First use of chemical attack. Types of chemical weapons, history of their origin and destruction
On the night of July 12-13, 1917, the German army used the poisonous gas mustard gas (a liquid poisonous substance with a blister effect) for the first time during the First World War. The Germans used mines that contained an oily liquid as a carrier of the toxic substance. This event took place near the Belgian city of Ypres. The German command planned with this attack to disrupt the offensive of the Anglo-French troops. When mustard gas was first used, 2,490 military personnel suffered injuries of varying severity, of whom 87 died. UK scientists quickly deciphered the formula for this agent. However, the production of a new toxic substance was launched only in 1918. As a result, the Entente was able to use mustard gas for military purposes only in September 1918 (2 months before the armistice).
Mustard gas has a clearly defined local effect: the agent affects the organs of vision and breathing, the skin and gastrointestinal tract. The substance, absorbed into the blood, poisons the entire body. Mustard gas affects human skin when exposed, both in droplet and vapor states. The usual summer and winter uniform did not protect the soldier from the effects of mustard gas, as did almost all types of civilian clothing.
Conventional summer and winter army uniforms do not protect the skin from drops and vapors of mustard gas, just like almost any type of civilian clothing. There was no complete protection of soldiers from mustard gas in those years, so its use on the battlefield was effective until the very end of the war. The First World War was even called the “war of chemists”, because neither before nor after this war were chemical agents used in such quantities as in 1915-1918. During this war, the fighting armies used 12 thousand tons of mustard gas, which affected up to 400 thousand people. In total, during the First World War, more than 150 thousand tons of toxic substances (irritant and tear gases, blister agents) were produced. The leader in the use of chemical agents was the German Empire, which had a first-class chemical industry. In total, Germany produced more than 69 thousand tons of toxic substances. Germany was followed by France (37.3 thousand tons), Great Britain (25.4 thousand tons), USA (5.7 thousand tons), Austria-Hungary (5.5 thousand), Italy (4.2 thousand . tons) and Russia (3.7 thousand tons).
"Attack of the Dead" The Russian army suffered the largest losses from exposure to chemical agents among all participants in the war. The German army was the first to use poison gas as a means of mass destruction on a large scale during the First World War against Russia. On August 6, 1915, the German command used explosive agents to destroy the garrison of the Osovets fortress. The Germans deployed 30 gas batteries, several thousand cylinders, and on August 6 at 4 am a dark green fog of a mixture of chlorine and bromine flowed onto the Russian fortifications, reaching the positions in 5-10 minutes. A gas wave 12-15 m high and up to 8 km wide penetrated to a depth of 20 km. The defenders of the Russian fortress had no means of defense. Every living thing was poisoned.
Following the gas wave and a barrage of fire (German artillery opened massive fire), 14 Landwehr battalions (about 7 thousand infantrymen) went on the offensive. After the gas attack and artillery strike, no more than a company of half-dead soldiers, poisoned by chemical agents, remained in the advanced Russian positions. It seemed that Osovets was already in German hands. However, Russian soldiers showed another miracle. When the German chains approached the trenches, they were attacked by Russian infantry. It was a real “attack of the dead,” the sight was terrible: Russian soldiers walked into the bayonet line with their faces wrapped in rags, shaking with a terrible cough, literally spitting out pieces of their lungs onto their bloody uniforms. It was only a few dozen soldiers - the remnants of the 13th company of the 226th Zemlyansky infantry regiment. The German infantry fell into such horror that they could not withstand the blow and ran. Russian batteries opened fire on the fleeing enemy, who, it seemed, had already died. It should be noted that the defense of the Osovets fortress is one of the brightest, heroic pages of the First World War. The fortress, despite brutal shelling from heavy guns and assaults by German infantry, held out from September 1914 to August 22, 1915.
Russian empire in the pre-war period it was a leader in the field of various “peace initiatives”. Therefore, it did not have chemical weapons in its arsenals or means to counter such types of weapons, and did not conduct serious research in this direction. In 1915, it was necessary to urgently establish a Chemical Committee and urgently raise the issue of developing technologies and large-scale production of toxic substances. In February 1916, the production of hydrocyanic acid was organized at Tomsk University by local scientists. By the end of 1916, production was organized in the European part of the empire, and the problem was generally solved. By April 1917, the industry had produced hundreds of tons of toxic substances. However, they remained unclaimed in warehouses.
First cases of application chemical weapons to the First World War
The 1st Hague Conference in 1899, which was convened at the initiative of Russia, adopted a declaration on the non-use of projectiles that spread asphyxiating or harmful gases. However, during the First World War, this document did not prevent the great powers from using chemical warfare agents, including on a massive scale.
In August 1914, the French were the first to use lachrymatory irritants (they did not cause death). The carriers were grenades filled with tear gas (ethyl bromoacetate). Soon his supplies ran out and french army I started using chloroacetone. In October 1914 German troops used artillery shells partially filled with a chemical irritant against British positions at Neuve Chapelle. However, the concentration of OM was so low that the result was barely noticeable.
On April 22, 1915, the German army used chemical agents against the French, spraying 168 tons of chlorine near the river. Ypres. The Entente powers immediately declared that Berlin had violated the principles of international law, but the German government parried this accusation. The Germans stated that the Hague Convention prohibits only the use of explosive shells, but not gases. After this, chlorine attacks began to be used regularly. In 1915, French chemists synthesized phosgene (a colorless gas). It has become a more effective agent, having greater toxicity than chlorine. Phosgene was used in pure form and in a mixture with chlorine to increase gas mobility.
Introduction
No weapon has been as widely condemned as this type of weapon. Poisoning wells has been considered from time immemorial as a crime incompatible with the rules of war. “War is fought with weapons, not with poison,” said Roman jurists. As the destructive power of weapons has grown over time and the potential for widespread use of chemical agents has increased, steps have been taken to prohibit the use of chemical weapons through international agreements and legal means. The Brussels Declaration of 1874 and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 prohibited the use of poisons and poisoned bullets, and a separate declaration of the 1899 Hague Convention condemned "the use of projectiles the sole purpose of which is to distribute asphyxiating or other poisonous gases."
