner readily replied that he had no idea about it, but it seems that this weapon is hidden in metal cylinders that are dug in no man's land between the lines of trenches. To protect against this weapon, it is necessary to soak a flap from the purse with the liquid from the vial and apply it to the mouth and nose.

The French gentlemen officers considered the story of the captured soldier gone mad and did not attach any importance to it. But soon the mysterious cylinders were reported by prisoners captured in neighboring sectors of the front.

On April 18, the British knocked out the Germans from the height of "60" and at the same time captured a German non-commissioned officer. The prisoner also spoke about an unknown weapon and noticed that the cylinders with it were dug at this very height - ten meters from the trenches. Out of curiosity, an English sergeant went on reconnaissance with two soldiers and actually found heavy cylinders in the indicated place. unusual look and unknown purpose. He reported this to the command, but to no avail.

In those days, English radio intelligence, which deciphered fragments of German radio messages, also brought riddles to the Allied command. Imagine the surprise of the codebreakers when they discovered that the German headquarters were extremely interested in the state of the weather!

An unfavorable wind is blowing ... - the Germans reported. “… The wind is getting stronger… its direction is constantly changing… The wind is unstable…”

One radiogram mentioned the name of a certain Dr. Haber. If only the British knew who Dr. Gaber was!

Dr. Fritz Gaber

Fritz Gaber was deeply civilian. At the front, he was in an elegant suit, aggravating the civilian impression with the brilliance of gilded pince-nez. Before the war, he headed the Institute of Physical Chemistry in Berlin and even at the front did not part with his "chemical" books and reference books.

Haber was in the service of the German government. As a consultant to the German War Office, he was tasked with creating an irritant poison that would force enemy troops to leave the trenches.

A few months later, he and his staff created a weapon using chlorine gas, which was put into production in January 1915.

Although Haber hated war, he believed that the use of chemical weapons could save many lives if the exhausting trench warfare on the Western Front stopped. His wife Clara was also a chemist and strongly opposed his wartime work.

April 22, 1915

The point chosen for the attack was in the north-eastern part of the Ypres salient, at the point where the French and English fronts converged, heading south, and from where the trenches departed from the canal near Besinge.

The sector of the front closest to the Germans was defended by soldiers who arrived from the Algerian colonies. Once out of their hiding places, they basked in the sun, talking loudly to each other. About five o'clock in the afternoon a large greenish cloud appeared in front of the German trenches. According to witnesses, many Frenchmen watched with interest the approaching front of this bizarre "yellow fog", but did not attach any importance to it.

Suddenly they smelled a strong smell. Everyone had a pinching in the nose, their eyes hurt, as if from acrid smoke. "Yellow fog" choked, blinded, burned the chest with fire, turned inside out. Without remembering themselves, the Africans rushed out of the trenches. Who hesitated, fell, seized by suffocation. People rushed about the trenches, screaming; colliding with each other, they fell and fought in convulsions, catching air with twisted mouths.

And the "yellow fog" rolled farther and farther to the rear of the French positions, sowing death and panic along the way. Behind the fog, German chains marched in orderly rows with rifles at the ready and bandages on their faces. But they had no one to attack. Thousands of Algerians and French lay dead in the trenches and in artillery positions.”

However, for the Germans themselves, such a result is unexpected. Their generals treated the venture of the "bespectacled doctor" as an interesting experience and therefore did not really prepare for a large-scale offensive.

When the front turned out to be actually broken, the only unit that poured into the gap was an infantry battalion, which, of course, could not decide the fate of the French defense.

The incident made a lot of noise and by the evening the world knew that a new participant had entered the battlefield, capable of competing with "His Majesty the machine gun." Chemists rushed to the front, and by the next morning it became clear that for the first time the Germans used a cloud of suffocating gas - chlorine - for military purposes. It suddenly turned out that any country that even has the makings of a chemical industry can get its hands on most powerful weapon. The only consolation was that it was not difficult to escape from chlorine. It is enough to cover the respiratory organs with a bandage moistened with a solution of soda, or hyposulfite, and chlorine is not so terrible. If these substances are not at hand, it is enough to breathe through a wet rag. Water significantly weakens the effect of chlorine, which dissolves in it. Many chemical institutions rushed to develop the design of gas masks, but the Germans were in a hurry to repeat the gas balloon attack until the Allies had reliable means of protection.

