Dangerous chemical weapon. History of the use of chemical weapons What is a chemical weapon

A hundred years have passed since the end of the First World War, remembered mainly for the horrors of the mass use of chemical weapons. Its colossal reserves, which remained after the war and multiplied many times in the interwar period, should have led to an apocalypse in the Second. But it passed. Although there were still local cases of the use of chemical weapons. Real plans for its massive use by Germany and Great Britain were made public. Probably, there were such plans in the USSR with the USA, but nothing is known for certain about them. We will tell you all about this in this article.

However, in the beginning, let us recall what a chemical weapon is. This is a weapon of mass destruction, the action of which is based on the toxic properties of poisonous substances (S). Chemical weapons are classified according to the following characteristics:

- the nature of the physiological effects of OM on the human body;

- tactical purpose;

- the speed of the oncoming impact;

- resistance of the used agent;

— means and methods of application.

According to the nature of the physiological effects on the human body, six main types of toxic substances are distinguished:

- Nerve agents that affect the nervous system and cause death. These agents include sarin, soman, tabun, and V-gases.

- Agents of blistering action, causing damage mainly through the skin, and when used in the form of aerosols and vapors - also through the respiratory system. The main OM of this group are mustard gas and lewisite.

- OS of general toxic action, which, getting into the body, disrupt the transfer of oxygen from the blood to the tissues. This is an instantaneous OV. These include hydrocyanic acid and cyanogen chloride.

- Asphyxiating agents, affecting mainly the lungs. The main OMs are phosgene and diphosgene.

- OV of psychochemical action, capable of incapacitating the enemy's manpower for some time. These agents, acting on the central nervous system, disrupt the normal mental activity of a person or cause such disorders as temporary blindness, deafness, a sense of fear, and limitation of motor functions. Poisoning with these substances in doses that cause mental disorders does not lead to death. OBs from this group are quinuclidyl-3-benzilate (BZ) and lysergic acid diethylamide.

— OV irritating action. These are fast-acting agents that stop their action after leaving the infected area, and the signs of poisoning disappear after 1-10 minutes. This group of agents includes lachrymal substances that cause profuse lacrimation, and sneezing substances that irritate the respiratory tract.

According to the tactical classification, toxic substances are divided into groups according to their combat purpose: lethal and temporarily incapacitating manpower. According to the speed of exposure, high-speed and slow-acting agents are distinguished. Depending on the duration of the preservation of the damaging ability, agents are divided into substances of short-term action and long-term action.

Substances are delivered to the place of their application: artillery shells, rockets, mines, aerial bombs, gas cannons, balloon gas launch systems, VAPs (pouring aviation devices), grenades, checkers.

The history of combat OV has more than one hundred years. Various chemical compounds were used to poison enemy soldiers or temporarily disable them. Most often, such methods were used during the siege of fortresses, since it is not very convenient to use poisonous substances during a maneuver war. However, of course, there was no need to talk about any massive use of toxic substances. Chemical weapons began to be considered by generals as one of the means of warfare only after poisonous substances began to be obtained in industrial quantities and they learned how to store them safely.

It also required certain changes in the psychology of the military: back in the 19th century, poisoning your opponents like rats was considered an ignoble and unworthy deed. The use of sulfur dioxide as a chemical warfare agent by British Admiral Thomas Gokhran was met with indignation by the British military elite. Curiously, chemical weapons became banned even before the start of mass use. In 1899, the Hague Convention was adopted, it spoke about the prohibition of weapons that use strangulation or poisoning to defeat the enemy. However, this convention did not prevent either the Germans or the rest of the participants in the First World War (including Russia) from massively using poison gases.

So, Germany was the first to violate the existing agreements and, first, in the small Bolimovsky battle of 1915, and then in the second battle near the town of Ypres, it used its chemical weapons. On the eve of the planned offensive, German troops installed more than 120 batteries equipped with gas cylinders along the front. These actions were carried out late at night, secret from enemy intelligence, which naturally knew about the impending breakthrough, but neither the British nor the French had any idea about the forces with which it was supposed to be carried out. In the early morning of April 22, the offensive began not with a cannonade characteristic of this, but with the fact that the Allied troops suddenly saw green fog crawling towards them from the side where the German fortifications were supposed to be located. At that time, ordinary masks were the only means of chemical protection, but due to the complete surprise of such an attack, most of the soldiers did not have them. The first ranks of the French and English detachments literally fell down dead. Despite the fact that the chlorine-based gas used by the Germans, later called mustard gas, mainly spread at a height of 1-2 meters above the ground, its amount was enough to hit more than 15 thousand people, and among them were not only the British and French, but also the Germans . At one moment, the wind blew on the positions of the German army, as a result of which many soldiers who were not wearing protective masks were injured. While the gas corroded the eyes and suffocated the enemy soldiers, the Germans, dressed in protective suits, followed him and finished off the unconscious people. The army of the French and British fled, the soldiers, ignoring the orders of the commanders, abandoned their positions without having time to fire a single shot, in fact, the Germans got not only the fortified area, but also most of the abandoned provisions and weapons. To date, the use of mustard gas in the Battle of Ypres is recognized as one of the most inhuman actions in world history, as a result of which more than 5 thousand people died, while the rest of the survivors who received a different dose of deadly poison remained crippled for life.

Already after the Vietnam War, scientists have identified another detrimental effect of the effects of OM on the human body. Quite often, those affected by chemical weapons gave inferior offspring, i.e. freaks were born in both the first and second generations.

Thus, Pandora's box was opened, and the howling countries began to poison each other everywhere with poisonous substances, although the effectiveness of their action hardly exceeded the mortality from artillery fire. The possibility of application was extremely dependent on the weather, direction and strength of the wind. In some cases, suitable conditions for massive use had to be expected for weeks. When chemical weapons were used during offensives, the side using them itself suffered losses from its own chemical weapons. For these reasons, the belligerents mutually "quietly renounced the use of weapons of mass destruction" and in subsequent wars, the massive military use of chemical weapons was no longer observed. An interesting fact is that among those injured as a result of the use of chemical agents was Adolf Hitler, who was poisoned by English gases. In total, during the First World War, about 1.3 million people suffered from the use of chemical agents, of which about 100 thousand died.

In the interwar years, chemicals were periodically used to destroy certain nationalities and suppress rebellions. Thus, the Soviet government of Lenin used poison gas in 1920 during the assault on the village of Gimry (Dagestan). In 1921, he poisoned the peasants during the Tambov uprising. The order, signed by military commanders Tukhachevsky and Antonov-Ovseenko, read: “The forests in which the bandits are hiding must be cleared with poison gas. This must be carefully calculated so that a layer of gas penetrates into the forests and kills everything hiding there.” In 1924, the Romanian army used OV during the suppression of the Tatarbunary uprising in Ukraine. During the Rif War in Spanish Morocco from 1921-1927, combined Spanish and French troops dropped mustard gas bombs in an attempt to put down a Berber uprising.

In 1925, 16 countries of the world with the greatest military potential signed the Geneva Protocol, thereby pledging never again to use gas in military operations. Notably, while the United States delegation, led by the President, signed the Protocol, it languished in the US Senate until 1975, when it was finally ratified.

In violation of the Geneva Protocol, Italy used mustard gas against Senussi forces in Libya. Poison gas was used against the Libyans as early as January 1928. And in 1935, Italy used mustard gas against the Ethiopians during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. The chemical weapons dropped by military aircraft "proved to be very effective" and were used "on a massive scale against civilians and troops, and for pollution and water supplies." The use of OV continued until March 1939. By some estimates, up to one-third of Ethiopian war casualties were caused by chemical weapons.

It is not clear how the League of Nations behaved in this situation, people were dying from the most barbaric weapons, and she was silent, as if encouraging him to continue to use it. Perhaps for this reason, in 1937, Japan began to use tear gas in hostilities: the Chinese city of Woqu was bombed - about 1,000 bombs were dropped on the ground. Later, the Japanese detonated 2,500 chemical shells during the Battle of Dingxiang. Authorized by Japanese Emperor Hirohito, toxic gas was used during the 1938 Battle of Wuhan. It was also used during the invasion of Changde. In 1939, mustard gas was used against both Kuomintang and Communist Chinese troops. They did not stop there and continued to use chemical weapons until the final defeat in the war.

The Japanese army was armed with up to ten types of chemical warfare agents - phosgene, mustard gas, lewisite and others. It is noteworthy that in 1933, immediately after the Nazis came to power, Japan secretly purchased equipment for the production of mustard gas from Germany and began to produce it in Hiroshima Prefecture. Subsequently, military chemical plants appeared in other cities of Japan, and then in China, where a special school was also organized for the training of specialized military units operating in China.

It should be noted that chemical weapons were tested on living prisoners in the infamous "731" and "516" detachments. Due to fear of retribution, however, these weapons were never used against Western nations. Asian psychology did not allow "bullying" against the powers that be. According to various estimates, the Japanese used OV more than 2 thousand times. In total, about 90 thousand Chinese soldiers died from the use of Japanese chemicals, there were civilian casualties, but they were not counted.

It should be noted that by the beginning of World War II, Great Britain, Germany, the USSR and the United States had very significant stocks of various chemical warfare agents filled into ammunition. In addition, each country was actively preparing not only to use its own weapons, but also developed active protection against them, if used by the enemy.

Ideas about the role of chemical weapons in the course of warfare were mainly based on an analysis of the experience of their use in operations in 1917–1918. Artillery remained the main means of using explosive weapons to destroy the enemy's location to a depth of 6 km. Beyond this limit, the use of chemical weapons was assigned to aviation. Artillery was used to infect the area with persistent agents such as mustard gas and to exhaust the enemy with irritating agents. For the use of chemical weapons in the armies of the leading countries, chemical troops were created that were armed with chemical mortars, gas launchers, gas cylinders, smoke devices, ground contamination devices, chemical land mines and mechanized means for degassing the area ... However, let's return to the chemical weapons of individual countries.

The first known case of the use of agents in World War II occurred on September 8, 1939, during the Wehrmacht's invasion of Poland, when a Polish battery fired a battalion of German chasseurs trying to capture the bridge with poison mines. It is not known how effectively the Wehrmacht soldiers used gas masks, but their losses in this incident amounted to 15 people.

After the "evacuation" from Dunkirk (May 26 - June 4, 1940) in England there was no equipment or weapons for the land army - everything was abandoned on the French coast. In total, 2,472 artillery pieces, almost 65,000 vehicles, 20,000 motorcycles, 68,000 tons of ammunition, 147,000 tons of fuel and 377,000 tons of equipment and military equipment, 8,000 machine guns and about 90,000 rifles, including all heavy weapons and transport of 9 British divisions. And although the Wehrmacht did not have the opportunity to force the English Channel and finish off the British on the island, it seemed to the latter in fear that this would happen any day. Therefore, Great Britain was preparing for the last battle with all its might and means.

On June 15, 1940, the Chief of the Imperial Staff, Sir John Dill, proposed the use of chemical weapons on the coast, during the German landing. Such actions could significantly slow down the advance of the landing force into the interior of the island. It was supposed to spray mustard gas from special tank trucks. Other types of OM were recommended to be used from the air, and with the help of special throwing devices, which were buried on the coast by several thousand.