Today, despite the convention banning chemical weapons, the danger of their use still remains.
In addition, many possible sources of chemical hazards remain. This could be a terrorist act, an accident at a chemical plant, aggression from a state uncontrolled by the international community, and much more.
The purpose of the work is to analyze chemical weapons.
Job objectives:
1. Give the concept of chemical weapons;
2. Describe the history of the use of chemical weapons;
3. Consider the classification of chemical weapons;
4. Consider protective measures against chemical weapons.
Chemical weapon. Concept and history of use
Chemical weapons concept
Chemical weapons are ammunition (rocket warhead, projectile, mine, aerial bomb etc.), equipped with a chemical warfare agent (CW), with the help of which these substances are delivered to the target and sprayed in the atmosphere and on the ground and intended to destroy manpower, contaminate the area, equipment, and weapons. In accordance with international law (Paris Convention, 1993), chemical weapons also mean each of its components (ammunition and chemical agents) separately. So-called binary chemical weapons are munitions supplied with two or more containers containing non-toxic components. During the delivery of ammunition to the target, the containers are opened, their contents are mixed, and as a result of a chemical reaction between the components, an agent is formed. Toxic substances and various pesticides can cause massive injuries to people and animals, contaminate the area, water sources, food and fodder, and cause the death of vegetation.
Chemical weapons are one of the types of weapons of mass destruction, the use of which leads to damage of varying degrees of severity (from incapacitation for several minutes to death) only to manpower and does not affect equipment, weapons, or property. The action of chemical weapons is based on the delivery of chemical agents to the target; transferring the agent into a combat state (steam, aerosol of varying degrees of dispersion) by explosion, spray, pyrotechnic sublimation; the spread of the resulting cloud and the impact of OM on manpower.
Chemical weapons are intended for use in tactical and operational-tactical combat zones; capable of effectively solving a number of problems in strategic depth.
The effectiveness of chemical weapons depends on the physical, chemical and toxicological properties of the agent, design features means of use, provision of manpower with protective equipment, timeliness of transfer to combat status (degree of achieving tactical surprise in the use of chemical weapons), weather conditions (degree of vertical stability of the atmosphere, wind speed). The effectiveness of chemical weapons in favorable conditions significantly higher than the effectiveness of conventional weapons, especially when affecting manpower located in open engineering structures (trenches, trenches), unsealed objects, equipment, buildings and structures. Infection of equipment, weapons, and terrain leads to secondary damage to manpower located in contaminated areas, constraining its actions and exhaustion due to necessity long time wear protective equipment.
History of the use of chemical weapons
In texts of the 4th century BC. e. An example is given of the use of poisonous gases to combat enemy tunneling under the walls of a fortress. The defenders pumped smoke from burning mustard and wormwood seeds into the underground passages using bellows and terracotta pipes. Poisonous gases caused suffocation and even death.
In ancient times, attempts were also made to use chemical agents during combat operations. Toxic fumes were used during the Peloponnesian War 431-404 BC. e. The Spartans placed pitch and sulfur in logs, which they then placed under the city walls and set on fire.
Later, with the advent of gunpowder, they tried to use bombs filled with a mixture of poisons, gunpowder and resin on the battlefield. Released from catapults, they exploded from a burning fuse (the prototype of the modern remote fuse). Exploding bombs emitted clouds of poisonous smoke over enemy troops - poisonous gases caused bleeding from the nasopharynx when using arsenic, skin irritation, and blisters.
In medieval China, a bomb was created from cardboard filled with sulfur and lime. During a naval battle in 1161, these bombs, falling into the water, exploded with a deafening roar, spreading in the air poisonous smoke. The smoke produced by the contact of water with lime and sulfur caused the same effects as modern tear gas.
The following components were used to create mixtures for loading bombs: knotweed, croton oil, soap tree pods (to produce smoke), arsenic sulfide and oxide, aconite, tung oil, Spanish flies.
At the beginning of the 16th century, the inhabitants of Brazil tried to fight the conquistadors by using poisonous smoke obtained from burning red pepper against them. This method was subsequently used repeatedly during uprisings in Latin America.
In the Middle Ages and later, chemical agents continued to attract attention for military purposes. Thus, in 1456, the city of Belgrade was protected from the Turks by exposing the attackers to a poisonous cloud. This cloud arose from the combustion of toxic powder, which city residents sprinkled on rats, set them on fire and released them towards the besiegers.
A range of drugs, including arsenic-containing compounds and the saliva of rabid dogs, were described by Leonardo da Vinci.
The first tests of chemical weapons in Russia were carried out in the late 50s of the 19th century on Volkovo Field. Shells filled with cacodyle cyanide were detonated in open log houses where 12 cats were located. All cats survived. The report of Adjutant General Barantsev, which made incorrect conclusions about the low effectiveness of toxic substances, led to disastrous results. Work on testing shells filled with explosive agents was stopped and resumed only in 1915.
During the First World War, chemicals were used in huge quantities - about 400 thousand people were affected by 12 thousand tons of mustard gas. In total, 180 thousand tons of ammunition were produced during the First World War. various types filled with toxic substances, of which 125 thousand tons were used on the battlefield. Over 40 types of explosives have passed combat testing. Total losses from chemical weapons are estimated at 1.3 million people.
The use of chemical agents during the First World War are the first recorded violations of the Hague Declaration of 1899 and 1907 (the United States refused to support the Hague Conference of 1899).
In 1907, Great Britain acceded to the declaration and accepted its obligations. France agreed to the 1899 Hague Declaration, as did Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan. The parties agreed on the non-use of asphyxiating and poisonous gases for military purposes.
Referring to the exact wording of the declaration, Germany and France used non-lethal tear gases in 1914.
