1919 POST WW I ~2ND ENGINEERS ANNEX FORCES~ MUSTARD GAS (SOLDIERS MAIL) LETTER For Sale

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1919 POST WW I ~2ND ENGINEERS ANNEX FORCES~ MUSTARD GAS (SOLDIERS MAIL) LETTER:
$19.99

JANUARY 12, 1919 ***POST WORLD WAR I*** ~2ND UNITED STATES ENGINEERS ANNEX FORCES~ NEW MEDIA, GERMANY // RHENISH PRUSSIA (also known as Rhine Province) ARMY OF OCCUPATION ... (2 PAGE) \"SOLDIERS LETTER\" WITH MENTION OF \"MUSTARD GAS\" USED BY THE GERMAN MILITARY!

(Approximate dimensions: 6 1/2 x 5 1/8\").

This letter was dated approximately 2 months after \"The Great War\" (World War I) WEAPON IN WORLD WAR I:
A French gas attack on German trenches inFlanders, Belgium (1917).

The use of toxic chemicals as weapons dates back thousands of years, but the first large-scale use ofchemical weaponswas duringWorld War I.[1][2]They were primarily used to demoralize, injure, and kill entrenched defenders, against whom the indiscriminate and generally very slow-moving or static nature of gas clouds would be most effective. The types of weapons employed ranged from disabling chemicals, such astear gas, to lethal agents likephosgene,chlorine, andmustard gas. Thischemical warfarewas a major component of the firstglobal warand firsttotal warof the 20th century. The killing capacity of gas was limited, with about 90,000 fatalities from a total of 1.3 million casualties caused bygas attacks. Gas was unlike most other weapons of the period because it was possible to develop countermeasures, such asgas masks. In the later stages of the war, as the use of gas increased, its overall effectiveness diminished. The widespread use of these agents of chemical warfare, and wartime advances in the composition ofhigh explosives, gave rise to an occasionally expressed view ofWorld War Ias \"the chemist\'s war\" and also the era whereweapons of mass destructionwere created.[3][4]

The use ofpoison gasby all major belligerents throughout World War I constitutedwar crimesas its use violated the1899 Hague Declaration Concerning Asphyxiating Gasesand the1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, which prohibited the use of \"poison or poisoned weapons\" in warfare.[5][6]Widespread horror and public revulsion at the use of gas and its consequences led to far less use of chemical weapons by combatantsduring World War II.

The most frequently used chemicals during World War I weretear-inducing irritantsrather than fatal or disabling poisons. DuringWorld War I, theFrench Armywas the first to employ tear gas, using 26mmgrenadesfilled withethyl bromoacetatein August 1914. The small quantities of gas delivered, roughly 19cm3(1.2cuin) per cartridge, were not even detected by the Germans. The stocks were rapidly consumed and by November a new order was placed by the French military. Asbrominewas scarce among theEntenteallies, the active ingredient was changed tochloroacetone.[7]

In October 1914, German troops firedfragmentationshellsfilled with a chemical irritant against British positions atNeuve Chapelle; the concentration achieved was so small that it too was barely noticed.[8]None of the combatants considered the use of tear gas to be in conflict with the Hague Treaty of 1899, which specifically prohibited the launching of projectiles containingasphyxiatingor poisonous gas.[9]

The first instance of large-scale use of gas as a weapon was on 31 January 1915, when Germany fired 18,000artilleryshells containing liquidxylyl bromidetear gas onRussian positionson theRawka River, west ofWarsawduring theBattle of Bolimov. Instead of vaporizing, the chemical froze and failed to have the desired effect.[8]

The first killing agent waschlorine, used by the German military.[10]Chlorine is a powerful irritant that can inflict damage to the eyes, nose, throat and lungs. At high concentrations and prolonged exposure it can cause death byasphyxiation.[11]German chemical companiesBASF,HoechstandBayer(which formed theIG Farbenconglomerate in 1925) had been making chlorine as a by-product of their dye manufacturing.[12]In cooperation withFritz Haberof theKaiser Wilhelm Institutefor Chemistry inBerlin, they began developing methods of discharging chlorine gas against enemytrenches.[13][14]

It may appear from afeldpostletter of Major Karl von Zingler that the first chlorine gas attack by German forces took place before 2 January 1915: \"In other war theatres it does not go better and it has been said that our Chlorine is very effective. 140 English officers have been killed. This is a horrible weapon...\".[15]This letter must be discounted as evidence for early German use of chlorine, however, because the date \"2 January 1915\" may have been hastily scribbled instead of the intended \"2 January 1916,\" the sort of common typographical error that is often made at the beginning of a new year. The deaths of so many English officers from gas at this time would certainly have been met with outrage, but a recent, extensive study of British reactions to chemical warfare says nothing of this supposed attack.[16]Perhaps this letter was referring to the chlorine-phosgene attack on British troops atWieltjenear Ypres, on 19 December 1915 (see below).

