When and where were chemical weapons used. Types of chemical weapons, the history of their occurrence and destruction. Poisonous substances, their classification

20.10.2019

It was the first World War. 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 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.

German soldiers were also exposed to gas attacks. Colorized photo: 1917 gas attack in Flanders

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." In 1918, Fritz Haber received Nobel Prize in chemistry. 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 were 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 at 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.”

As A. Fries says: "The first attempt to defeat the enemy by releasing poisonous and asphyxiating gases, as it seems, was made during the war of the Athenians with the Spartans (431 - 404 BC), when, during the siege of the cities of Plataea and Belium, the Spartans impregnated wood with pitch and sulfur and burned it under the walls of these cities, in order to suffocate the inhabitants and facilitate their siege.A similar use of poisonous gases is mentioned in the history of the Middle Ages.Their action was similar to the action of modern suffocating shells, they were thrown with syringes or in bottles like hand grenades. Legends say that Preter John (about the 11th century) filled brass figures with explosives and combustible substances, the smoke of which escaped from the mouth and nostrils of these phantoms and caused great havoc in the ranks of the enemy.

The idea of fighting the enemy by using a gas attack was outlined in 1855 during the Crimean campaign by the English Admiral Lord Dandonald. In his memorandum dated August 7, 1855, Dandonald proposed to the British government a project to take Sevastopol with the help of sulfur vapor. This document is so curious that we reproduce it in its entirety:

Brief preliminary remark.

"When examining the sulfur furnaces in July 1811, I noticed that the smoke that is released during the rough process of melting sulfur, at first, due to heat, rises upwards, but soon falls down, destroying all vegetation and being destructive to everyone over a large area. living creature. It turned out that there was an order forbidding people to sleep in the region of 3 miles in a circle from furnaces during smelting. "

"This fact I decided to apply to the needs of the army and navy. Upon mature reflection, I submitted a memorandum to His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, who deigned to transmit it (April 2, 1812) to the Commission, consisting of Lord Cates, Lord Exmouths and General Congreve (later Sir William), who gave him a favorable report, and His Royal Highness deigned to order that the whole matter be kept in perfect secrecy.

Signed (Dandonald).

Memorandum.
"Materials necessary for the expulsion of the Russians from Sevastopol: experiments have shown that one part of sulfur is released from 5 parts of coal. The composition of mixtures of coal and sulfur for use in the field service, in which the weight ratio plays a very important role, can be indicated by prof. Faraday, since I had little interest in land operations.400 or 500 tons of sulfur and 2,000 tons of coal would suffice.

“In addition to these materials, it is necessary to have a certain amount of tar coal and two thousand barrels of gas or other tar in order to make a smoke screen in front of the fortifications that are to be attacked or that go to the flank of the attacked position.

"It is also necessary to prepare a certain amount of dry firewood, chips, shavings, straw, hay and other easily flammable materials, so that at the first favorable, steady wind, a fire can be quickly started."

(signed) Dandonald.

"Note: due to the special nature of the task, the entire responsibility for success rests with those who manage its implementation."

"Assuming that Malakhov Kurgan and Redan are the target of the attack, it is necessary to fumigate Redan with the smoke of coal and tar lit in a quarry so that it can no longer fire at Mamelon, from where an attack with sulfur dioxide should be opened to remove the garrison of Malakhov Kurgan. All Mamelon cannons should be directed against the undefended positions of the Malakhov Kurgan."

"There is no doubt that smoke will envelop all the fortifications from Malakhov Kurgan to Baraki and even to the line of the warship "12 Apostles" anchored in the harbor."

"The two outer Russian batteries, located on either side of the port, are to be fumigated with sulphurous gas by means of fire-ships, and their destruction will be completed by warships that will approach and anchor under the cover of a smoke screen."

Lord Dandonald's memorandum, together with explanatory notes, was submitted by the English government of the time to a committee in which Lord Playfair played a major role. This Committee, having seen all the details of Lord Dandonald's project, was of the opinion that the project was quite feasible, and the results it promised could certainly be achieved; but in themselves the results are so terrible that no honest enemy should use this method. Therefore, the committee decided that the project could not be accepted, and Lord Dandonald's note should be destroyed. In what way the information was obtained by those who so carelessly published it in 1908, we do not know; they were probably found among Lord Panmuir's papers.