The initiative in the use of combat agents on a large scale belongs to Germany. Already in the September battles of 1914 on the Marne River and the Ain River, both belligerents experienced great difficulties in supplying their armies with shells. With the transition to positional warfare in October-November, there was no hope left, especially for Germany, of overpowering the enemy, covered with powerful trenches, with the help of ordinary artillery shells. Explosive agents have the powerful ability to defeat a living enemy in places inaccessible to the most powerful projectiles. And Germany was the first to take the path of widespread use of chemical warfare agents, possessing the most developed chemical industry.
Immediately after the declaration of war, Germany began to conduct experiments (at the Institute of Physics and Chemistry and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute) with cacodyl oxide and phosgene with a view to the possibility of using them militarily.
The Military Gas School was opened in Berlin, in which numerous depots of materials were concentrated. A special inspection was also located there. In addition, a special chemical inspection A-10 was formed at the Ministry of War, specifically dealing with issues of chemical warfare.
The end of 1914 marked the beginning of research activities in Germany to find combat agents, mainly artillery ammunition. These were the first attempts to equip military explosive shells.
The first experiments in the use of combat agents in the form of the so-called “N2 projectile” (10.5 cm shrapnel with the replacement of bullet equipment with dianiside sulfate) were carried out by the Germans in October 1914.
On October 27, 3,000 of these shells were used on the Western Front in the attack on Neuve Chapelle. Although the irritating effect of the shells turned out to be small, according to German data, their use facilitated the capture of Neuve Chapelle.
German propaganda stated that such shells were no more dangerous than picric acid explosives. Picric acid, another name for melinite, was not a poisonous substance. It was an explosive substance, the explosion of which released asphyxiating gases. There were cases when soldiers who were in shelters died from suffocation after the explosion of a shell filled with melinite.
But at that time there was a crisis in the production of shells; they were withdrawn from service), and in addition, the high command doubted the possibility of obtaining a mass effect in the manufacture of gas shells.
Then Dr. Haber suggested using gas in the form of a gas cloud. The first attempts to use chemical warfare agents were carried out on such a small scale and with such insignificant effect that no measures were taken by the Allies in the area of chemical defense.
Leverkusen became the center for the production of combat chemical agents, where it was produced a large number of materials, and where the Military Chemical School was transferred from Berlin in 1915 - it had 1,500 technical and command personnel and, especially in production, several thousand workers. In her laboratory in Gushte, 300 chemists worked non-stop. Orders for toxic substances were distributed among various factories.
On April 22, 1915, Germany carried out a massive chlorine attack, releasing chlorine from 5,730 cylinders. Within 5-8 minutes, 168-180 tons of chlorine were released on a 6 km front - 15 thousand soldiers were defeated, of which 5 thousand died.
This gas attack was a complete surprise to the Allied troops, but already on September 25, 1915, British troops carried out their test chlorine attack.
In further gas attacks, both chlorine and mixtures of chlorine and phosgene were used. A mixture of phosgene and chlorine was first used as a chemical agent by Germany on May 31, 1915, against Russian troops. At the 12 km front - near Bolimov (Poland), 264 tons of this mixture were released from 12 thousand cylinders. In 2 Russian divisions, almost 9 thousand people were put out of action - 1200 died.
Since 1917, warring countries began to use gas launchers (a prototype of mortars). They were first used by the British. The mines (see first picture) contained from 9 to 28 kg of toxic substance; gas launchers were fired mainly with phosgene, liquid diphosgene and chloropicrin.
German gas launchers were the cause of the “miracle at Caporetto”, when, after shelling an Italian battalion with phosgene mines from 912 gas launchers, all life in the Isonzo River valley was destroyed.
The combination of gas launchers with artillery fire increased the effectiveness of gas attacks. So on June 22, 1916, during 7 hours of continuous shelling German artillery fired 125 thousand shells with 100 thousand liters. asphyxiating agents. The mass of toxic substances in the cylinders was 50%, in the shells only 10%.
On May 15, 1916, during an artillery bombardment, the French used a mixture of phosgene with tin tetrachloride and arsenic trichloride, and on July 1, a mixture of hydrocyanic acid with arsenic trichloride.
On July 10, 1917, the Germans on the Western Front first used diphenylchloroarsine, which caused severe coughing even through a gas mask, which in those years had a poor smoke filter. Therefore, in the future, diphenylchlorarsine was used together with phosgene or diphosgene to defeat enemy personnel.
A new stage in the use of chemical weapons began with the use of a persistent toxic substance with blister action (B,B-dichlorodiethylsulfide), used for the first time by German troops near the Belgian city of Ypres. On July 12, 1917, within 4 hours, 50 thousand shells containing tons of B, B-dichlorodiethyl sulfide were fired at Allied positions. 2,490 people were injured to varying degrees.
The French called the new agent “mustard gas”, after the place of its first use, and the British called it “mustard gas” because of its strong specific odor. British scientists quickly deciphered its formula, but they managed to establish the production of a new agent only in 1918, which is why it was possible to use mustard gas for military purposes only in September 1918 (2 months before the armistice).
In total, during the period from April 1915 to November 1918, German troops carried out more than 50 gas attacks, 150 by the British, 20 by the French.
In the Russian army, the high command has a negative attitude towards the use of shells with explosive agents. Under the impression of the gas attack carried out by the Germans on April 22, 1915 on the French front in the Ypres region, as well as in May on the eastern front, it was forced to change its views.
On August 3 of the same 1915, an order appeared to form a special commission at the State Autonomous Institution for the procurement of asphyxiants. As a result of the work of the GAU commission on the procurement of asphyxiants, in Russia, first of all, the production of liquid chlorine was established, which was imported from abroad before the war.
In August 1915, chlorine was produced for the first time. In October of the same year, production of phosgene began. Since October 1915, special chemical teams began to be formed in Russia to carry out gas balloon attacks.
In April 1916, a Chemical Committee was formed at the State Agrarian University, which included a commission for the preparation of asphyxiants. Thanks to the energetic actions of the Chemical Committee, an extensive network of chemical plants (about 200) was created in Russia. Including a number of factories for the production of toxic substances.