Sir John Dill attached detailed instructions for the use of each type of agent and calculations of the effectiveness of their use to his note. He also mentioned possible casualties among his civilian population. The British industry increased the production of OV, and the Germans were dragging everything out with the landing. When the supply of OM was significantly increased, and military equipment appeared in Britain under Lend-Lease, incl. and a huge number of bombers, by 1941 the concept of using chemical weapons had changed. Now they were preparing to use it exclusively from the air with the help of aerial bombs. This plan was valid until January 1942, when the British command already ruled out an attack on the island from the sea. Since that time, the OV was planned to be used already in German cities if Germany had used chemical weapons. And although after the start of shelling the UK with rockets, many parliamentarians advocated the use of OV in response, Churchill categorically rejected such proposals, arguing that this weapon is applicable only in cases of mortal danger. However, the production of OV in England continued until 1945.

From the end of 1941, Soviet intelligence began to receive data on an increase in the production of OM in Germany. In 1942, there was reliable intelligence about the mass deployment of special chemical weapons, about their intensive training. In February-March 1942, troops on the Eastern Front began to receive new and improved gas masks and anti-algae suits, stockpiles of chemical agents (shells and aerial bombs), and chemical units began to be transferred closer to the front. Such parts were found in the cities of Krasnogvardeysk, Priluki, Nezhin, Kharkov, Taganrog. In anti-tank units, chemical training was intensively carried out. Each company had a non-commissioned officer as a chemical instructor. The headquarters of the Civil Code was sure that in the spring Hitler intended to use chemical weapons. The Stavka also knew that Germany had developed new types of OM, against which the gas masks in service were powerless. There was no time for the production of a new, modeled on the German gas mask of 1941. And the Germans at that time produced 2.3 million pieces. per month. Thus, the Red Army turned out to be defenseless against the German OVs.

Stalin could have made an official statement about a retaliatory chemical attack. However, it is unlikely that it could have stopped Hitler: the troops were more or less protected, and the territory of Germany could not be reached.

Moscow decided to turn to Churchill for help, who understood that if chemical weapons were used against the USSR, Hitler would later be able to use them against Great Britain. After consultations with Stalin, on May 12, 1942, Churchill, speaking on the radio, said that “... England will consider the use of poisonous gases against the USSR by Germany or Finland in the same way as if this attack were carried out against England itself, and that England will respond to this with the use of gases against the cities of Germany ... ".

It is not known what Churchill would actually have done, but already on May 14, 1942, one of the residents of Soviet intelligence, who had a source in Germany, reported to the Center: “... The German civilian population was greatly impressed by Churchill’s speech about the use of gases against Germany in if the Germans use them on the Eastern Front. In German cities, there are very few reliable gas shelters that can cover no more than 40% of the population ... According to German experts, in the event of a retaliatory strike, about 60% of the German population would die from British gas bombs. In any case, Hitler did not actually check whether Churchill was bluffing or not, because he saw the results of conventional Allied bombing in German cities. The order for the massive use of chemical weapons on the Eastern Front was never issued. Moreover, remembering Churchill's statement, after the defeat at the Kursk Bulge, stockpiles of chemical weapons were taken out from the eastern front, because Hitler feared that some general, driven to despair by defeats, might give the command to use chemical weapons.

Despite the fact that Hitler was no longer going to use chemical weapons, Stalin was really scared, and until the end of the war did not rule out chemical attacks. A special department (GVKhU) was created as part of the Red Army, appropriate equipment for detecting VO was developed, decontamination and degassing techniques appeared ... The seriousness of Stalin's attitude to chemical protection was determined by a secret order issued on January 11, 1943, in which commanders threatened with a military tribunal.

At the same time, having abandoned the massive use of chemical weapons on the Eastern Front, the Germans did not hesitate to use them on a local scale on the Black Sea coast. So, gas was used in the battles for Sevastopol, Odessa, Kerch. Only in the Adzhimushkay catacombs about 3 thousand people were poisoned. It was planned to use OV in the battles for the Caucasus. In February 1943, German troops received two carloads of antidotes for toxins. But the Nazis were quickly driven away from the mountains.

The Nazis did not disdain to use chemical agents in concentration camps, where they used carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide (including Zyklon B) to kill millions of prisoners.

After the Allied invasion of Italy, the Germans also withdrew chemical weapons from the front, relocating them to Normandy to protect the Atlantic Wall. When interrogated by Goering why nerve gas was not used in Normandy, he replied that many horses were used to supply the army, and the production of appropriate gas masks for them was not established. It turns out that German horses saved thousands of Allied soldiers, although the veracity of this explanation is highly doubtful.

By the end of the war, for two and a half years of production at the plant in Dürchfurt, Germany had accumulated 12 thousand tons of the latest nerve agents - Tabun. 10 thousand tons were loaded into aerial bombs, 2 thousand into artillery shells. The personnel of the plant, in order not to give out the formulation of OV, was destroyed. However, the Red Army managed to capture the ammunition and production and take it to the territory of the USSR. As a result, the Allies were forced to unleash a whole hunt around the world for German specialists and scientists in the field of chemical agents in order to fill the gap in their chemical arsenals. Thus began the "two worlds" race for chemical weapons, which lasted for decades, in parallel with nuclear weapons.

Only in 1945 did the United States put into service M26 warheads with combat agents - cyanogen chloride for rocket-propelled grenade launchers M9 and M9A1 "Bazooka". They were intended for use against Japanese soldiers who had settled in caves and bunkers. It was believed that there was no protection against this gas, but in combat conditions, the agents were never used.