On April 24, having collected reserves for the development of the offensive, they launched a strike on a neighboring sector of the front, which was defended by the Canadians. But the Canadian troops were warned about the "yellow fog" and therefore, seeing the yellow-green cloud, they prepared for the action of gases. They soaked their scarves, stockings and blankets in puddles and applied them to their faces, covering their mouths, noses and eyes from the caustic atmosphere. Some of them, of course, suffocated to death, others were poisoned for a long time, or blinded, but no one moved. And when the fog crept to the rear and the German infantry followed, the Canadian machine guns and rifles spoke, making huge gaps in the ranks of the advancing, who did not expect resistance.

Replenishment of the arsenal of chemical weapons

As the war went on, many toxic compounds in addition to chlorine were being tested for effectiveness as chemical warfare agents.

In June 1915 was applied bromine, used in mortar shells; the first tear substance also appeared: benzyl bromide combined with xylene bromide. Artillery shells were filled with this gas. The use of gases in artillery shells, which later became so widespread, was first clearly observed on June 20 in the Argonne forests.

Phosgene
Phosgene was widely used during the First World War. It was first used by the Germans in December 1915 on the Italian front.

At room temperature, phosgene is a colorless gas, with the smell of rotten hay, which turns into a liquid at a temperature of -8 °. Before the war, phosgene was mined in large quantities and was used to make various dyes for woolen fabrics.

Phosgene is very poisonous and, in addition, acts as a substance that strongly irritates the lungs and causes damage to the mucous membranes. Its danger is further increased by the fact that its effect is not detected immediately: sometimes painful phenomena appear only 10-11 hours after inhalation.

Relative cheapness and ease of preparation, strong toxic properties, lingering effect and low persistence (the smell disappears after 1 1/2 - 2 hours) make phosgene a substance very convenient for military purposes.

Mustard gas
On the night of July 12-13, 1917, in order to disrupt the offensive of the Anglo-French troops, Germany used mustard gas- liquid poisonous substance of skin and blistering action. During the first use of mustard gas, 2,490 people received injuries of varying severity, of which 87 died. Mustard gas has a pronounced local effect - it affects the eyes and respiratory organs, the gastrointestinal tract and the skin. Being absorbed into the blood, it also exhibits a generally poisonous effect. Mustard gas affects the skin when exposed, both in the droplet and in the vapor state. Regular summer and winter military uniforms, like almost any type of civilian clothing, do not protect the skin from drops and vapors of mustard gas. There was no real protection of troops from mustard gas in those years, and its use on the battlefield was effective until the very end of the war.

It is amusing to note that with a certain degree of fantasy, poisonous substances can be considered a catalyst for the emergence of fascism and the initiator of the Second World War. Indeed, it was after the English gas attack near Komyn that the German corporal Adolf Schicklgruber, temporarily blinded by chlorine, lay in the hospital and began to think about the fate of the deceived German people, the triumph of the French, the betrayal of the Jews, etc. Subsequently, while in prison, he streamlined these thoughts in his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), but the title of this book already had a pseudonym - Adolf Hitler.

Results of the First World War.

The ideas of chemical warfare have taken strong positions in the military doctrines of all the world's leading states without exception. Great Britain and France took up the improvement of chemical weapons and the increase in production capacities for their manufacture. Germany, defeated in the war, forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles from having chemical weapons, and not recovering from civil war Russia is agreeing to build a joint mustard gas plant and test samples of chemical weapons at Russian test sites. The United States met the end of the World War with the most powerful military-chemical potential, surpassing England and France combined in the production of poisonous substances.

Nerve gases

The history of nerve agents begins on December 23, 1936, when Dr. Gerhard Schroeder of the I. G. Farben laboratory in Leverkusen first obtained tabun (GA, ethyl ester of dimethylphosphoramidocyanide acid).