By 22 April 1915, theGerman Armyhad 168tonsof chlorine deployed in 5,730 cylinders fromLangemark-Poelkapelle, north ofYpres. At 17:30, in a slight easterly breeze, the liquid chlorine was siphoned from the tanks, producing gas which formed a grey-green cloud that drifted across positions held by French Colonial troops fromMartinique, as well as the 1stTirailleursand the 2ndZouavesfrom Algeria.[17]Faced with an unfamiliar threat these troops broke ranks, abandoning their trenches and creating an 8,000-yard (7km) gap in the Allied line. The German infantry were also wary of the gas and, lacking reinforcements, failed to exploit the break before the1st Canadian Divisionand assorted French troops reformed the line in scattered, hastily prepared positions 1,000–3,000 yards (910–2,740m) apart.[8]The Entente governments claimed the attack was a flagrant violation of international law but Germany argued that the Hague treaty had only banned chemical shells, rather than the use of gas projectors.[18]

In what became theSecond Battle of Ypres, the Germans used gas on three more occasions; on 24 April against the 1st Canadian Division,[19]on 2 May near Mouse Trap Farm and on 5 May against the British atHill 60.[20]The British Official History stated that at Hill 60, \"90 men died from gas poisoning in the trenches or before they could be got to a dressing station; of the 207 brought to the nearest dressing stations, 46 died almost immediately and 12 after long suffering.\"[21]

On 6 August, German troops under Field MarshalPaul von Hindenburgused chlorine gas against Russian troops defendingOsowiec Fortress. Surviving defenders drove back the attack and retained the fortress. The event would later be called theAttack of the Dead Men.

Germany used chemical weapons on theEastern Frontin an attack atRawka (river), west of Warsaw. TheRussian Armytook 9,000 casualties, with more than 1,000 fatalities. In response, the artillery branch of the Russian Army organised a commission to study the delivery of poison gas in shells.[22]

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. Men who stood on the parapet suffered least, as the gas was denser near the ground. The worst sufferers were the wounded lying on the ground, or on stretchers, and the men who moved back with the cloud.[23]Chlorine was less effective as a weapon than the Germans had hoped, particularly as soon as simple countermeasures were introduced. The gas produced a visible greenish cloud and strong odour, making it easy to detect. It was water-soluble, so the simple expedient of covering the mouth and nose with a damp cloth was effective at reducing the effect of the gas. It was thought to be even more effective to useurinerather than water, as it was known at the time that chlorine reacted withurea(present in urine) to form dichloro urea.[24]

Chlorine required a concentration of 1,000 parts per million to be fatal, destroyingtissuein the lungs, likely through the formation ofhypochlorous and hydrochloric acidswhen dissolved in the water in the lungs.[25]Despite its limitations, chlorine was an effective psychological weapon—the sight of an oncoming cloud of the gas was a continual source of dread for the infantry.[26]

Countermeasures were quickly introduced in response to the use of chlorine. The Germans issued their troops with small gauze pads filled with cotton waste, and bottles of abicarbonatesolution with which to dampen the pads. Immediately following the use of chlorine gas by the Germans, instructions were sent to British and French troops to hold wet handkerchiefs or cloths over their mouths. Simple pad respirators similar to those issued to German troops were soon proposed by Lieutenant-Colonel N. C. Ferguson, the Assistant Director Medical Services of the28th Division. These pads were intended to be used damp, preferably dipped into a solution of bicarbonate kept in buckets for that purpose; other liquids were also used. Because such pads could not be expected to arrive at the front for several days, army divisions set about making them for themselves. Locally available muslin, flannel and gauze were used, officers were sent toParisto buy more and local French women were employed making up rudimentary pads with string ties. Other units used lint bandages manufactured in the convent atPoperinge. Pad respirators were sent up with rations to British troops in the line as early as the evening of 24 April.[27]

In Britain theDaily Mailnewspaper encouraged women to manufacture cotton pads, and within one month a variety of pad respirators were available to British and French troops, along with motoring goggles to protect the eyes. The response was enormous and a million gas masks were produced in a day. TheMail\'s design was useless when dry and caused suffocation when wet—the respirator was responsible for the deaths of scores of men.[citation needed]By 6 July 1915, the entire British army was equipped with the more effective \"smoke helmet\" designed by MajorCluny MacPherson,Newfoundland Regiment, which was a flannel bag with a celluloid window, which entirely covered the head. The race was then on between the introduction of new and more effective poison gases and the production of effective countermeasures, which marked gas warfare until the armistice in November 1918.[27]