Summing up the topic of chemical weapons, we note that its mass use was not allowed due to several factors: fear of a retaliatory strike, low efficiency of use, dependence of use on weather factors. However, during the pre-war years and during the war, colossal stocks of OM were accumulated. So the reserves of mustard gas (mustard gas) in Britain amounted to 40.4 thousand tons, in Germany - 27.6 thousand tons, in the USSR - 77.4 thousand tons, in the USA - 87 thousand tons. can be judged by the fact that the minimum dose that causes the formation of abscesses on the skin is 0.1 mg / cm². There is no antidote for mustard gas poisoning. A gas mask and OZK lose their protective functions after 40 minutes, being in the affected area.

Regrettably, numerous conventions banning chemical weapons are constantly violated. The first post-war use of OV was recorded already in 1957 in Vietnam, i.e. 12 years after the end of World War II. And then the gaps in the years of ignoring it become smaller and smaller. It seems that humanity has firmly embarked on the path of self-destruction.

Based on materials from sites: https://ru.wikipedia.org; https://en.wikipedia.org; https://thequestion.ru; http://supotnitskiy.ru; https://topwar.ru; http://magspace.ru; https://news.rambler.ru; http://www.publy.ru; http://www.mk.ru; http://www.warandpeace.ru; https://www.sciencehistory.org http://www.abc.net.au; http://pillboxes-suffolk.webeden.co.uk.

The ability of toxic substances to cause 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 a 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, its purpose would have remained incomprehensible if the prisoner had not stated during interrogation that the handbag is a special means of protection against the new "crushing" weapon 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.

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 with two soldiers to reconnaissance and, in the indicated place, actually found heavy cylinders of an unusual appearance and incomprehensible 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 irritating 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.

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. Not 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 a 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 began to speak, 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 subsequently 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 army 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. After all, it was after the English gas attack near Comyn 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, which was forbidden to have chemical weapons under the Treaty of Versailles, and Russia, not recovering from the civil war, agree 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 toxic 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...

Chemical weapons are a type of weapons of mass destruction, the main principle of which is the impact of toxic substances on the environment and humans. Types of chemical weapons are subdivided according to the types of destruction of biological organisms.

Chemical weapons - the history of creation (briefly)

the date	Event
BC	The first use of a semblance of chemical weapons by the Greeks, Romans and Macedonians
15th century	The use of chemical weapons based on sulfur and oil by the Turkish army
18th century	Creation of artillery shells with an internal chemical component
19th century	Mass production of various types of chemical weapons
1914–1917	The use of chemical weapons by the German army and the beginning of the production of chemical protection
1925	Strengthening the work of scientists on the development of chemical weapons and the creation of Zyklon B
1950	The creation by US scientists of "Agent Orange" and the continuation of the development of scientists around the world to create weapons of mass destruction

The first similarity of chemical weapons was used even before our era, by the Greeks, Romans and Macedonians. Most often it was used during the siege of fortresses, which forced the enemy to surrender or die.

In the 15th century, the Turkish army used on the battlefields a semblance of chemical weapons, which consisted of sulfur and oil. The resulting substance disabled enemy armies and gave a significant advantage. Further, in the 18th century, artillery shells were created in Europe, which, after hitting the target, emitted poisonous smoke that acts on the human body like a poison.

Since the middle of the 19th century, many countries began to produce chemical weapons, the types of which have become an integral part of army ammunition, on an industrial scale. After the use of chemical weapons by the British Admiral Gokhran T., which included sulfur dioxide, caused a wave of indignation and the leadership of more than 20 countries condemned such an act en masse. The consequences of using such weapons were catastrophic.

In 1899, the Hague Convention was held, which formulated a ban on the use of any chemical weapons. But during the First World War, the German army used chemical weapons en masse, which led to many deaths.

After that, the manufacture of gas masks began, which could provide protection from exposure to chemicals. Gas masks were used not only for people, but also for dogs and horses.

German scientists from 1914 to 1917 worked to improve the means of delivering chemicals to the enemy and methods of protecting the population from their effects. After the end of the First World War, all projects were curtailed, but protective equipment continued to be manufactured and distributed.

this year at the Geneva Convention a pact was signed banning the use of any poisonous substances

In 1925, the Geneva Convention was held , where all parties signed a pact banning the use of any poisonous substances. But in short, the history of chemical weapons continued with renewed vigor and work on the creation of chemical weapons only intensified. Scientists around the world created in laboratories many types of chemical weapons, which had many types of effects on living organisms.

During World War II, neither side dared to use chemicals. Distinguished only by the Germans, who actively "Zyklon B" in the concentration camps.

Zyklon B was developed by German scientists in 1922. This substance consisted of hydrocyanic acid and other additional substances, 4 kg of such a substance was enough to destroy up to 1 thousand people.

After the end of World War II and the condemnation of all the actions of the German army and command, countries around the world continued to develop various types of chemical weapons.

A prime example of the use of chemical weapons is the United States, which used "Agent Orange" in Vietnam. The action of chemical weapons is based on dioxin, which was filled with bombs, it is extremely toxic and mutagenic.

The action of chemical weapons, the United States demonstrated in Vietnam.

According to the US government, their target was not people, but vegetation. The consequences of the use of such a substance were catastrophic in terms of death and mutation of the civilian population. These types of chemical weapons have caused mutations in humans that occur at the genetic level and are passed down from generation to generation.

Prior to the signing of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use and Storage of Chemical Weapons, the United States and the USSR were actively involved in the production and storage of these substances. But even after the signing of the ban agreement, repeated instances of the use of chemicals in the Middle East were revealed.

Types of chemical weapons and names

Modern chemical weapons have many types that differ in purpose, speed and impact on the human body.

According to the speed of maintaining damaging abilities, chemical weapons can be divided into several types:

persistent- substances that include lewisite and mustard gas. Efficiency after the use of such substances can be up to several days;
volatile- substances that include phosgene and hydrocyanic acid. Efficiency after the use of such substances is up to half an hour.