"The smell of lemon became poison and smoke,

And the wind drove the smoke on the troops of soldiers,

Suffocation from poison is unbearable to the enemy,

And the siege will be lifted from the city."

"He tears to pieces this strange army,

Heavenly fire turned into an explosion,

There was a smell from Lausanne, suffocating, persistent,

And people do not know its source.

Nastrodamus on the first use of chemical weapons

The use of poisonous gases during the World War dates back to April 22, 1915, when the Germans made the first gas attack, using cylinders of chlorine, a long and well-known gas.

On April 14, 1915, near the village of Langemarck, not far from the little-known Belgian city of Ypres at that time, French units captured German soldier. During the search, they found a small gauze bag filled with identical pieces of cotton fabric, and a bottle with a colorless liquid. It looked so much like a dressing bag that it was initially ignored. Apparently, his appointment would have remained incomprehensible if the prisoner had not stated during interrogation that the handbag - special agent protection from the new "crushing" weapons that the German command plans to use on this sector of the front.

When asked about the nature of this weapon, the prisoner readily replied that he had no idea about it, but it seems that this weapon is hidden in metal cylinders that are dug in no man's land between the lines of trenches. To protect against this weapon, it is necessary to soak a flap from the purse with the liquid from the vial and apply it to the mouth and nose.

The French gentlemen officers considered the story of the captured soldier gone mad and did not attach any importance to it. But soon the prisoners captured in neighboring sectors of the front reported about the mysterious cylinders. On April 18, the British knocked out the Germans from the height of "60" and at the same time captured a German non-commissioned officer. The prisoner also spoke about an unknown weapon and noticed that the cylinders with it were dug at this very height - ten meters from the trenches. Out of curiosity, an English sergeant went on reconnaissance with two soldiers and actually found heavy cylinders in the indicated place. unusual look and unknown purpose. He reported this to the command, but to no avail.

In those days, English radio intelligence, which deciphered fragments of German radio messages, also brought riddles to the Allied command. Imagine the surprise of the codebreakers when they discovered that the German headquarters were extremely interested in the state of the weather!

- ... An unfavorable wind is blowing ... - the Germans reported. “… The wind is getting stronger… its direction is constantly changing… The wind is unstable…”

One radiogram mentioned the name of a certain Dr. Haber.

- ... Dr. Gaber does not advise ...

If only the British knew who Dr. Gaber was!

Fritz Haber was deeply civilian. True, he once completed a year of service in the artillery and by the beginning of the "Great War" had the rank of reserve non-commissioned officer, but at the front he was in an elegant civilian suit, aggravating the civilian impression with the brilliance of gilded pince-nez. Before the war, he headed the Institute of Physical Chemistry in Berlin and even at the front did not part with his "chemical" books and reference books.

It was especially surprising to observe the respect with which the gray-haired colonels, hung with crosses and medals, listened to his orders. But few of them believed that, with a wave of the hand of this clumsy civilian, thousands of people would be killed in a matter of minutes.

Haber was in the service of the German government. As a consultant to the German War Office, he was tasked with creating an irritant poison that would force enemy troops to leave the trenches.

A few months later, he and his staff created a weapon using chlorine gas, which was put into production in January 1915.

Although Haber hated war, he believed that the use of chemical weapons could save many lives if the exhausting trench warfare stopped on Western front. His wife Clara was also a chemist and strongly opposed his wartime work.

The point chosen for the attack was in the north-eastern part of the Ypres salient, at the point where the French and English fronts converged, heading south, and from where the trenches departed from the canal near Besinge.

"It was a wonderful clear spring day. A light breeze was blowing from the northeast ...

Nothing foreshadowed an imminent tragedy, the equal of which until then mankind had not yet known.

The sector of the front closest to the Germans was defended by soldiers who arrived from the Algerian colonies. Once out of their hiding places, they basked in the sun, talking loudly to each other. About five o'clock in the afternoon a large greenish cloud appeared in front of the German trenches. It smoked and swirled, behaving like the "heaps of black gas" from the "War of the Worlds" and at the same time slowly moving towards the French trenches, obeying the will of the northeast breeze. According to witnesses, many Frenchmen watched with interest the approaching front of this bizarre "yellow fog", but did not attach any importance to it.