New factories of toxic substances were put into operation in the spring of 1916. The quantity of chemical agents produced reached 3,180 tons by November (about 345 tons were produced in October), and the 1917 program planned to increase monthly productivity to 600 tons in January and to 1,300 t in May.
The first gas attack by Russian troops was carried out on September 5-6, 1916 in the Smorgon region. By the end of 1916, a tendency emerged to shift the center of gravity of chemical warfare from gas attacks to artillery firing with chemical shells.
Russia has taken the path of using chemical shells in artillery since 1916, producing 76-mm chemical grenades of two types: asphyxiating (chloropicrin with sulfuryl chloride) and poisonous (phosgene with tin chloride, or vensinite, consisting of hydrocyanic acid, chloroform, arsenic chloride and tin), the action of which caused damage to the body and, in severe cases, death.
By the fall of 1916, the army's requirements for chemical 76-mm shells were fully satisfied: the army received 15,000 shells monthly (the ratio of poisonous and asphyxiating shells was 1 to 4). The supply of large-caliber chemical shells to the Russian army was hampered by the lack of shell casings, which were entirely intended to be loaded with explosives. Russian artillery began receiving chemical mines for mortars in the spring of 1917.
As for gas launchers, which were successfully used as a new means of chemical attack on the French and Italian fronts from the beginning of 1917, Russia, which emerged from the war that same year, did not have gas launchers.
The mortar artillery school, formed in September 1917, was just about to begin experiments on the use of gas launchers. Russian artillery was not so rich in chemical shells to use mass shooting, as was the case with Russia's allies and opponents. It used 76-mm chemical grenades almost exclusively in situations of trench warfare, as an auxiliary tool along with firing conventional shells. In addition to shelling enemy trenches immediately before an attack by enemy troops, firing chemical shells was used with particular success to temporarily cease fire of enemy batteries, trench guns and machine guns, to facilitate their gas attack - by firing at those targets that were not captured by the gas wave. Shells filled with explosive agents were used against enemy troops accumulated in a forest or other hidden place, their observation and command posts, and hidden communication passages.
At the end of 1916, the GAU sent active army 9,500 glass hand grenades with asphyxiating liquids for combat testing, and in the spring of 1917 - 100,000 chemical hand grenades. Both hand grenades They rushed at 20 - 30 m and were useful in defense and especially during retreat, to prevent the pursuit of the enemy. During the Brusilov breakthrough in May-June 1916, the Russian army received some front-line reserves of German chemical agents - shells and containers with mustard gas and phosgene - as trophies. Although Russian troops were subjected to German gas attacks several times, they rarely used these weapons themselves - either due to the fact that chemical munitions from the Allies arrived too late, or due to a lack of specialists. And the Russian military did not have any concept of using chemical agents at that time. At the beginning of 1918, all the chemical arsenals of the old Russian army were in the hands of the new government. During the Civil War, chemical weapons were used in small quantities by the White Army and the British occupation forces in 1919.
The Red Army used toxic substances to suppress peasant uprisings. According to unverified data, for the first time new government tried to use chemical agents during the suppression of the uprising in Yaroslavl in 1918.
In March 1919, another anti-Bolshevik Cossack uprising broke out in the Upper Don. On March 18, the artillery of the Zaamur regiment fired at the rebels with chemical shells (most likely with phosgene).
The massive use of chemical weapons by the Red Army dates back to 1921. Then, under the command of Tukhachevsky, a large-scale punitive operation against Antonov’s rebel army unfolded in the Tambov province.
In addition to punitive actions - shooting hostages, creating concentration camps, burning entire villages, chemical weapons (artillery shells and gas cylinders) were used in large quantities. We can definitely talk about the use of chlorine and phosgene, but perhaps there was also mustard gas.
They tried to establish their own production of military weapons in Soviet Russia since 1922 with the help of the Germans. Bypassing the Versailles agreements, on May 14, 1923, the Soviet and German sides signed an agreement on the construction of a plant for the production of toxic substances. Technological assistance in the construction of this plant was provided by the Stolzenberg concern within the framework of the Bersol joint stock company. They decided to expand production to Ivashchenkovo (later Chapaevsk). But for three years nothing was really done - the Germans were clearly not eager to share the technology and were playing for time.
On August 30, 1924, Moscow began producing its own mustard gas. The first industrial batch of mustard gas - 18 pounds (288 kg) - was produced by the Moscow Aniltrest experimental plant from August 30 to September 3.
And in October of the same year, the first thousand chemical shells were already equipped with domestic mustard gas. Industrial production of chemical agents (mustard gas) was first established in Moscow at the Aniltrest experimental plant.
Later, on the basis of this production, a research institute for the development of chemical agents with a pilot plant was created.
Since the mid-1920s, one of the main centers for the production of chemical weapons has been the chemical plant in Chapaevsk, which produced military agents until the beginning of the Second World War.
During the 1930s, the production of military chemical agents and the equipping of ammunition with them was deployed in Perm, Berezniki (Perm region), Bobriki (later Stalinogorsk), Dzerzhinsk, Kineshma, Stalingrad, Kemerovo, Shchelkovo, Voskresensk, Chelyabinsk.
After the First World War and until the Second World War, public opinion in Europe was opposed to the use of chemical weapons - but among European industrialists who ensured the defense capabilities of their countries, the prevailing opinion was that chemical weapons should be an indispensable attribute of warfare. Through the efforts of the League of Nations, at the same time, a number of conferences and rallies were held promoting the prohibition of the use of toxic substances for military purposes and talking about the consequences of this. The International Committee of the Red Cross supported conferences condemning the use of chemical warfare in the 1920s.
In 1921, the Washington Conference on Arms Limitation was convened, chemical weapons were the subject of discussion by a specially created subcommittee that had information about the use of chemical weapons during the First World War, which intended to propose a ban on the use of chemical weapons, even more than conventional weapons of war.
The Subcommittee decided: the use of chemical weapons against the enemy on land and water cannot be allowed. The opinion of the subcommittee was supported by a survey conducted public opinion in USA.