There are also types of poison gases, which are divided according to their use:

combat- are used for the rapid or slow destruction of manpower;
psychotropic (non-lethal)- used to temporarily disable the human body.

There are six types of chemicals, the division of which is based on the results of exposure to the human body:

Nerve weapon

This type of weapon is one of the most dangerous as it affects the human body. A type of such weapon is a gas that affects the nervous system and leads to death in any concentration. The composition of nerve weapons includes gases:

soman;
V – gas;
sarin;
herd.

The gas is odorless and colorless, which makes it very dangerous.

poison weapon

This type of weapon poisons the human body by means of exposure to the skin, after which it enters the body and destroys the lungs. It is impossible to defend against this type of weapon with conventional protection. The composition of poisonous weapons includes gases:

lewisite;
mustard gas.

General purpose poison weapons

They are deadly substances that have a rapid effect on the body. Poisonous substances, after application, instantly affect red blood cells and block the supply of oxygen to the body. The composition of poisonous substances of general action includes gases:

cyanogen chloride;
hydrocyanic acid.

Choke weapon

A choke weapon is a gas that, once applied, instantly reduces and blocks the oxygen supply to the body, which contributes to a long and painful death. Asphyxiating weapons include gases:

chlorine;
phosgene;
diphosgene.

Psychochemical weapons

This type of weapon is a substance that has a psychotropic and psychochemical effect on the body. After application, the gas affects the nervous system, which causes short-term disturbances and incapacitation. Psychochemical weapons are endowed with a damaging effect, as a result of which a person has:

blindness;
deafness;
incapacity of the vestibular apparatus;
mental insanity;
disorientation;
hallucinations.

The composition of psychochemical weapons mainly includes a substance - quinuclidyl-3-benzilate.

Poison-irritant weapon

This type of weapon is a gas that causes nausea, coughing, sneezing, and eye irritation when used. Such a gas is volatile and fast acting. Often, poison-irritant weapons or teardrops are used by law enforcement agencies.

The composition of poisonous-irritating weapons includes gases:

chlorine;
sulfurous anhydride;
hydrogen sulfide;
nitrogen;
ammonia.

Military conflicts with the use of chemical weapons

The history of the creation of chemical weapons is briefly marked by the facts of their combat use on the battlefields and against the civilian population.

the date	Description
April 22, 1915	The first major use by the German army near the city of Ypres of chemical weapons, which included chlorine. The number of victims was more than 1000 people
1935–1936	During the Italo-Ethiopian War, the Italian army used chemical weapons, which included mustard gas. The number of victims was more than 100 thousand people
1941–1945	The use by the German army in the concentration camps of the Zyklon B chemical weapon, which included hydrocyanic acid. The exact number of victims is unknown, but according to official figures, more than 110 thousand people
1943	During the Sino-Japanese War, the Japanese army used bacteriological and chemical weapons . The composition of chemical weapons included lewisite gas and mustard gas. Bacterial weapons were fleas infected with bubonic plague. The exact number of victims remains unknown.
1962–1971	During the Vietnam War, the US Army used many types of chemical weapons, thereby conducting experiments and studies on the effects on the population. The main chemical weapon was the Agent Orange gas, which included the substance dioxin. "Agent Orange" caused genetic mutations, cancer and death. The number of victims is 3 million people, of which 150 thousand are children with mutated DNA, abnormalities and various diseases
March 20, 1995	In the Japanese subway, members of the Aum Shinrikyo sect used nerve gas, which included sarin. The number of victims was up to 6 thousand people, 13 people died
2004	The American army in Iraq used a chemical weapon - white phosphorus, as a result of the decay of which deadly toxic substances are formed, which lead to a slow and painful death. The number of victims is carefully hidden
2013	In Syria, the Syrian army used air-to-ground missiles with a chemical composition in which sarin gas was present. Information about the dead and injured is carefully concealed, but according to the Red Cross

Types of chemical weapons for self-defense

There is a psycho-chemical type of weapon that can be used for self-defense. Such a gas causes minimal harm to the human body and is able to disable it for some time.

Chemical weapons are one of three types of weapons of mass destruction (the other 2 types are bacteriological and nuclear weapons). Kills people with the help of toxins in gas cylinders.

History of chemical weapons

Chemical weapons began to be used by man a very long time ago - long before the Copper Age. Then people used a bow with poisoned arrows. After all, it is much easier to use poison, which will surely slowly kill the beast, than to run after it.

The first toxins were extracted from plants - a person received it from varieties of the acocanthera plant. This poison causes cardiac arrest.

With the advent of civilizations, prohibitions on the use of the first chemical weapons began, but these prohibitions were violated - Alexander the Great used all the chemicals known at that time in the war against India. His soldiers poisoned water wells and food stores. In ancient Greece, strawberry roots were used to poison wells.

In the second half of the Middle Ages, alchemy, the forerunner of chemistry, began to develop rapidly. Acrid smoke began to appear, driving away the enemy.

First use of chemical weapons

The French were the first to use chemical weapons. This happened at the beginning of the First World War. They say safety rules are written in blood. Safety rules for the use of chemical weapons are no exception. At first, there were no rules, there was only one piece of advice - when throwing grenades filled with poisonous gases, it is necessary to take into account the direction of the wind. There were also no specific, tested substances that were 100% killing people. There were gases that did not kill, but simply caused hallucinations or mild suffocation.

On April 22, 1915, the German armed forces used mustard gas. This substance is very toxic: it severely injures the mucous membrane of the eye, respiratory organs. After the use of mustard gas, the French and Germans lost about 100-120 thousand people. And during the entire First World War, 1.5 million people died from chemical weapons.

In the first 50 years of the 20th century, chemical weapons were used everywhere - against uprisings, riots and civilians.