In 1938, the second powerful organophosphorus agent, sarin (GB, 1-methylethyl ester of methylphosphonofluoride acid), was discovered there. At the end of 1944, a structural analogue of sarin was obtained in Germany, called soman (GD, 1,2,2-trimethylpropyl ester of methylphosphonofluoric acid), which is about 3 times more toxic than sarin.

In 1940, in the city of Oberbayern (Bavaria), a large plant belonging to "IG Farben" was put into operation for the production of mustard gas and mustard compounds, with a capacity of 40 thousand tons. In total, in the pre-war and first war years in Germany, about 17 new technological installations for the production of OM were built, the annual capacity of which exceeded 100 thousand tons. In the city of Dühernfurt, on the Oder (now Silesia, Poland), there was one of the largest production facilities for organic matter. By 1945, Germany had 12 thousand tons of herd in stock, the production of which was nowhere else.

The reasons why Germany did not use chemical weapons during World War II remain unclear to this day; according to one version, Hitler did not give the command to use CWA during the war because he believed that the USSR had more chemical weapons. Churchill recognized the need to use chemical weapons only if they were used by the enemy. But the indisputable fact is the superiority of Germany in the production of poisonous substances: the production of nerve gases in Germany came as a complete surprise to the Allied forces in 1945.

Separate work on obtaining these substances was carried out in the USA and Great Britain, but a breakthrough in their production could not occur until 1945. During the years of World War II in the United States, 135 thousand tons of toxic substances were produced at 17 installations, half of the total volume was accounted for mustard gas. Mustard gas was equipped with about 5 million shells and 1 million air bombs. From 1945 to 1980, only 2 types of chemical weapons were used in the West: lachrymators (CS: 2-chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile - tear gas) and herbicides (the so-called "Orange Agent") used by the US Army in Vietnam, the consequences of which are the infamous "Yellow Rains". CS alone, 6,800 tons were used. The United States produced chemical weapons until 1969.

Conclusion

In 1974, President Nixon and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev signed a significant agreement aimed at banning chemical weapons. It was confirmed by President Ford in 1976 at bilateral talks in Geneva.

However, the history of chemical weapons did not end there...

The basis of the damaging effect of chemical weapons is toxic substances (S), which have a physiological effect on the human body.

Unlike other combat weapons, chemical weapons effectively destroy the enemy's manpower for up to large area without destroying assets. This weapon mass destruction.

Together with the air, toxic substances penetrate into any premises, shelters, military equipment. Damage persists for some time, objects and terrain become infected.

Types of poisonous substances

Poisonous substances under the shell of chemical munitions are in solid and liquid form.

At the time of their application, when the shell is destroyed, they come to combat state:

• vaporous (gaseous);
• aerosol (drizzle, smoke, fog);
• drip-liquid.

Poisonous substances are the main damaging factor of chemical weapons.

Characteristics of chemical weapons

Such weapons are shared:

• According to the type of physiological effects of OM on the human body.
• For tactical purposes.
• By the speed of the coming impact.
• According to the resistance of the applied OV.
• By means and methods of application.

Human exposure classification:

• OV nerve agent action. Deadly, fast-acting, persistent. They act on the central nervous system. The purpose of their use is the rapid mass incapacitation of personnel with the maximum number of deaths. Substances: sarin, soman, tabun, V-gases.
• OV skin blister action. Deadly, slow acting, persistent. They affect the body through the skin or respiratory organs. Substances: mustard gas, lewisite.
• OV of general toxic action. Deadly, fast acting, unstable. They disrupt the function of the blood to deliver oxygen to the tissues of the body. Substances: hydrocyanic acid and cyanogen chloride.
• OV suffocating action. Deadly, slow acting, unstable. The lungs are affected. Substances: phosgene and diphosgene.
• OV psychochemical action. Non-lethal. They temporarily affect the central nervous system, affect mental activity, cause temporary blindness, deafness, a sense of fear, restriction of movement. Substances: inuclidyl-3-benzilate (BZ) and lysergic acid diethylamide.
• OV irritating action (irritants). Non-lethal. They act quickly, but for a short time. Outside the infected zone, their effect stops after a few minutes. These are tear and sneezing substances that irritate the upper respiratory tract and can affect the skin. Substances: CS, CR, DM(adamsite), CN(chloroacetophenone).