The treaty was ratified by most countries, including the United States and Great Britain. In Geneva, on June 17, 1925, the “Protocol prohibiting the use of asphyxiating, poisonous and other similar gases and bacteriological agents in war” was signed. This document was subsequently ratified by more than 100 states.
However, at the same time, the United States began expanding the Edgewood Arsenal.
In Great Britain, many perceived the possibility of using chemical weapons as a fait accompli, fearing that they would find themselves in a disadvantageous situation, as in 1915.
And as a consequence of this continued further work over chemical weapons, using propaganda for the use of toxic substances.
Chemical weapons were used in large quantities in “local conflicts” of the 1920s and 1930s: by Spain in Morocco in 1925, by Japanese troops against Chinese troops from 1937 to 1943.
The study of toxic substances in Japan began, with the help of Germany, in 1923, and by the beginning of the 30s, the production of the most effective chemical agents was organized in the arsenals of Tadonuimi and Sagani.
Approximately 25% of the Japanese army's artillery and 30% of its aviation ammunition were chemically charged.
In the Kwantung Army, "Manchurian Detachment 100" in addition to creating bacteriological weapons carried out work on the research and production of chemical toxic substances (6th department of the “detachment”).
In 1937 - August 12 in the battles for the city of Nankou and August 22 in the battles for railway Beijing-Suiyuan Japanese army used shells filled with explosive agents.
The Japanese continued to widely use toxic substances in China and Manchuria. The losses of Chinese troops from chemical agents accounted for 10% of the total.
Italy used chemical weapons in Ethiopia (from October 1935 to April 1936). Mustard gas was used with great efficiency by the Italians, despite the fact that Italy joined the Geneva Protocol in 1925. Almost all combat operations of Italian units were supported by chemical attack with the help of aviation and artillery. Aircraft pouring devices that disperse liquid chemical agents were also used.
415 tons of blister agents and 263 tons of asphyxiants were sent to Ethiopia.
Between December 1935 and April 1936, Italian aviation carried out 19 large-scale chemical raids on cities and towns in Abyssinia, expending 15 thousand aerial chemical bombs. Of the total losses of the Abyssinian army of 750 thousand people, approximately a third were losses from chemical weapons. A large number of civilians were also affected. Specialists from the IG Farbenindustrie concern helped the Italians set up the production of chemical agents, which are so effective in Ethiopia. The IG Farben concern, created for complete dominance in the markets of dyes and organic chemistry, Germany's six largest chemical companies merged.
British and American industrialists saw the concern as an empire similar to Krupp's arms empire, considering it a serious threat and made efforts to dismember it after the Second World War. An indisputable fact is Germany's superiority in the production of toxic substances: the established production of nerve gases in Germany came as a complete surprise to the Allied troops in 1945.
In Germany, immediately after the Nazis came to power, by order of Hitler, work in the field of military chemistry was resumed. Since 1934, in accordance with the plan of the high command ground forces These works acquired a purposeful offensive character, corresponding to the aggressive policy of the Hitler government.
First of all, at newly created or modernized enterprises, the production of well-known chemical agents began, which showed the greatest combat effectiveness during the First World War, with the expectation of creating a supply of them for 5 months of chemical warfare.
The high command of the fascist army considered it sufficient to have approximately 27 thousand tons of toxic substances such as mustard gas and tactical formulations based on it: phosgene, adamsite, diphenylchlorarsine and chloroacetophenone.
At the same time, intensive work was carried out to search for new toxic substances among a wide variety of classes of chemical compounds. These works in the field of vesicular agents were marked by the receipt in 1935 - 1936. nitrogen mustards (N-lost) and “oxygen mustard” (O-lost).
In the main research laboratory of the concern I.G. Farbenindustry in Leverkusen revealed the high toxicity of some fluorine- and phosphorus-containing compounds, a number of which were subsequently adopted by the German army.
In 1936, tabun was synthesized, which began to be produced on an industrial scale in May 1943; in 1939, sarin, which was more toxic than tabun, was produced, and at the end of 1944, soman was produced. These substances marked the appearance of the army fascist Germany a new class of lethal nerve agents, many times more toxic than the toxic substances of the First World War.
In 1940, in the city of Oberbayern (Bavaria) it was launched large plant, owned by IG Farben, 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, about 20 new technological installations for the production of chemical agents were built in Germany, the annual capacity of which exceeded 100 thousand tons. They were located in Ludwigshafen, Huls, Wolfen, Urdingen, Ammendorf, Fadkenhagen, Seelz and other places.
In the city of Duchernfurt, on the Oder (now Silesia, Poland) there was one of the largest chemical agents production facilities. By 1945, Germany had in reserve 12 thousand tons of herd, the production of which was not available anywhere else.
The reasons why Germany did not use chemical weapons during the Second World War remain unclear. According to one version, Hitler did not give the command to use chemical weapons during the war because he believed that the USSR had more chemical weapons.
Another reason could be the insufficiently effective effect of chemical agents on enemy soldiers equipped with chemical protective equipment, as well as their dependence on weather conditions.
Some work on the production of tabun, sarin, and soman was carried out in the USA and Great Britain, but a breakthrough in their production could not have occurred earlier than 1945. During the Second World War in the United States, 17 installations produced 135 thousand tons of toxic substances; mustard gas accounted for half of the total volume. About 5 million shells and 1 million aerial bombs were filled with mustard gas. Initially, mustard gas was supposed to be used against enemy landings on the sea coast. During the period of the emerging turning point in the war in favor of the Allies, serious fears arose that Germany would decide to use chemical weapons. This was the basis for the decision of the American military command to supply mustard gas ammunition to the troops on the European continent. The plan provided for the creation of chemical weapons reserves for the ground forces for 4 months. combat operations and for the Air Force - for 8 months.
Transportation by sea was not without incident. Thus, on December 2, 1943, German aircraft bombed ships located in the Italian port of Bari in the Adriatic Sea. Among them was the American transport "John Harvey" with a cargo of chemical bombs filled with mustard gas. After the transport was damaged, part of the chemical agent mixed with the spilled oil, and mustard gas spread over the surface of the harbor.