The main poisonous substances

Sarin. Sarin was discovered in 1937. The discovery of sarin happened by accident - German chemist Gerhard Schrader was trying to create a stronger chemical against pests in agriculture. Sarin is a liquid. Acts on the nervous system.

Soman. Soman was discovered by Richard Kunn in 1944. Very similar to sarin, but more poisonous - two and a half times more than sarin.

After the Second World War, the research and production of chemical weapons by the Germans became known. All research classified as "secret" became known to the allies.

VX. In 1955, VX was opened in England. The most poisonous chemical weapon created artificially.

At the first sign of poisoning, you need to act quickly, otherwise death will occur in about a quarter of an hour. Protective equipment is a gas mask, OZK (combined arms protective kit).

VR. Developed in 1964 in the USSR, it is an analogue of the VX.

In addition to highly toxic gases, gases were also produced to disperse crowds of rioters. These are tear and pepper gases.

In the second half of the twentieth century, more precisely from the beginning of 1960 to the end of the 1970s, there was a flourishing of discoveries and developments of chemical weapons. During this period, gases began to be invented that had a short-term effect on the human psyche.

Chemical weapons today

Currently, most chemical weapons are prohibited by the 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction.

The classification of poisons depends on the danger posed by the chemical:

The first group includes all the poisons that have ever been in the arsenal of countries. Countries are prohibited from storing any chemicals from this group in excess of 1 ton. If the weight is more than 100g, the control committee must be notified.
The second group is substances that can be used both for military purposes and in peaceful production.
The third group includes substances that are used in large quantities in industries. If the production produces more than thirty tons per year, it must be registered in the control register.

First aid for poisoning with chemically hazardous substances

As A. Fries says: "The first attempt to defeat the enemy by releasing poisonous and asphyxiating gases, as it seems, was made during the war of the Athenians with the Spartans (431 - 404 BC), when, during the siege of the cities of Plataea and Belium, the Spartans impregnated wood with pitch and sulfur and burned it under the walls of these cities, in order to suffocate the inhabitants and facilitate their siege.The same use of poisonous gases is mentioned in the history of the Middle Ages.Their action was similar to the action of modern suffocating projectiles, they were thrown with syringes or in bottles, like hand grenades. Legends say that Praeter John (about the 11th century) filled brass figures with explosive and combustible substances, the smoke of which escaped from the mouth and nostrils of these phantoms and produced great devastation in the ranks of the enemy. "

The idea of fighting the enemy by using a gas attack was outlined in 1855 during the Crimean campaign by the English Admiral Lord Dandonald. In his memorandum dated August 7, 1855, Dandonald proposed to the British government a project to take Sevastopol with the help of sulfur vapor. This document is so curious that we reproduce it in its entirety:

Brief preliminary remark.

"When examining the sulfur furnaces in July 1811, I noticed that the smoke that is released during the rough process of melting sulfur, at first, due to heat, rises upwards, but soon falls down, destroying all vegetation and being destructive to everyone over a large area. living creature. It turned out that there was an order forbidding people to sleep in the region of 3 miles in a circle from furnaces during smelting. "

"This fact I decided to apply to the needs of the army and navy. On mature reflection, I submitted a memorandum to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, who deigned to transmit it (April 2, 1812) to the Commission, consisting of Lord Cates, Lord Exmouths and General Congreve (later Sir William), who gave him a favorable report, and His Royal Highness deigned to order that the whole matter be kept in perfect secrecy.

Signed (Dandonald).

Memorandum.
"Materials necessary for the expulsion of Russians from Sevastopol: experiments have shown that one part of sulfur is released from 5 parts of coal. The composition of mixtures of coal and sulfur for use in the field service, in which the weight ratio plays a very important role, can be indicated by prof. Faraday, since I had little interest in land operations.400 or 500 tons of sulfur and 2,000 tons of coal would suffice.

“In addition to these materials, it is necessary to have a certain amount of tar coal and two thousand barrels of gas or other tar in order to make a smoke screen in front of the fortifications that are to be attacked or that go to the flank of the attacked position.

"It is also necessary to prepare a certain amount of dry firewood, chips, shavings, straw, hay and other easily flammable materials, so that at the first favorable, steady wind, a fire can be quickly started."

(signed) Dandonald.

"Note: due to the special nature of the task, the entire responsibility for success rests with those who manage its implementation."

"Assuming that Malakhov Kurgan and Redan are the target of the attack, it is necessary to fumigate Redan with the smoke of coal and tar lit in a quarry so that it can no longer fire at Mamelon, from where an attack with sulfur dioxide should be opened to remove the garrison of Malakhov Kurgan. All Mamelon cannons should be directed against the undefended positions of the Malakhov Kurgan."

"There is no doubt that smoke will envelop all the fortifications from Malakhov Kurgan to Baraki and even to the line of the warship "12 Apostles" anchored in the harbor."

"The two outer Russian batteries, located on either side of the port, are to be fumigated with sulphurous gas by means of fire-ships, and their destruction will be completed by warships that will approach and anchor under the cover of a smoke screen."

Lord Dandonald's memorandum, together with explanatory notes, was submitted by the English government of the time to a committee in which Lord Playfair played a major role. This Committee, having studied all the details of Lord Dandonald's project, was of the opinion that the project was quite feasible, and the results it promised could certainly be achieved; but in themselves the results are so terrible that no honest enemy should use this method. Therefore, the committee decided that the project could not be accepted, and Lord Dandonald's note should be destroyed. In what way the information was obtained by those who so carelessly published it in 1908, we do not know; they were probably found among Lord Panmuir's papers.

"The smell of lemon became poison and smoke,

And the wind drove the smoke on the troops of soldiers,

Suffocation from poison is unbearable to the enemy,

And the siege will be lifted from the city."

