Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. Requests for reprints should be sent to Gerard J. The first large-scale use of a traditional weapon of mass destruction chemical, biological, or nuclear involved the successful deployment of chemical weapons during World War I β The development, production, and deployment of war gases such as chlorine, phosgene, and mustard created a new and complex public health threat that endangered not only soldiers and civilians on the battlefield but also chemical workers on the home front involved in the large-scale manufacturing processes.
The story of chemical weapons research and development during that war provides useful insights for current public health practitioners faced with a possible chemical weapons attack against civilian or military populations. Within 10 minutes, tons of chlorine gas drifted over the opposing French trenches, engulfing all those downwind.
Filled with pressurized liquid chlorine, the cylinders had been clandestinely installed by the Germans more than 3 weeks earlier. Disregarding intelligence reports about the strange cylinders prior to the attack, the French troops were totally unprepared for this new and horrifying weapon. The surprise use of chlorine gas allowed the Germans to rupture the French line along a 6-kilometer 3.
Within a matter of minutes, this slow moving wall of gas killed more than French and Algerian soldiers, while wounding approximately more. Greenish-gray clouds swept down upon them, turning yellow as they traveled over the country blasting everything they touched and shriveling up the vegetation. Then there staggered into our midst French soldiers, blinded, coughing, chests heaving, faces an ugly purple color, lips speechless with agony, and behind them in the gas soaked trenches, we learned that they had left hundreds of dead and dying comrades.
The German High Command sanctioned the use of gas in the hope that this new weapon would bring a decisive victory, breaking the enduring stalemate of trench warfare. However, their faith in this wonder weapon was limited.