During the Second World War, extensive military biological research was also carried out in the United States. The Camp Detrick biological center, opened in 1943 in Maryland (later named Fort Detrick), was intended for these studies. There, in particular, the study of bacterial toxins, including botulinum, began.
IN recent months War in Edgewood and the Army Aeromedical Laboratory of Fort Rucker (Alabama) began the search and testing of natural and synthetic substances that affect the central nervous system and cause mental or physical disorders in humans in minute doses.
In close cooperation with the United States, America carried out work in the field of chemical and biological weapons in Great Britain. Thus, at the University of Cambridge, the research group of B. Saunders in 1941 synthesized a toxic nerve agent - diisopropyl fluorophosphate (DFP, PF-3). Soon, a technological installation for the production of this chemical agent began operating in Sutton Oak near Manchester. The main scientific center of Great Britain was Porton Down (Salisbury, Wiltshire), founded back in 1916 as a military chemical research station. The production of toxic substances was also carried out at a chemical plant in Nenskjuk (Cornwall).
According to the Stockholm International research institute problems of the world (SIPRI), by the end of the war, stocks of about 35 thousand tons of toxic substances were stored in Great Britain.
After the Second World War, chemical agents were used in a number of local conflicts. There are known facts of the use of chemical weapons by the US Army against the DPRK (1951-1952) and Vietnam (60s).
From 1945 to 1980, only 2 types of chemical weapons were used in the West: lachrymators (CS: 2-chlorobenzylidene malonodinitrile - tear gas) and defoliants - chemicals from the group of herbicides.
CS alone, 6,800 tons were used. Defoliants belong to the class of phytotoxicants - chemical substances that cause leaves to fall from plants and are used to unmask enemy targets.
In US laboratories, the targeted development of means of destroying vegetation began during the Second World War. The level of development of herbicides reached by the end of the war, according to US experts, could allow their practical use. However, research for military purposes continued, and only in 1961 a “suitable” test site was selected. The use of chemicals to destroy vegetation in South Vietnam was initiated by the US military in August 1961 with the authorization of President Kennedy.
All areas of South Vietnam were treated with herbicides - from the demilitarized zone to the Mekong Delta, as well as many areas of Laos and Kampuchea - anywhere and everywhere where, according to the Americans, detachments of the People's Liberation Armed Forces (PLAF) of South Vietnam could be located or their communications ran.
Along with woody vegetation, fields, gardens and rubber plantations also began to be exposed to herbicides. Since 1965, these chemicals have been sprayed over the fields of Laos (especially in its southern and eastern parts), and two years later - already in the northern part of the demilitarized zone, as well as in the adjacent areas of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Forests and fields were cultivated at the request of the commanders of American units stationed in South Vietnam. Spraying of herbicides was carried out using not only aviation, but also special ground devices available to the American troops and Saigon units. Herbicides were used especially intensively in 1964-1966 to destroy mangrove forests in south coast South Vietnam and on the banks of the shipping canals leading to Saigon, as well as the forests of the demilitarized zone. Two US Air Force aviation squadrons were fully involved in the operations. The use of chemical anti-vegetative agents reached its maximum in 1967. Subsequently, the intensity of operations fluctuated depending on the intensity of military operations.
In South Vietnam, during Operation Ranch Hand, the Americans tested 15 different chemicals and formulations to destroy crops, plantations of cultivated plants and trees and shrubs.
The total amount of chemical vegetation destruction agents used by the US armed forces from 1961 to 1971 was 90 thousand tons, or 72.4 million liters. Four herbicide formulations were predominantly used: purple, orange, white and blue. The most widely used formulations in South Vietnam are: orange - against forests and blue - against rice and other crops.
Chemical weapons are one of the main ones in the First World War and in total about the 20th century. The lethal potential of the gas was limited - only 4% of deaths from the total number of victims. However, the proportion of non-fatal incidents was high, and gas remained one of the main dangers for soldiers. Because it became possible to develop effective countermeasures against gas attacks, unlike most other weapons of the period, its effectiveness began to decline in the later stages of the war and it almost fell out of use. But because poisonous substances were first used in World War I, it was also sometimes called the Chemical War.
History of poison gases
1914
In the early days of the use of chemicals as weapons, the drugs were tear irritants and not lethal. During World War I, the French pioneered the use of gas using 26 mm grenades filled with tear gas (ethyl bromoacetate) in August 1914. However, the Allies' supplies of bromoacetate quickly ran out, and the French administration replaced it with another agent, chloroacetone. In October 1914, German troops fired shells partially filled with a chemical irritant against British positions at Neuve Chapelle, even though the concentration achieved was so small that it was barely noticeable.
1915 Widespread use of deadly gases
On May 5, 90 people immediately died in the trenches; of the 207 who were taken to field hospitals, 46 died on the same day, and 12 died after prolonged suffering.
On July 12, 1915, near the Belgian city of Ypres, Anglo-French troops were fired at by mines containing an oily liquid. This is how Germany used mustard gas for the first time.
Notes
Links
- De-Lazari Alexander Nikolaevich. Chemical weapons on the fronts of the World War 1914-1918.
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The basis of the destructive effect of chemical weapons are toxic substances (TS), which have a physiological effect on the human body.
Unlike other weapons, chemical weapons effectively destroy enemy personnel over a large area without destroying materiel. This is a weapon of mass destruction.
Together with the air, toxic substances penetrate into any premises, shelters, military equipment. Lethal effect persists for some time, objects and terrain become infected.
Types of toxic substances
Toxic substances under the shell of chemical munitions are in solid and liquid form.
At the moment of their use, when the shell is destroyed, they come into combat mode:
- vaporous (gaseous);
- aerosol (drizzle, smoke, fog);
- drip-liquid.
Toxic substances are the main damaging factor of chemical weapons.
Characteristics of chemical weapons
These weapons are divided into:
- According to the type of physiological effects of OM on the human body.
- For tactical purposes.
- According to the speed of the onset of impact.
- According to the durability of the agent used.
- By means and methods of use.