"He tears to pieces this strange army,

Heavenly fire turned into an explosion,

There was a smell from Lausanne, suffocating, persistent,

And people do not know its source.

Nastrodamus on the first use of chemical weapons

The use of poisonous gases during the World War dates back to April 22, 1915, when the Germans made the first gas attack, using cylinders of chlorine, a long and well-known gas.

On April 14, 1915, near the village of Langemark, not far from the then little-known Belgian city of Ypres, French units captured a German soldier. During a 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, its purpose would have remained incomprehensible if the prisoner had not stated during interrogation that the handbag is a special means of protection against the new "crushing" weapon that the German command plans to use on this sector of the front.

The French gentlemen officers considered the story of the captured soldier gone mad and did not attach any importance to it. But soon the prisoners captured in neighboring sectors of the front reported about the mysterious cylinders. 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 with two soldiers to reconnaissance and, in the indicated place, actually found heavy cylinders of an unusual appearance and incomprehensible purpose. He reported this to the command, but to no avail.

- ... 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.

- ... Dr. Gaber does not advise ...

If only the British knew who Dr. Gaber was!

Fritz Haber was deeply civilian. True, he once completed a year of service in the artillery and by the beginning of the "Great War" had the rank of reserve non-commissioned officer, but at the front he was in an elegant civilian 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.

It was especially surprising to observe the respect with which the gray-haired colonels, hung with crosses and medals, listened to his orders. But few of them believed that, with a wave of the hand of this clumsy civilian, thousands of people would be killed in a matter of minutes.

Haber was in the service of the German government. As a consultant to the German War Office, he was tasked with creating an irritating 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.

"It was a wonderful clear spring day. A light breeze was blowing from the northeast ...

Nothing foreshadowed an imminent tragedy, the equal of which until then mankind had not yet known.

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. It smoked and swirled, behaving like the "heaps of black gas" from the "War of the Worlds" and at the same time slowly moving towards the French trenches, obeying the will of the northeast breeze. 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.

Not 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.

Naturally, the first feeling inspired by the gas method of war was horror. A stunning description of the impression of a gas attack is found in an article by O. S. Watkins (London).

“After the bombardment of the city of Ypres, which lasted from April 20 to 22,” writes Watkins, “poisonous gas suddenly appeared in the midst of this chaos.

When we went out into the fresh air to rest for a few minutes from the stifling atmosphere of the trenches, our attention was drawn to the very heavy firing in the north, where the French were occupying the front. Obviously, there was a heated fight, and we energetically began to explore the area with our field glasses, hoping to pick up something new in the course of the battle. Then we saw a sight that made our hearts stop, the figures of people running in confusion through the fields.

"The French have broken through," we cried. We could not believe our eyes ... We could not believe what we heard from the fugitives: we attributed their words to a frustrated imagination: a greenish-gray cloud, descending on them, turned yellow as it spread and scorched everything in its path, to which touched, causing the plants to die. No most courageous man could resist such a danger.

French soldiers staggered among us, blinded, coughing, breathing heavily, with faces of a dark purple color, silent with suffering, and behind them, as we learned, hundreds of their dying comrades remained in the gassed trenches. The impossible turned out to be only just."

"This is the most villainous, most criminal act that I have ever seen."

But for the Germans, this result was no less 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. And when the front turned out to be actually broken, the only unit that poured into the resulting 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 a 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 a 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, Canadian machine guns and rifles spoke, making huge gaps in the ranks of the advancing, who did not expect resistance.

Despite the fact that the day of April 22, 1915 is considered the day of the "premiere" of poisonous substances, separate facts of its use, as already mentioned above, took place earlier. So back in November 1914, the Germans fired several artillery shells at the French, filled with irritating poisonous substances), but their use went unnoticed. In January 1915, in Poland, the Germans used some kind of tear gas against the Russian troops, but the scale of its use was limited, and the effect was smoothed out due to the wind.

The first of the Russians to undergo a chemical attack were units of the 2nd Russian Army, which, with its stubborn defense, blocked the path to Warsaw of the persistently advancing 9th Army of General Mackensen. In the period from 17 to 21 May 1915, the Germans installed 12,000 cylinders of chlorine in the forward trenches for 12 km and waited for ten days for favorable weather conditions. The attack began at 3 o'clock. 20 minutes. May 31. The Germans released chlorine, opening at the same time a hurricane of artillery, machine-gun and rifle fire on Russian positions. The complete surprise of the enemy's actions and the unpreparedness on the part of the Russian troops led the soldiers to be more surprised and curious when a cloud of chlorine appeared than they were alarmed. Mistaking the greenish cloud for attack camouflage, the Russian troops reinforced the forward trenches and pulled up support units. Soon the trenches, which here represented a maze of solid lines, turned out to be places filled with corpses and dying people. By 4.30 chlorine penetrated 12 km deep into the defense of the Russian troops, forming "gas swamps" in the lowlands and destroying spring and clover shoots on its way.

At about 4 o'clock, the German units, supported by artillery chemical fire, attacked the Russian positions, counting on the fact that, as in the battle at Ypres, there was no one to defend them. In this situation, the unparalleled stamina of the Russian soldier was manifested. Despite the incapacitation of 75% of the personnel in the 1st defensive lane, the German attack by 5 o'clock in the morning was repulsed by strong and well-aimed rifle and machine-gun fire from the soldiers remaining in the ranks. During the day, 9 more German attacks were thwarted. The losses of the Russian units from chlorine were huge (9138 poisoned and 1183 dead), but the German offensive was still repulsed.

