Poison gas is a common weapon in WWI to put people to death or temporarily disable someone. Poison gas is a substance used in WWI that is scentless and sightless. It worked in several ways. It was useful as a surprise weapon. It could travel in the gas cloud or mist, attack, the wind is used to carry the gas to the enemy lines. Gas can also be delivered in artillery shells and aerial bombs, and can be sprayed from low-flying aircraft. In 1914 France used small portions of tear gas but overall it was invented by the Germans. The first appearance of poison gas was in August 1914, when the French used tear gas grenades containing xylyl bromide on the Germans. Later, April 22, 1915 Germans shocked allied soldiers along the Western front by firing more than 150 tons of lethal chlorine gas against two French colonial divisions at Ypres, Belgium.
Second Battle of Ypres in 1915 World War One
Impact and Consequences of (Poison Gas)
The overall impact of the poison gas in WWI was pretty big because the invention of poison gas made it so that even when there was no attack going on soldiers could still get exposed to surprise attacks of poison gas, making soldiers wear nasty oxygen masks which made countries fear the poison gas more. Poison gas also gave the people that were exposed to it have a long painful death instead of getting a quick shot. This weapon was the weapon used most in the war. This definitely made countries react different and made a big impact on the war.
Poison Gas affected soldiers because soldiers had to wear gas masks to protect themselves from any surprise poison gas attacks, and those who were exposed to it faced a long painful death. Soldiers could not just take cover when it came because they could get it in their lungs so it was different than machine guns and other weapons.
Poison gas affected the leaders of countries because they would realize the damage it caused and had to flee because of the fear of the poison gas to their army such as when the Germans attacked the French in April 1915 they fled in fear of the gas. They would have to take control of the consequences.
Poison gas had minor affects to civilians. Very little were affected by the poison gas itself. Mentally poison gas weakened the country and changed the war which made it different for civilians in the country that was being attacked.
Positively this weapon helped push out many countries during battle because of how much the opposing country feared the gas. It also helped weaken the soldiers on the opposing side because if they inhaled the gas they would either have painful suffering or they would die and if they had a gas mask on it make it harder for the soldiers to fight so countries used this weapon the most. Negatively if you were on the side getting attacked there was a much more painful death for the soldiers that came into contact with the gas. It was harder to fight and harder to defend yourself. Poison gas made much fear in the country. Both sides used the poison gas against eachother. Once Germany used it the other countries made their own kind of poison gas for the same use.
Connections Today
Modern day poison gas has been improved in many ways but poison gas is not used much currently. It has been able to kill more quantities and kill people immediately rather than the slow death as in WWI. Currently poison gas is not used as often as it was used in the past during WWI but today if it is used, countries keep a stock of them for future wars. In 1925 efforts went to trying to control poison gasses being used. In 1990 the U.S. and soviet union agreed to not using lethal weapons. Although there has been many efforts to get rid of poison gas, in Iraq there has been uses of it for multiple reasons, for battle and by terrorists such as after the Persian Gulf War.