Damage factors of chemical weapons

Toxins are chemical protein substances of animal, plant or microbial origin with high toxicity. Typical representatives: butulic toxin, ricin, staphylococcal entsrotoxin.

The damaging factor determined by toxodose and concentration. The zone of chemical contamination can be divided into the focus of exposure (people are massively affected there) and the zone of distribution of the infected cloud.

First use of chemical weapons

Chemist Fritz Haber was a consultant to the German War Office and is called the father of chemical weapons for his work in the development and use of chlorine and other poisonous gases. The government set the task before him - to create chemical weapons with irritating and toxic substances. It's a paradox, but Haber believed that with the help of a gas war, he would save many lives by ending the trench war.

The history of application begins on April 22, 1915, when the German military first launched a chlorine gas attack. A greenish cloud arose in front of the trenches of the French soldiers, which they watched with curiosity.

When the cloud came close, a sharp smell was felt, the soldiers stinged in the eyes and nose. The mist burned the chest, blinded, choked. The smoke moved deep into the French positions, sowing panic and death, followed by German soldiers with bandages on their faces, but they had no one to fight with.

By evening, chemists from other countries found out what kind of gas it was. It turned out that any country can produce it. Salvation from him turned out to be simple: you need to cover your mouth and nose with a bandage soaked in a solution of soda, and plain water on a bandage weakens the effect of chlorine.

After 2 days, the Germans repeated the attack, but the Allied soldiers soaked clothes and rags in puddles and applied them to their faces. Thanks to this, they survived and remained in position. When the Germans entered the battlefield, machine guns “spoke” to them.

Chemical weapons of the First World War

On May 31, 1915, the first gas attack on the Russians took place. Russian troops mistook the greenish cloud for camouflage and brought even more soldiers to the front line. Soon the trenches filled with corpses. Even the grass died from the gas.

In June 1915, they began to use a new poisonous substance - bromine. It was used in projectiles.

In December 1915 - phosgene. It smells like hay and has a lingering effect. Cheapness made it easy to use. At first they were produced in special cylinders, and by 1916 they began to make shells.

Bandages did not save from blistering gases. It penetrated through clothes and shoes, causing burns on the body. The area was poisoned for more than a week. Such was the king of gases - mustard gas.

Not only the Germans, their opponents also began to produce gas-filled shells. In one of the trenches of the First World War, Adolf Hitler was also poisoned by the British.

For the first time, Russia also used this weapon on the battlefields of the First World War.

Chemical weapons of mass destruction

Experiments with chemical weapons took place under the guise of developing poisons for insects. Used in the gas chambers of concentration camps "Cyclone B" - hydrocyanic acid - an insecticidal agent.

"Agent Orange" - a substance for deleafing vegetation. Used in Vietnam, soil poisoning caused severe illness and mutations in the local population.

In 2013, in Syria, in the suburbs of Damascus, a chemical attack was carried out on a residential area - the lives of hundreds of civilians were claimed, including many children. A nerve agent was used, most likely Sarin.

One of the modern variants of chemical weapons is binary weapons. It comes in combat readiness eventually chemical reaction after connecting two harmless components.

Victims of chemical weapons of mass destruction are all those who fell into the strike zone. Back in 1905, an international agreement was signed on the non-use of chemical weapons. To date, 196 countries around the world have signed up to the ban.

In addition to chemical to weapons of mass destruction and biological.

Types of protection

• Collective. The shelter can provide long stays for people without personal protective equipment if it is equipped with filter-ventilation kits and is well sealed.
• Individual. Gas mask, protective clothing and a personal chemical bag (PPI) with antidote and liquid to treat clothing and skin lesions.

Prohibition on use

Humanity was shocked by the terrible consequences and huge losses of people after the use of weapons of mass destruction. Therefore, in 1928, the Geneva Protocol came into force on the prohibition of the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other similar gases and bacteriological means. This protocol prohibits the use of not only chemical, but also biological weapons. In 1992, another document came into force, the Chemical Weapons Convention. This document complements the Protocol, it speaks not only of a ban on the manufacture and use, but also on the destruction of all chemical weapons. The implementation of this document is controlled by a specially created committee at the UN. But not all states signed this document, for example, it was not recognized by Egypt, Angola, North Korea, South Sudan. It also entered into legal force in Israel and Myanmar.