Suddenly they smelled a strong smell. Everyone had a pinching in the nose, their eyes hurt, as if from acrid smoke. "Yellow fog" choked, blinded, burned the chest with fire, turned inside out.

Not remembering themselves, the Africans rushed out of the trenches. Who hesitated, fell, seized by suffocation. People rushed about the trenches, screaming; colliding with each other, they fell and fought in convulsions, catching air with twisted mouths.

And the "yellow fog" rolled farther and farther to the rear of the French positions, sowing death and panic along the way. Behind the fog, German chains marched in orderly rows with rifles at the ready and bandages on their faces. But they had no one to attack. Thousands of Algerians and French lay dead in the trenches and in artillery positions.

Naturally, the first feeling inspired by the gas method of war was horror. A stunning description of the impression of a gas attack is found in an article by O. S. Watkins (London).

“After the bombardment of the city of Ypres, which lasted from April 20 to 22,” writes Watkins, “poisonous gas suddenly appeared in the midst of this chaos.

When we got to Fresh air in order to rest for a few minutes from the stuffy atmosphere of the trenches, our attention was attracted by very heavy shooting in the north, where the French were occupying the front. Obviously, there was a heated fight, and we energetically began to explore the area with our field glasses, hoping to pick up something new in the course of the battle. Then we saw a sight that made our hearts stop, the figures of people running in confusion through the fields.

"The French have broken through," we cried. We could not believe our eyes ... We could not believe what we heard from the fugitives: we attributed their words to a frustrated imagination: a greenish-gray cloud, descending on them, turned yellow as it spread and scorched everything in its path, to which touched, causing the plants to die. No most courageous man could resist such a danger.

French soldiers staggered among us, blinded, coughing, breathing heavily, with dark purple faces, silent with suffering, and behind them in the gassed trenches were, as we learned, hundreds of their dying comrades. The impossible turned out to be only just."

"This is the most villainous, most criminal act that I have ever seen."

But for the Germans, this result was no less unexpected. Their generals treated the venture of the "bespectacled doctor" as an interesting experience and therefore did not really prepare for a large-scale offensive. And when the front turned out to be actually broken, the only unit that poured into the gap was infantry battalion which could not, of course, decide the fate of the French defense. The incident made a lot of noise and by the evening the world knew that a new participant had entered the battlefield, capable of competing with "His Majesty the machine gun." Chemists rushed to the front, and by the next morning it became clear that for the first time the Germans used a cloud of suffocating gas - chlorine - for military purposes. It suddenly turned out that any country that even has the makings of a chemical industry can get its hands on most powerful weapon. The only consolation was that it was not difficult to escape from chlorine. It is enough to cover the respiratory organs with a bandage moistened with a solution of soda, or hyposulfite, and chlorine is not so terrible. If these substances are not at hand, it is enough to breathe through a wet rag. Water significantly weakens the effect of chlorine, which dissolves in it. Many chemical institutions rushed to develop the design of gas masks, but the Germans were in a hurry to repeat the gas balloon attack until the Allies had reliable means of protection.

On April 24, having collected reserves for the development of the offensive, they launched a strike on a neighboring sector of the front, which was defended by the Canadians. But the Canadian troops were warned about the "yellow fog" and therefore, seeing a yellow-green cloud, they prepared for the action of gases. They soaked their scarves, stockings and blankets in puddles and applied them to their faces, covering their mouths, noses and eyes from the caustic atmosphere. Some of them, of course, suffocated to death, others were poisoned for a long time, or blinded, but no one moved. And when the fog crept to the rear and followed German infantry, Canadian machine guns and rifles spoke, making huge gaps in the ranks of the advancing, who did not expect resistance.

Despite the fact that April 22, 1915 is considered the day of the "premiere" of poisonous substances, separate facts of its use, as already mentioned above, took place earlier. So back in November 1914, the Germans fired several artillery shells at the French, filled with irritating poisonous substances), but their use went unnoticed. In January 1915, in Poland, the Germans used some kind of tear gas against the Russian troops, but the scale of its use was limited, and the effect was smoothed out due to the wind.