Classification according to human exposure:
- Nerve agents. Lethal, fast-acting, persistent. Act on the central nervous system. The purpose of their use is rapid mass incapacitation of personnel with the maximum number of deaths. Substances: sarin, soman, tabun, V-gases.
- Agent of vesicant action. Lethal, slow-acting, persistent. They affect the body through the skin or respiratory system. Substances: mustard gas, lewisite.
- Generally toxic agent. Lethal, 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.
- Agent with asphyxiating effect. Lethal, slow-acting, unstable. The lungs are affected. Substances: phosgene and diphosgene.
- OM of psychochemical action. Non-lethal. Temporarily affect the central nervous system, affect mental activity, cause temporary blindness, deafness, a sense of fear, and limitation of movement. Substances: inuclidyl-3-benzilate (BZ) and lysergic acid diethylamide.
- Irritant agents (irritants). Non-lethal. They act quickly, but only for a short time. Outside the contaminated area, their effect ceases after a few minutes. These are tear and sneeze-producing substances that irritate the upper respiratory tract and can damage the skin. Substances: CS, CR, DM(adamsite), CN(chloroacetophenone).
Damaging 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 is determined by toxodose and concentration. The zone of chemical contamination can be divided into a focus area (where people are massively affected) and a zone where the contaminated cloud spreads.
First use of chemical weapons
Chemist Fritz Haber was a consultant to the German War Ministry 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 him the task of creating chemical weapons with irritating and toxic substances. It’s a paradox, but Haber believed that with the help gas war will save many lives by ending trench warfare.
The history of use begins on April 22, 1915, when the German military first launched a chlorine gas attack. A greenish cloud appeared in front of the French soldiers' trenches, which they watched with curiosity.
When the cloud came close, a sharp smell was felt, and the soldiers’ eyes and nose stung. The fog burned my chest, blinded me, choked me. The smoke moved deeper into the French positions, spreading panic and death, and was followed by German soldiers with bandages on their faces, but they had no one to fight with.
By evening, chemists from other countries figured out what kind of gas it was. It turned out that any country can produce it. Rescue from it turned out to be simple: you need to cover your mouth and nose with a bandage soaked in a soda solution, and plain water on the bandage weakens the effect of chlorine.
After 2 days, the Germans repeated the attack, but the Allied soldiers soaked their 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, the machine guns “spoke” to them.
Chemical weapons of World War I
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 were filled with corpses. Even the grass died from the gas.
In June 1915, a new poisonous substance, bromine, began to be used. It was used in projectiles.
In December 1915 - phosgene. It has a hay smell and a lingering effect. Its low cost made it convenient to use. At first they were produced in special cylinders, and by 1916 they began to make shells.
Bandages did not protect against blister gases. It penetrated through clothing and shoes, causing burns on the body. The area remained poisoned for more than a week. This 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 poisoned by the British.
For the first time, Russia also used these weapons on the battlefields of the First World War.
Chemical weapons of mass destruction
Experiments with chemical weapons took place under the guise of developing insect poisons. Used in gas chambers concentration camps "Cyclone B" - hydrocyanic acid - an insecticidal agent.
Agent Orange is a substance used to defoliate vegetation. Used in Vietnam, soil poisoning caused severe illnesses 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, killing hundreds of civilians, including many children. The nerve gas used was most likely sarin.
One of modern options Chemical weapons are binary weapons. It comes into combat readiness as a result of a chemical reaction after combining two harmless components.
Everyone who falls into the impact zone becomes victims of chemical weapons of mass destruction. Back in 1905, an international agreement on the non-use of chemical weapons was signed. To date, 196 countries around the world have signed up to its ban.
In addition to chemical weapons of mass destruction and biological.
Types of protection
- Collective. A shelter can provide long-term stay for people without personal protective equipment if it is equipped with filter-ventilation kits and is well sealed.
- Individual. Gas mask, protective clothing and personal chemical protection package (PPP) with antidote and liquid for treating clothing and skin lesions.
Prohibited 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 prohibiting the use of asphyxiating, poisonous or other similar gases and bacteriological agents in war came into force. 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 production and use, but also of 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, Egypt, Angola, North Korea, and South Sudan did not recognize it. He also did not enter legal force in Israel and Myanmar.
The First World War was rich in technical innovations, but, perhaps, none of them acquired such an ominous aura as gas weapons. Chemical agents became a symbol of senseless slaughter, and all those who were under chemical attacks forever remembered the horror of the deadly clouds creeping into the trenches. The First World War became a real benefit of gas weapons: they managed to use 40 different types toxic substances that affected 1.2 million people and killed up to a hundred thousand.
By the beginning of the World War, chemical weapons were still almost non-existent. The French and British had already experimented with rifle grenades with tear gas, the Germans stuffed 105-mm howitzer shells with tear gas, but these innovations had no effect. Gas from German shells and even more so from French grenades instantly dissipated in the open air. The first chemical attacks of the First World War were not widely known, but soon combat chemistry had to be taken much more seriously.
At the end of March 1915, German soldiers captured by the French began to report: gas cylinders had been delivered to their positions. One of them even had a respirator taken from him. The reaction to this information was surprisingly nonchalant. The command simply shrugged its shoulders and did nothing to protect the troops. Moreover, the French general Edmond Ferry, who warned his neighbors about the threat and dispersed his subordinates, lost his position for panic. Meanwhile, the threat of chemical attacks became more and more real. The Germans were ahead of other countries in developing a new type of weapon. After experimenting with projectiles, the idea arose to use cylinders. The Germans planned a private offensive in the area of the city of Ypres. The corps commander, to whose front the cylinders were delivered, was honestly informed that he must “exclusively test the new weapon.” The German command did not particularly believe in the serious effect of gas attacks. The attack was postponed several times: the wind stubbornly did not blow in the right direction.
On April 22, 1915, at 5 p.m., the Germans released chlorine from 5,700 cylinders at once. Observers saw two curious yellow-green clouds, which were pushed by a light wind towards the Entente trenches. German infantry was moving behind the clouds. Soon gas began to flow into the French trenches.