The British expressed outrage at Germany\'s use of poison gas at Ypres and responded by developing their own gas warfare capability. The commander ofII Corps,Lieutenant General Sir Charles Ferguson, said of gas:

It is a cowardly form of warfare which does not commend itself to me or other English soldiers... We cannot win this war unless we kill or incapacitate more of our enemies than they do of us, and if this can only be done by our copying the enemy in his choice of weapons, we must not refuse to do so.[28]

The first use of gas by the British was at theBattle of Loos, 25 September 1915, but the attempt was a disaster. Chlorine, codenamedRed Star, was the agent to be used (140 tons arrayed in 5,100 cylinders), and the attack was dependent on a favourable wind. On this occasion the wind proved fickle, and the gas either lingered inno man\'s landor, in places, blew back on the British trenches.[8]This was compounded when the gas could not be released from all the British canisters because the wrong turning keys were sent with them. Subsequent retaliatory German shelling hit some of those unused full cylinders, releasing gas among the British troops.[29]Exacerbating the situation were the primitive flannel gas masks distributed to the British. The masks got hot, and the small eye-pieces misted over, reducing visibility. Some of the troops lifted the masks to get fresh air, causing them to be gassed.[30]

• British infantry advancing through gas atLoos, 25 September 1915

• Football team of British soldiers with gas masks, Western front, 1916

• A British gas bomb from 1915

The deficiencies of chlorine were overcome with the introduction ofphosgene, which was prepared by a group of French chemists led byVictor Grignardand first used by France in 1915.[31]Colourless and having an odour likened to \"mouldy hay,\" phosgene was difficult to detect, making it a more effective weapon. Phosgene was sometimes used on its own, but was more often used mixed with an equal volume of chlorine, with the chlorine helping to spread the denser phosgene.[32]The Allies called this combinationWhite Starafter the marking painted on shells containing the mixture.[33]

Phosgene was a potent killing agent, deadlier than chlorine. It had a potential drawback in that some of the symptoms of exposure took 24 hours or more to manifest. This meant that the victims were initially still capable of putting up a fight; this could also mean that apparently fit troops would be incapacitated by the effects of the gas on the following day.[34]

In the first combined chlorine–phosgene attack by Germany, against British troops atWieltjenear Ypres, Belgium on 19 December 1915, 88 tons of the gas were released from cylinders causing 1069 casualties and 69 deaths.[32]The British P gas helmet, issued at the time, was impregnated withsodium phenolateand partially effective against phosgene. The modifiedPH Gas Helmet, which was impregnated with phenate hexamine andhexamethylene tetramine(urotropine) to improve the protection against phosgene, was issued in January 1916.[32][35][36]

Around 36,600 tons of phosgene were manufactured during the war, out of a total of 190,000 tons for allchemical weapons, making it second only to chlorine (93,800 tons) in the quantity manufactured:[37]

• Germany 18,100 tons
• France 15,700 tons
• United Kingdom 1,400 tons (also used French stocks)
• United States 1,400 tons (also used French stocks)

Phosgene was never as notorious in public consciousness as mustard gas, but it killed far more people: about 85% of the 90,000 deaths caused by chemical weapons during World War I.

On 29 June 1916, theAustro-Hungarian Armyattacked theRoyal Italian Army\'s lines onMonte San Michelewith a mix ofphosgeneandchlorinegas.[38]Thousands of Italian soldiers died in this first chemical weapons attack on theItalian Front.

The most widely reported chemical agent of the First World War wasmustard gas. Despite the name it is not a gas but a volatile oily liquid, and isdispersedas a fine mist of liquid droplets.[39]It was introduced as avesicantby Germany on July 12, 1917, weeks prior to theThird Battle of Ypres.[8][40]The Germans marked their shells yellow for mustard gas and green for chlorine and phosgene; hence they called the new gasYellow Cross. It was known to the British asHS(Hun Stuff), and the French called itYperite(named afterYpres).[41]

Mustard gas is not an effective killing agent (though in high enough doses it is fatal) but can be used to harass and disable the enemy and pollute the battlefield. Delivered in artillery shells, mustard gas was heavier than air, and it settled to the ground as an oily liquid. Once in the soil, mustard gas remained active for several days, weeks, or even months, depending on the weather conditions.[42]

The skin of victims of mustard gas blistered, their eyes became very sore and they began to vomit. Mustard gas caused internal and external bleeding and attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane. This was extremely painful. Fatally injured victims sometimes took four or five weeks to die of mustard gas exposure.[43]

One nurse,Vera Brittain, wrote: \"I wish those people who talk about going on with this war whatever it costs could see the soldiers suffering from mustard gas poisoning. Great mustard-coloured blisters, blind eyes, all sticky and stuck together, always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying that their throats are closing and they know they will choke.\"[44]