The first of the Russians to undergo a chemical attack were units of the 2nd Russian Army, which, with its stubborn defense, blocked the path to Warsaw of the persistently advancing 9th Army of General Mackensen. In the period from May 17 to May 21, 1915, the Germans installed 12,000 cylinders of chlorine in the advanced trenches for 12 km and waited for ten days for favorable weather conditions. The attack began at 3 o'clock. 20 minutes. May 31. The Germans released chlorine, opening at the same time a hurricane of artillery, machine-gun and rifle fire on Russian positions. The complete surprise of the enemy's actions and the unpreparedness on the part of the Russian troops led the soldiers to be more surprised and curious when a cloud of chlorine appeared than they were alarmed. Mistaking the greenish cloud for attack camouflage, the Russian troops reinforced the forward trenches and pulled up support units. Soon the trenches, which here represented a maze of solid lines, turned out to be places filled with corpses and dying people. By 4.30 chlorine penetrated 12 km deep into the defense of the Russian troops, forming "gas swamps" in the lowlands and destroying spring and clover shoots on its way.

At about 4 o'clock, the German units, supported by artillery chemical fire, attacked the Russian positions, counting on the fact that, as in the battle at Ypres, there was no one to defend them. In this situation, the unparalleled stamina of the Russian soldier was manifested. Despite the failure of 75% personnel in the 1st defensive zone, the attack of the Germans by 5 o'clock in the morning was repulsed by strong and well-aimed rifle and machine-gun fire from the soldiers remaining in the ranks. During the day, 9 more German attacks were thwarted. The losses of the Russian units from chlorine were huge (9138 poisoned and 1183 dead), but the German offensive was still repulsed.

However, chemical warfare and the use of chlorine against the Russian army continued. On the night of July 6-7, 1915, the Germans repeated a gas balloon attack in the Sukha-Volya-Shidlovskaya section. There is no exact information about the losses suffered by the Russian troops during this attack. It is known that the 218th Infantry Regiment lost 2608 people during the retreat, and the 220th Infantry Regiment, which carried out a counterattack in the area rich in "gas swamps", lost 1352 people.

In August 1915, the German troops used a gas-balloon attack during the assault on the Russian fortress Osaovets, which they had previously unsuccessfully tried to destroy with the help of heavy artillery. Chlorine spread to a depth of 20 km, having striking depth 12 km and a cloud height of 12 m. It flowed even into the most closed rooms of the fortress, incapacitating its defenders. But here, too, the fierce resistance of the surviving defenders of the fortress did not allow the enemy to succeed.

In June 1915, another suffocating substance was used - bromine, used in mortar shells; the first tear-producing substance also appeared: benzyl bromide combined with xylylene bromide. Artillery shells were filled with this gas. For the first time the use of gases in artillery shells, which later became so widespread, was clearly observed on June 20 in the Argonne forests.

Phosgene was widely used during the First World War. It was first used by the Germans in December 1915 on the Italian front.

At room temperature, phosgene is a colorless gas, with the smell of rotten hay, which turns into a liquid at a temperature of -8 °. Before the war, phosgene was mined in large quantities and was used to make various dyes for woolen fabrics.

Phosgene is very poisonous and, in addition, acts as a substance that strongly irritates the lungs and causes damage to the mucous membranes. Its danger is further increased by the fact that its effect is not detected immediately: sometimes painful phenomena appear only 10-11 hours after inhalation.

Relative cheapness and ease of preparation, strong toxic properties, lingering effect and low resistance (the smell disappears after 1 1/2 - 2 hours) make phosgene a substance very convenient for military purposes.

The use of phosgene for gas attacks was proposed as early as the summer of 1915 by our marine chemist N. A. Kochkin (the Germans used it only in December). But this proposal was not accepted by the tsarist government.

At first, gas was produced from special cylinders, but by 1916, artillery shells filled with toxic substances began to be used in battle. Suffice it to recall the bloody battle near Verdun (France), where up to 100,000 chemical shells were fired.

The most common gases in combat were: chlorine, phosgene and diphosgene.

Among the gases used in the war, it should be noted the gases of the skin-diving action, against which the gas masks adopted by the troops were invalid. These substances, penetrating through shoes and clothing, caused burns on the body, similar to burns from kerosene.