However, chemical warfare and the use of chlorine against the Russian army continued. On the night of July 6-7, 1915, the Germans repeated a gas balloon attack in the Sukha-Volya-Shidlovskaya section. There is no exact information about the losses suffered by the Russian troops during this attack. It is known that the 218th Infantry Regiment lost 2608 people during the retreat, and the 220th Infantry Regiment, which carried out a counterattack in the area rich in "gas swamps", lost 1352 people.

In August 1915, the German troops used a gas-balloon attack during the assault on the Russian fortress Osaovets, which they had previously unsuccessfully tried to destroy with the help of heavy artillery. Chlorine spread to a depth of 20 km, having an amazing depth of 12 km and a cloud height of 12 m. It flowed even into the most closed rooms of the fortress, incapacitating its defenders. But here, too, the fierce resistance of the surviving defenders of the fortress did not allow the enemy to succeed.

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

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

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

The use of phosgene for gas attacks was proposed as early as the summer of 1915 by our marine chemist N. A. Kochkin (the Germans used it only in December). But this proposal was not accepted by the tsarist government.

At first, gas was produced from special cylinders, but by 1916, artillery shells filled with toxic substances began to be used in battle. Suffice it to recall the bloody battle near Verdun (France), where up to 100,000 chemical shells were fired.

The most common gases in combat were: chlorine, phosgene and diphosgene.

Among the gases used in the war, it should be noted the gases of the skin-diving action, against which the gas masks adopted by the troops were invalid. These substances, penetrating through shoes and clothing, caused burns on the body, similar to burns from kerosene.

It has already become a tradition to describe chemical weapons in the World War on what light it is worth inclining the Germans. They, they say, launched chlorine against the French on the Western Front and against the Russian soldiers near Przemysl, and they are so bad that there is nowhere else to go. But the Germans, being pioneers in the use of chemistry in combat, lagged far behind the Allies in the scale of its use. Less than a month had passed since the "Chlorine premiere" near Ypres, when the allies began, with equally enviable composure, to flood the positions of German troops on the outskirts of the said city with various filth. Russian chemists also did not lag behind their Western counterparts. It is the Russians who have priority in the most successful use of artillery shells filled with irritating poisonous substances against German and Austro-Hungarian troops.

During the war years, more than a million people were affected by various gases. The gauze bandages that so easily found their place in the soldier's shoulder bags became almost useless. Radical new means were needed to protect against toxic substances.

The gas war uses all sorts of actions produced on the human body by various kinds of chemical compounds. Depending on the nature of physiological phenomena, these substances can be divided into several categories. At the same time, some of them can be simultaneously assigned to different categories, combining various properties. Thus, according to the action produced, gases are divided into:

1) suffocating, coughing, irritating to the respiratory organs and capable of causing death by suffocation;

2) poisonous, penetrating the body, affecting one or another important organ and, as a result, producing a general lesion of any area, for example, some of them affect the nervous system, others - red blood cells, etc .;

3) lachrymal, causing profuse lacrimation and blinding a person for a more or less long time;

4) suppurating, causing reaction or itching, or deeper skin ulcerations (eg, watery blisters), passing to the mucous membranes (especially the respiratory organs) and causing serious damage;

5) sneezing, acting on the nasal mucosa and causing increased sneezing, accompanied by such physiological phenomena as throat irritation, tearing, suffering of the nose and jaws.

Asphyxiating and poisonous substances were united under the general name "poisonous" during the war, since all of them can cause death. The same can be said about some other deadly substances, although their main physiological action was manifested in a suppurating or sneezing reaction.

Germany used during the war all the physiological properties of gases, thus continuously increasing the suffering of the combatants. The gas war began on April 22, 1915 with the use of chlorine, which was placed in liquid form in a cylinder, and from the latter, when a small tap was opened, it came out already in the form of gas. At the same time, a significant number of gas jets, released simultaneously from numerous cylinders, formed a thick cloud, which was given the name "waves".

Every action causes a reaction. The gas war caused the gas defense. At first, they fought with gases by putting on special masks (respirators) for the fighters. But for a long time the system of masks was not improved.

However, the conditions of war make us remember also about collective defense.

During the war, about 60 different chemicals and elements were noted in various compounds that killed a person or made him completely incapable of continuing the battle. Among the gases used in the war, irritating gases should be noted, i.e. causing lacrimation and sneezing, against which gas masks adopted by the troops were invalid; then suffocating, poisonous and poisonous-burning gases, which, penetrating through shoes and clothes, caused burns on the body, similar to burns from kerosene.

The area shelled and saturated with these gases did not lose its burning properties for whole weeks, and woe to the person who got into such a place: he came out of there stricken with burns, and his clothes were so saturated with this terrible gas that just touching it struck the touched person. particles of the released gas and caused the same burns.

The so-called mustard gas (mustard gas) possessing such properties was called by the Germans the "king of gases".

Especially effective are shells stuffed with mustard gas, the action of which, under favorable conditions, lasts up to 8 days.

It was first used by the German side on April 22, 1915 near Ypres. The result of a chemical gas attack with chlorine is 15 thousand human victims. After 5 weeks, 9 thousand soldiers and officers of the Russian army died from the action of phosgene. Diphosgene, chloropicrin, arsenic-containing agents of irritating action are being "tested". In May 1917, again on the Ypres sector of the front, the Germans used mustard gas - an agent of strong blistering and general toxic action.

During the First World War, the opposing sides used 125,000 tons of chemical agents, which claimed 800,000 human lives. At the very end of the war, not having time to prove themselves in a combat situation, adamsite and lewisite get a "ticket" to a long life, and later - nitrogen mustards.

In the 1940s, nerve agent agents appeared in the west: sarin, soman, tabun, and later the "family" of VX (VX) gases. The effectiveness of OV is growing, the methods of their use (chemical munitions) are being improved ...