The polluting nature of mustard gas meant that it was not always suitable for supporting an attack as the assaulting infantry would be exposed to the gas when they advanced. When Germany launchedOperation Michaelon 21 March 1918, they saturated theFlesquièressalientwith mustard gas instead of attacking it directly, believing that the harassing effect of the gas, coupled with threats to the salient\'s flanks, would make the British position untenable.[45]

Gas never reproduced the dramatic success of 22 April 1915; it became a standard weapon which, combined with conventional artillery, was used to support most attacks in the later stages of the war. Gas was employed primarily on the Western Front—the static, confinedtrench systemwas ideal for achieving an effective concentration. Germany also used gas against Russia on theEastern Front, where the lack of effective countermeasures resulted in deaths of over 56,000 Russians,[46]while Britain experimented with gas inPalestineduring theSecond Battle of Gaza.[47]Russia began manufacturing chlorine gas in 1916, with phosgene being produced later in the year. Most of the manufactured gas was never used.[22]

The British Army first used mustard gas in November 1917 atCambrai, after their armies had captured a stockpile of German mustard gas shells. It took the British more than a year to develop their own mustard gas weapon, with production of the chemicals centred onAvonmouth Docks.[48][49](The only option available to the British was the Despretz–Niemann–Guthrie process.) This was used first in September 1918 during the breaking of theHindenburg Linewith theHundred Days\' Offensive.

The Allies mounted more gas attacks than the Germans in 1917 and 1918 because of a marked increase in production of gas from the Allied nations. Germany was unable to keep up with this pace despite creating various new gases for use in battle, mostly as a result of very costly methods of production. Entry into the war by the United States allowed the Allies to increase mustard gas production far more than Germany.[50][51]Also the prevailingwindon theWestern Frontwas blowing from west to east,[52]which meant the Allies more frequently had favourable conditions for a gas release than did the Germans.

When the United States entered the war, it was already mobilizing resources from academic, industry and military sectors for research and development into poison gas. A Subcommittee on Noxious Gases was created by the National Research Committee, a major research centre was established atCamp American University, and the 1st Gas Regiment was recruited.[51]The 1st Gas Regiment eventually served in France, where it used phosgene gas in several attacks.[53][51]The Artillery used mustard gas with significant effect during theMeuse-Argonne Offensiveon at least three occasions.[54]The United States began large-scale production of an improved vesicant gas known asLewisite, for use in an offensive planned for early 1919. By the time of thearmistice on 11 November, a plant nearWilloughby, Ohiowas producing 10 tons per day of the substance, for a total of about 150 tons. It is uncertain what effect this new chemical would have had on the battlefield, as it degrades in moist conditions.[55][56]

By the end of the war, chemical weapons had lost much of their effectiveness against well trained and equipped troops. By that time, chemical weapon agents had inflicted an estimated 1.3 million casualties.[57]

Nevertheless, in the following years, chemical weapons were used in several, mainly colonial, wars where one side had an advantage in equipment over the other. The British used poison gas, possiblyadamsite, againstRussian revolutionarytroops beginning on 27 August 1919[58]andcontemplated usingchemical weapons against Iraqi insurgents in the 1920s; Bolshevik troops used poison gas to suppress theTambov Rebellionin 1920, Spain used chemical weapons in Morocco againstRiftribesmen throughout the 1920s[59]and Italy used mustard gas in Libya in 1930 and again during its invasion of Ethiopia in 1936.[60]In 1925, a Chinesewarlord,Zhang Zuolin, contracted a German company to build him a mustard gas plant inShenyang,[59]which was completed in 1927.

Public opinion had by then turned against the use of such weapons which led to theGeneva Protocol, an updated and extensive prohibition of poison weapons. The Protocol, which was signed by most First World War combatants in 1925, bans the use (but not the stockpiling) of lethal gas and bacteriological weapons. Most countries that signed ratified it within around five years; a few took much longer—Brazil, Japan, Uruguay, and the United States did not do so until the 1970s, and Nicaragua ratified it in 1990.[61]The signatory nations agreed not to use poison gas in the future, stating \"the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other gases, and of all analogous liquids, materials or devices, has been justly condemned by the general opinion of the civilized world.\"[62]

Chemical weapons have been used in at least a dozen wars since the end of the First World War;[60]they were not used in combat on a large scale until Iraq used mustard gas and the more deadly nerve agents in theHalabja chemical attacknear the end of the eight-yearIran–Iraq War. The full conflict\'s use of such weaponry killed around 20,000 Iranian troops (and injured another 80,000), around a quarter of the number of deaths caused by chemical weapons during the First World strive to find rare and unusual vintage pieces to match up with your special collection.

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