In the early April morning of 1915, a light breeze blew from the side of the German positions that opposed the line of defense of the Entente troops twenty kilometers from the city of Ypres (Belgium). Together with him, a dense yellowish-green cloud suddenly appeared in the direction of the Allied trenches. At that moment, few people knew that it was the breath of death, and, in the stingy language of front-line reports, the first use of chemical weapons on the Western Front.

Tears before death

To be absolutely precise, the use of chemical weapons began in 1914, and the French came up with this disastrous initiative. But then ethyl bromoacetate, which belongs to the group of chemicals of an irritant effect, and not a lethal one, was put into use. They were filled with 26-mm grenades, which fired at the German trenches. When the supply of this gas came to an end, it was replaced with chloroacetone, similar in effect.

In response to this, the Germans, who also did not consider themselves obliged to comply with generally accepted legal regulations, enshrined in the Hague Convention, at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, held in October of the same year, fired at the British with shells filled with a chemical irritant. However, at that time they failed to reach its dangerous concentration.

Thus, in April 1915, there was not the first case of the use of chemical weapons, but, unlike the previous ones, the lethal chlorine gas was used to destroy enemy manpower. The result of the attack was stunning. One hundred and eighty tons of sprayed killed five thousand soldiers of the allied forces and another ten thousand became disabled as a result of the resulting poisoning. By the way, the Germans themselves suffered. The death-bearing cloud touched their position with its edge, the defenders of which were not fully provided with gas masks. In the history of the war, this episode was designated "a black day at Ypres."

Further use of chemical weapons in World War I

Wanting to build on success, the Germans repeated a chemical attack in the Warsaw region a week later, this time against Russian army. And here death got a plentiful harvest - more than a thousand two hundred killed and several thousand left crippled. Naturally, the Entente countries tried to protest against such a gross violation of the principles of international law, but Berlin cynically declared that the 1896 Hague Convention only mentions poisonous projectiles, and not gases per se. To them, to admit, they did not try to object - the war always crosses out the works of diplomats.

The specifics of that terrible war

As military historians have repeatedly emphasized, during the First World War, the tactics of positional actions were widely used, in which solid front lines were clearly marked, distinguished by stability, density of troops and high engineering and technical support.

This largely reduced the effectiveness of offensive operations, since both sides met with resistance from the powerful defense of the enemy. The only way out of the impasse could be an unconventional tactical solution, which was the first use of chemical weapons.

New war crimes page

The use of chemical weapons in World War I was a major innovation. The range of its influence on a person was very wide. As can be seen from the above episodes of the First World War, it ranged from harmful, which was caused by chloracetone, ethyl bromoacetate and a number of others that had an irritant effect, to deadly - phosgene, chlorine and mustard gas.

Despite the fact that statistics show the relatively limited lethal potential of the gas (of the total number of those affected - only 5% of deaths), the number of dead and maimed was enormous. This gives the right to claim that the first use of chemical weapons opened new page war crimes in human history.

In the later stages of the war, both sides managed to develop and put into use sufficiently effective means of protection against enemy chemical attacks. This made the use of poisonous substances less effective, and gradually led to the abandonment of their use. However, it was the period from 1914 to 1918 that went down in history as the "war of chemists", since the first use of chemical weapons in the world took place on its battlefields.

The tragedy of the defenders of the Osovets fortress

However, let us return to the chronicle of military operations of that period. At the beginning of May 1915, the Germans carried out a target against the Russian units defending the Osovets fortress, located fifty kilometers from Bialystok (present-day Poland). According to eyewitnesses, after a long shelling with deadly substances, among which several types of them were used at once, all living things at a considerable distance were poisoned.

Not only people and animals that fell into the shelling zone died, but all vegetation was destroyed. The leaves of the trees turned yellow and crumbled before our eyes, and the grass turned black and fell to the ground. The picture was truly apocalyptic and did not fit into the consciousness of a normal person.

