The M2 was a one-piece mask with sewen in goggles and thick antigas pads for protection against chemical attacks including chlorine and phosgene for up to six hours. The French soldier in the photo is wearing an M2 Gasmask that was originally issued in March 1916 and subsequently upgraded in April. In June 1916 Austro-Hungarian armies targeted the Italians with a mixture of chlorine and phosgene, and by 1917 other nations had joined the fray. On the 25th of September 1915, in what is considered to be a British retaliation, 140 tons of chlorine and 10,000 smoke bombs filled with phosphorus harassed the Germans at Loos in Northern France. Some eight months later on the 22nd of April 1915, the Germans unleashed 170 tons of chlorine on French, Morrocan and Algerians troops at Langemarck in West-Flanders, Belgium. In the Battle of the Frontiers, August 1941, the French bombarded German positions at Alsace and Lorrain with rifle grenades loaded with ethyl bromoacetate, a chemical compound more commonly known as the tear gas. The first combatant to use chemicals were the French on the western front. Like ordnance, ammunition and other necessary weapons of war, these killer gasses were mass-produced on an industrial scale with approximately 1,25,000 tons used in combat. Chemicals like chlorine, phosgene, diphosgene, chloropicrin and dichloroethly sulphide were used to produce some 46 types of poisonous gasses that was directly responsible for nearly 1.3 million casualties and 1,00,000 confirmed deaths. Employed extensively by the central powers and the allied nations to incapacitate their opponents, especially in the trenches. Dimly visible in the background are two stretcher-bearers transporting a wounded back to base for medical attention – clearly suggesting this photo was captured quite close to the action.Ĭhemical warfare was one of the defining features of World War I and the first weapon of war to be banned by the Geneva convention in 1925. A vintage photo archived with the National Library of Congress shows a French army sergeant and his canine companion wearing a pair of gas masks while on duty on the western front in 1916.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |