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 began on the use of the first chemical weapons, 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
The use of poisonous gases in World War I was a major military innovation. Poisons ranged from the merely harmful (such as tear gas) to the deadly poisonous, such as chlorine and phosgene. Chemical weapons are one of the main ones in the First World War and in total throughout the 20th century. The lethal potential of the gas was limited - only 4% of deaths from the total number of those affected. However, the proportion of non-fatal cases was high, and the gas remained one of the main hazards to soldiers. Since it became possible to develop effective countermeasures against gas attacks, unlike most other weapons of this period, in the later stages of the war its effectiveness began to decline, and it almost fell out of circulation. But due to the fact that toxic substances were first used in the First World War, it was also sometimes called the "war of chemists."
History of Poison Gases 1914
At the beginning of the use of chemicals as a weapon, there were tear irritant drugs, not fatal ones. During the First World War, the French became the first to use gas using 26 mm grenades filled with tear gas (ethyl bromoacetate) in August 1914. However, the Allied stocks of ethyl bromoacetate quickly ran out, and the French administration replaced it with another agent, chloroacetone. In October 1914, German troops opened fire with shells partially filled with a chemical irritant against British positions on the Neuve Chapelle, despite the concentration achieved being so low as to be barely noticeable.
1915: widespread deadly gases
Germany was the first to use gas as a weapon of mass destruction on a large scale during World War I against Russia.
The first poison gas used by the German military was chlorine. The German chemical companies BASF, Hoechst and Bayer (which formed the IG Farben conglomerate in 1925) produced chlorine as a by-product of dye production. In collaboration with Fritz Haber of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin, they began developing methods for applying chlorine against enemy trenches.
By April 22, 1915, the German army had sprayed 168 tons of chlorine near the Ypres River. At 17:00 a weak east wind blew and the gas began to spray, it moved towards the French positions, forming yellowish-green clouds. It should be noted that the German infantry also suffered from the gas and, lacking sufficient reinforcements, could not use the advantage gained until the arrival of British-Canadian reinforcements. The Entente immediately declared that Germany had violated the principles of international law, but Berlin countered this statement by saying that the Hague Convention prohibits only the use of poisonous projectiles, but not gases.
After the Battle of Ypres, poison gases were used by Germany several more times: on April 24 against the 1st Canadian Division, on May 2 near the Mousetrap Farm, on May 5 against the British and on August 6 against the defenders of the Russian fortress of Osovets. On May 5, 90 people immediately died in the trenches; of the 207 admitted to field hospitals, 46 died on the same day, and 12 after prolonged torment. Against the Russian army, the action of gases, however, was not effective enough: despite serious losses, the Russian army threw the Germans back from Osovets. The counterattack of the Russian troops was called in European historiography as an “attack of the dead”: according to many historians and witnesses of those battles, the Russian soldiers by their appearance alone (many were disfigured after shelling with chemical shells) plunged the German soldiers into shock and total panic:
“Every living thing in the open air on the bridgehead of the fortress was poisoned to death,” recalled a member of the defense. - All the greenery in the fortress and in the nearest area along the path of the gases was destroyed, the leaves on the trees turned yellow, curled up and fell off, the grass turned black and lay on the ground, the flower petals flew around. All copper objects on the bridgehead of the fortress - parts of guns and shells, washbasins, tanks, etc. - were covered with a thick green layer of chlorine oxide; food items stored without hermetic sealing - meat, butter, lard, vegetables, turned out to be poisoned and unfit for consumption.
“The half-poisoned wandered back,” this is another author, “and, tormented by thirst, bent down to the sources of water, but here the gases lingered in low places, and secondary poisoning led to death.”
The First World War was on. On the evening of April 22, 1915, German and French troops opposing each other were near the Belgian city of Ypres. They fought for the city for a long time and to no avail. But this evening the Germans wanted to test a new weapon - poison gas. They brought thousands of cylinders with them, and when the wind blew towards the enemy, they opened the taps, releasing 180 tons of chlorine into the air. A yellowish gas cloud was carried by the wind towards the enemy line.
The panic began. Immersed in a gas cloud, the French soldiers went blind, coughed and suffocated. Three thousand of them died of asphyxiation, another seven thousand were burned.
"At this point, science lost its innocence," says science historian Ernst Peter Fischer. In his words, if before that the purpose of scientific research was to alleviate the conditions of people's lives, now science has created conditions that make it easier to kill a person.