But, of course, the defenders of the citadel suffered the most. Even those of them who escaped death, for the most part, received severe chemical burns and were terribly mutilated. It is no coincidence that they appearance inspired such horror on the enemy that the counterattack of the Russians, who eventually threw the enemy back from the fortress, entered the history of the war under the name "attack of the dead".

Development and use of phosgene

The first use of chemical weapons revealed a significant number of their technical shortcomings, which were eliminated in 1915 by a group of French chemists led by Victor Grignard. The result of their research was a new generation of deadly gas - phosgene.

Absolutely colorless, in contrast to the greenish-yellow chlorine, it betrayed its presence only with a barely perceptible smell of moldy hay, which made it difficult to detect. Compared to its predecessor, the novelty had greater toxicity, but at the same time had certain disadvantages.

Symptoms of poisoning, and even the death of the victims, did not occur immediately, but a day after the gas entered the respiratory tract. This allowed the poisoned and often doomed soldiers to participate in hostilities for a long time. In addition, phosgene was very heavy, and to increase mobility it had to be mixed with the same chlorine. This infernal mixture was called the "White Star" by the Allies, since it was with this sign that the cylinders containing it were marked.

Devilish novelty

On the night of July 13, 1917, in the area of ​​the Belgian city of Ypres, which had already won notoriety, the Germans made the first use of a chemical weapon of skin-blister action. In the place of its debut, it became known as mustard gas. Its carriers were mines, which sprayed a yellow oily liquid when they exploded.

The use of mustard gas, like the use of chemical weapons in World War I in general, was another diabolical innovation. This "achievement of civilization" was created to damage the skin, as well as the respiratory and digestive organs. Neither soldier's uniforms, nor any types of civilian clothing saved from its impact. It penetrated through any fabric.

In those years, any reliable means of protection against its contact with the body were not yet produced, which made the use of mustard gas quite effective until the end of the war. Already the first use of this substance disabled two and a half thousand enemy soldiers and officers, of which a significant number died.

Gas that does not creep on the ground

German chemists took up the development of mustard gas not by chance. The first use of chemical weapons on the Western Front showed that the substances used - chlorine and phosgene - had a common and very significant disadvantage. They were heavier than air, and therefore, in atomized form, they fell down, filling trenches and all kinds of depressions. The people who were in them were poisoned, but those who were on the hills at the time of the attack often remained unharmed.

It was necessary to invent a poison gas with a lower specific gravity and capable of hitting its victims at any level. They became mustard gas, which appeared in July 1917. It should be noted that British chemists quickly established its formula, and in 1918 launched a deadly weapon into production, but the truce that followed two months later prevented large-scale use. Europe breathed a sigh of relief - the First World War, which lasted four years, ended. The use of chemical weapons became irrelevant, and their development was temporarily stopped.

The beginning of the use of poisonous substances by the Russian army

The first case of the use of chemical weapons by the Russian army dates back to 1915, when, under the leadership of Lieutenant General V.N. Ipatiev, a program for the production of this type of weapon in Russia was successfully implemented. However, its use was then in the nature of technical tests and did not pursue tactical goals. Only a year later, as a result of work on the introduction into production of developments created in this area, it became possible to use them on the fronts.

The full-scale use of military developments that came out of domestic laboratories began in the summer of 1916 during the famous It is this event that makes it possible to determine the year of the first use of chemical weapons by the Russian army. It is known that during the period of the combat operation, artillery shells were used, filled with asphyxiating gas chloropicrin and poisonous - vensinite and phosgene. As is clear from the report sent to the Main Artillery Directorate, the use of chemical weapons rendered "a great service to the army."

The grim statistics of war

The first use of the chemical was a disastrous precedent. In subsequent years, its use not only expanded, but also underwent qualitative changes. Summing up the sad statistics of the four war years, historians state that during this period opposing sides produced at least 180 thousand tons of chemical weapons, of which at least 125 thousand tons were used. On the battlefields, 40 types of various poisonous substances were tested, which brought death and injury to 1,300,000 military personnel and civilians who found themselves in the zone of their application.