The effect of gas poisoning was terrifying. Chlorine affects the respiratory tract and mucous membranes, causes eye burns and, if inhaled excessively, leads to death from suffocation. However, the most powerful thing was the mental impact. French colonial troops that came under attack fled in droves.
Within a short time, more than 15 thousand people were out of action, of which 5 thousand lost their lives. The Germans, however, did not take full advantage of the devastating effect of the new weapons. For them it was just an experiment, and they were not preparing for a real breakthrough. In addition, the advancing German infantrymen themselves received poisoning. Finally, the resistance was never broken: the arriving Canadians soaked handkerchiefs, scarves, blankets in puddles - and breathed through them. If there was no puddle, they urinated themselves. The effect of chlorine was thus greatly weakened. Nevertheless, the Germans made significant progress on this section of the front - despite the fact that in a positional war, each step was usually given with enormous blood and great labor. In May, the French already received the first respirators, and the effectiveness of gas attacks decreased.
Soon chlorine was used on the Russian front near Bolimov. Here events also developed dramatically. Despite the chlorine flowing into the trenches, the Russians did not run, and although almost 300 people died from gas right in the position, and more than two thousand received poisoning of varying severity after the first attack, the German offensive ran into stiff resistance and failed. A cruel irony of fate: the gas masks were ordered in Moscow and arrived at the positions just a few hours after the battle.
Soon a real “gas race” began: the parties constantly increased the number of chemical attacks and their power: they experimented with a variety of suspensions and methods of using them. At the same time, the mass introduction of gas masks into the troops began. The first gas masks were extremely imperfect: it was difficult to breathe in them, especially while running, and the glass quickly fogged up. Nevertheless, even under such conditions, even in clouds of gas with additionally limited visibility, hand-to-hand combat occurred. One of the English soldiers managed to kill or seriously injure a dozen German soldiers in a gas cloud, having made his way into a trench. He approached them from the side or behind, and the Germans simply did not see the attacker before the butt fell on their heads.
The gas mask became one of the key pieces of equipment. When leaving, he was thrown last. True, this did not always help: sometimes the gas concentration turned out to be too high and people died even in gas masks.
But lighting fires turned out to be an unusually effective method of protection: waves of hot air quite successfully dissipated clouds of gas. In September 1916, during a German gas attack, one Russian colonel took off his mask to command by telephone and lit a fire right at the entrance to his own dugout. As a result, he spent the entire battle shouting commands, at the cost of only mild poisoning.
The method of gas attack was most often quite simple. Liquid poison was sprayed through hoses from cylinders and passed into the open air into gaseous state and, driven by the wind, crawled towards the enemy positions. Troubles happened regularly: when the wind changed, their own soldiers were poisoned.
Often a gas attack was combined with conventional shelling. For example, during the Brusilov Offensive, the Russians silenced the Austrian batteries with a combination of chemical and conventional shells. From time to time, attempts were even made to attack with several gases at once: one was supposed to cause irritation through the gas mask and force the affected enemy to tear off the mask and expose himself to another cloud - a suffocating one.
Chlorine, phosgene and other asphyxiating gases had one fatal flaw as weapons: they required the enemy to inhale them.
In the summer of 1917, near long-suffering Ypres, a gas was used that was named after this city - mustard gas. Its peculiarity was the effect on the skin, bypassing the gas mask. If it came into contact with unprotected skin, mustard gas caused severe chemical burns, necrosis, and traces of it remained for life. For the first time, the Germans fired mustard gas shells at the British military who were concentrated before the attack. Thousands of people suffered terrible burns, and many soldiers did not even have gas masks. In addition, the gas turned out to be very persistent and for several days continued to poison everyone who entered its area of action. Fortunately, the Germans did not have sufficient supplies of this gas, as well as protective clothing, to attack through the poisoned zone. During the attack on the city of Armentieres, the Germans filled it with mustard gas so that the gas literally flowed in rivers through the streets. The British retreated without a fight, but the Germans were unable to enter the town.
The Russian army marched in line: immediately after the first cases of gas use, the development of protective equipment began. At first, the protective equipment was not very diverse: gauze, rags soaked in hyposulfite solution.
However, already in June 1915, Nikolai Zelinsky developed a very successful gas mask based on activated carbon. Already in August, Zelinsky presented his invention - a full-fledged gas mask, complemented by a rubber helmet designed by Edmond Kummant. The gas mask protected the entire face and was made from a single piece of high-quality rubber. Its production began in March 1916. Zelinsky's gas mask protected not only the respiratory tract, but also the eyes and face from toxic substances.
The most famous incident involving the use of military gases on the Russian front refers precisely to the situation when Russian soldiers did not have gas masks. We are, of course, talking about the battle on August 6, 1915 in the Osovets fortress. During this period, Zelensky’s gas mask was still being tested, and the gases themselves were a fairly new type of weapon. Osovets was attacked already in September 1914, however, despite the fact that this fortress was small and not the most perfect, it stubbornly resisted. On August 6, the Germans used chlorine shells from gas batteries. A two-kilometer gas wall first killed the forward posts, then the cloud began to cover the main positions. Almost all of the garrison received poisoning of varying degrees of severity.
However, then something happened that no one could have expected. First, the attacking German infantry was partially poisoned by its own cloud, and then the already dying people began to resist. One of the machine gunners, who had already swallowed gas, fired several belts at the attackers before he died. The culmination of the battle was a bayonet counterattack by a detachment of the Zemlyansky regiment. This group was not at the epicenter of the gas cloud, but everyone was poisoned. The Germans did not flee immediately, but they were psychologically unprepared to fight at a time when all their opponents, it would seem, should have already died under the gas attack. "Attack of the Dead" demonstrated that even in the absence of full protection, gas does not always give the expected effect.
As a means of killing, gas had obvious advantages, but by the end of the First World War it did not look like such a formidable weapon. Modern armies already at the end of the war they seriously reduced losses from chemical attacks, often reducing them to almost zero. As a result, gases became exotic already during World War II.