"In the war - for the fatherland"
A way to use chlorine for military purposes was developed by the German chemist Fritz Haber. He is considered the first scientist who subordinated scientific knowledge to military needs. Fritz Haber discovered that chlorine is an extremely poisonous gas, which, due to its high density, is concentrated low above the ground. He knew that this gas causes severe swelling of the mucous membranes, coughing, suffocation, and ultimately leads to death. In addition, the poison was cheap: chlorine is found in the waste of the chemical industry.
"Haber's motto was "In the world - for humanity, in the war - for the fatherland," Ernst Peter Fischer quotes the then head of the chemical department of the Prussian War Ministry. - Then there were other times. Everyone was trying to find poison gas that they could use in war And only the Germans succeeded."
The Ypres attack was a war crime - as early as 1915. After all, the Hague Convention of 1907 prohibited the use of poison and poisoned weapons for military purposes.
Arms race
The "success" of Fritz Haber's military innovation became contagious, and not only for the Germans. Simultaneously with the war of states, the "war of chemists" also began. Scientists were tasked with creating chemical weapons that would be ready for use as soon as possible. "Abroad, they looked with envy at Haber," says Ernst Peter Fischer, "Many people wanted to have such a scientist in their country." Fritz Haber received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918. True, not for the discovery of poisonous gas, but for his contribution to the implementation of the synthesis of ammonia.
The French and British also experimented with poisonous gases. The use of phosgene and mustard gas, often in combination with each other, became widespread in the war. And yet, poison gases did not play a decisive role in the outcome of the war: these weapons could only be used in favorable weather.
scary mechanism
Nevertheless, a terrible mechanism was launched in the First World War, and Germany became its engine.
The chemist Fritz Haber not only laid the foundation for the use of chlorine for military purposes, but also, thanks to his good industrial connections, helped to mass-produce this chemical weapon. For example, the German chemical concern BASF produced poisonous substances in large quantities during the First World War.
Already after the war with the creation of the IG Farben concern in 1925, Haber joined its supervisory board. Later, during National Socialism, a subsidiary of IG Farben was engaged in the production of "cyclone B", used in the gas chambers of concentration camps.
Context
Fritz Haber himself could not have foreseen this. "He's a tragic figure," Fischer says. In 1933, Haber, a Jew by origin, emigrated to England, expelled from his country, in the service of which he placed his scientific knowledge.
Red line
In total, more than 90 thousand soldiers died on the fronts of the First World War from the use of poison gases. Many died of complications a few years after the end of the war. In 1905, the members of the League of Nations, which included Germany, under the Geneva Protocol pledged not to use chemical weapons. Meanwhile, scientific research on the use of poisonous gases was continued, mainly under the guise of developing means to combat harmful insects.
"Cyclone B" - hydrocyanic acid - an insecticidal agent. "Agent orange" - a substance for deleafing plants. The Americans used defoliant during the Vietnam War to thin out local dense vegetation. As a consequence - poisoned soil, numerous diseases and genetic mutations in the population. The latest example of the use of chemical weapons is Syria.
"You can do whatever you want with poisonous gases, but they can't be used as a target weapon," emphasizes science historian Fisher. “Everyone who is nearby becomes a victim.” The fact that the use of poisonous gas is still “a red line that cannot be crossed”, he considers correct: “Otherwise, the war becomes even more inhuman than it already is.”
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 those affected. However, the proportion of non-fatal cases was high, and the gas remained one of the main hazards to soldiers. Since it became possible to develop effective countermeasures against gas attacks, unlike most other weapons of this period, in the later stages of the war its effectiveness began to decline, and it almost fell out of circulation. But due to the fact that toxic substances were first used in the First World War, it was also sometimes called the war of chemists.
History of poison gases
1914
At the beginning of the use of chemicals as a weapon, there were tear irritant drugs, not fatal ones. During the First World War, the French became the first to use gas using 26 mm grenades filled with tear gas (ethyl bromoacetate) in August 1914. However, the Allied stocks of bromoacetate quickly ran out, and the French administration replaced it with another agent, chloroacetone. In October 1914, German troops opened fire with shells partially filled with a chemical irritant against British positions on the Neuve Chapelle, despite the concentration achieved being so low as to be barely noticeable.
1915 Widespread deadly gases
On May 5, 90 people immediately died in the trenches; of the 207 admitted to field hospitals, 46 died on the same day, and 12 after prolonged torment.
On July 12, 1915, near the Belgian city of Ypres, Anglo-French troops were fired upon by mines containing an oily liquid. So for the first time, mustard gas was used by Germany.
Notes
Links
- De-Lazari Alexander Nikolaevich. Chemical weapons on the fronts of the World War 1914-1918.
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