A lesson left unlearned

Did humanity learn a worthy lesson from the events of those years and did the date of the first use of chemical weapons become a black day in its history? Hardly. And today, despite the international legal acts, prohibiting the use of poisonous substances, the arsenals of most states of the world are full of their modern developments, and more and more often there are reports in the press about its use in various parts peace. Humanity is stubbornly moving along the path of self-destruction, ignoring the bitter experience of previous generations.

On April 7, the United States struck missile attack at the Syrian Shayrat airbase in Homs province. The operation was a response to a chemical attack in Idlib on April 4, for which Washington and Western countries blame Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Official Damascus denies any involvement in the attack.

The chemical attack killed more than 70 people and injured more than 500. This is not the first such attack in Syria and not the first in history. The largest cases of the use of chemical weapons are in the RBC photo gallery.

One of the first major cases of the use of chemical warfare agents occurred April 22, 1915, when German troops sprayed about 168 tons of chlorine on positions near the Belgian city of Ypres. The victims of this attack were 1100 people. In total, during the First World War, as a result of the use of chemical weapons, about 100 thousand people died, 1.3 million were injured.

In the photo: a group of British soldiers blinded by chlorine

Photo: Daily Herald Archive / NMeM / Global Look Press

During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935-1936) Despite the ban on the use of chemical weapons established by the Geneva Protocol (1925), on the orders of Benito Mussolini, mustard gas was used in Ethiopia. The Italian military stated that the substance used during the hostilities was not lethal, however, during the entire conflict, about 100 thousand people (military and civilians) who did not have even the simplest means of chemical protection died from poisonous substances.

In the photo: Red Cross soldiers carry the wounded through the Abyssinian desert

Photo: Mary Evans Picture Library / Global Look Press

During the Second World War, chemical weapons were practically not used on the fronts, but were widely used by the Nazis to kill people in concentration camps. Hydrocyanic acid-based pesticide called "cyclone-B" was first used against humans in September 1941 in Auschwitz. For the first time, these deadly gas pellets were used September 3, 1941 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 Poles became victims, the second time 900 Soviet prisoners of war became victims. Hundreds of thousands of people died from the use of "cyclone-B" in Nazi concentration camps.

In November 1943 During the Battle of Changde, the Imperial Japanese Army used chemical and bacteriological weapons against Chinese soldiers. According to the testimonies of witnesses, in addition to the poisonous gases of mustard gas and lewisite, fleas infected with bubonic plague. The exact number of victims of the use of toxic substances is unknown.

Pictured: Chinese soldiers march through the ruined streets of Changde

During the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1971 American troops to destroy vegetation, to facilitate the search for enemy units in the jungle, used various chemical substances, the most common of which was the chemical known as Agent Orange. The substance was produced using a simplified technology and contained high concentrations of dioxin, which causes genetic mutations and cancer. The Vietnamese Red Cross estimated that 3 million people were affected by the use of Agent Orange, including 150,000 children born with mutations.

Pictured: 12-year-old boy suffering from the effects of Agent Orange

March 20, 1995 members of the Aum Shinrikyo sect sprayed the nerve agent sarin on the Tokyo subway. As a result of the attack, 13 people were killed and another 6,000 were injured. Five members of the sect entered the carriages, lowered packages of volatile liquid onto the floor and pierced them with the tip of an umbrella, after which they left the train. According to experts, there could have been much more victims if the poisonous substance had been sprayed in other ways.

Pictured: Doctors treating passengers affected by sarin

November 2004 American troops used white phosphorus ammunition during the assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Initially, the Pentagon denied the use of such ammunition, but eventually admitted this fact. Exact amount fatalities from the use of white phosphorus in Fallujah are unknown. White phosphorus used as an incendiary agent (it causes severe burns to people), but it and its decay products are highly toxic.

Pictured: U.S. Marines escorting a captured Iraqi

The largest chemical attack in Syria since the standoff took place in April 2013 in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus. As a result of shelling with sarin, according to various sources, from 280 to 1,700 people died. UN inspectors were able to establish that surface-to-ground missiles with sarin were used in this place, and they were used by the Syrian military.

Pictured: UN chemical weapons experts collect samples