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Phosgene was used by the German army from the end of May 1915, when attacks were conducted on the Western Front against French troops and on the Eastern Front on Russians, where 12,000 cylinders with 240–264 long tons (244–268 t) of 95 per cent chlorine and 5 per cent phosgene was discharged on a 7.5 mi (12 km) front at Bolimów. [5]
British emplacement after German gas attack (probably phosgene) It quickly became evident that the men who stayed in their places suffered less than those who ran away, as any movement worsened the effects of the gas, and that those who stood up on the fire step suffered less—indeed they often escaped any serious effects—than those who lay down or sat at the bottom of a trench.
During its time in France, the First Gas Regiment used phosgene in a number of attacks. [4] The United States began large-scale production of an improved vesicant gas known as Lewisite, for use in an offensive planned for early 1919. Lewisite was a major American contribution to the chemical weapon arsenal of World War I, although it was not ...
The gas used by the German troops at Hulluch was a mixture of chlorine and phosgene, which had first been used on 19 December 1915 at Wieltje, near Ypres. The German gas was of sufficient concentration to penetrate the British PH gas helmets and the 16th (Irish) Division was unjustly blamed for poor gas discipline. It was put out that the gas ...
The effect of the gas was similar to that of the phosgene discharge of 19 December 1915 but in a more concentrated form, in which a short exposure to the gas was fatal. The course of the cloud could be seen by the staining of grass and vegetation as far as Bailleul, where shoots and leaves withered; cattle died 2 mi (3.2 km) to the north-east.
The PH helmet was used throughout early 1916 by British troops in which was designed to be tucked under the shirt of the wearer. The masks were an evolution of the P Helmet, and were effective against phosgene gas by adding hexamine to sodium phenate solution which acted as an absorbent to the phosgene gas. [7]
Phosgene was first deployed as a chemical weapon by the French in 1915 in World War I. [24] It was also used in a mixture with an equal volume of chlorine, with the chlorine helping to spread the denser phosgene. [25] [26] Phosgene was more potent than chlorine, though some symptoms took 24 hours or more to manifest.
The first full-scale deployment of deadly chemical warfare agents during World War I was at the Second Battle of Ypres, on April 22, 1915, when the Germans attacked French, Canadian and Algerian troops with chlorine gas released from canisters and carried by the wind towards the Allied trenches. [24] [25] [26] [27]