It has already become a tradition to describe chemical weapons in the World War on what light it is worth inclining the Germans. They, they say, launched chlorine against the French on the Western Front and against the Russian soldiers near Przemysl, and they are so bad that there is nowhere else to go. But the Germans, being pioneers in the use of chemistry in combat, lagged far behind the Allies in the scale of its use. Less than a month had passed since the "Chlorine Premiere" near Ypres, when the allies began, with equally enviable composure, to flood the positions of German troops on the outskirts of the said city with various muck. Russian chemists also did not lag behind their Western counterparts. It is the Russians who have priority in the most successful use of artillery shells filled with irritating poisonous substances against German and Austro-Hungarian troops.

It is amusing to note that with a certain degree of fantasy, poisonous substances can be considered a catalyst for the emergence of fascism and the initiator of the Second World War. Indeed, it was after the English gas attack near Komyn that the German corporal Adolf Schicklgruber, temporarily blinded by chlorine, lay in the hospital and began to think about the fate of the deceived German people, the triumph of the French, the betrayal of the Jews, etc. Subsequently, while in prison, he streamlined these thoughts in his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), but the title of this book already had a pseudonym that was destined to become famous - Adolf Hitler.

During the war years, more than a million people were affected by various gases. The gauze bandages that so easily found their place in the soldier's shoulder bags became almost useless. Radical new means were needed to protect against toxic substances.

The gas war takes advantage of all sorts of activities carried out on human body different kinds of chemical compounds. Depending on the nature of physiological phenomena, these substances can be divided into several categories. At the same time, some of them can be simultaneously assigned to different categories, combining various properties. Thus, according to the action produced, gases are divided into:

1) suffocating, coughing, irritating to the respiratory organs and capable of causing death by suffocation;

2) poisonous, penetrating the body, affecting one or another important organ and, as a result, producing a general lesion of any area, for example, some of them affect nervous system, others - red blood balls, etc.;

3) lachrymal, causing profuse lacrimation and blinding a person for a more or less long time;

4) suppurating, causing their reaction or itching, or deeper skin ulcerations (eg, watery blisters), passing to the mucous membranes (especially respiratory organs) and causing serious harm;

5) sneezing, acting on the nasal mucosa and causing increased sneezing, accompanied by such physiological phenomena as throat irritation, tearing, nose and jaw pain.

Asphyxiating and poisonous substances were united during the war under common name"poisonous", as all of them can cause death. The same can be said about some other deadly substances, although their main physiological action was manifested in a suppurating or sneezing reaction.

Germany used during the war all the physiological properties of gases, thus continuously increasing the suffering of the combatants. The gas war began on April 22, 1915 with the use of chlorine, which was placed in liquid form in a cylinder, and from the latter, when a small tap was opened, it came out already in the form of gas. At the same time, a significant number of gas jets, released simultaneously from numerous cylinders, formed a thick cloud, which was given the name "waves".

Every action causes a reaction. The gas war caused the gas defense. At first, they fought with gases by putting on special masks (respirators) for the fighters. But for a long time the mask system has not been improved.

However, the conditions of war make us remember also about collective defense.

During the war, about 60 different chemicals and elements were noted in various compounds that killed a person or made him completely incapable of continuing the battle. Among the gases used in the war, irritating gases should be noted, i.e. causing lacrimation and sneezing, against which gas masks adopted by the troops were invalid; then suffocating, poisonous and poisonous-burning gases, which, penetrating through shoes and clothes, caused burns on the body, similar to burns from kerosene.

The area shelled and impregnated with these gases did not lose its burning properties for whole weeks, and woe to the person who got into such a place: he came out of there stricken with burns, and his clothes were so saturated with this terrible gas that just touching it struck the touched person. particles of the released gas and caused the same burns.

The so-called mustard gas (mustard gas) possessing such properties was called by the Germans the "king of gases".

Especially effective are shells stuffed with mustard gas, the action of which, under favorable conditions, lasts up to 8 days.

It was first used by the German side on April 22, 1915 near Ypres. The result of a chemical gas attack with chlorine is 15 thousand human victims. After 5 weeks, 9 thousand soldiers and officers of the Russian army died from the action of phosgene. Diphosgene, chloropicrin, arsenic-containing agents of irritating action are being "tested". In May 1917, again on the Ypres sector of the front, the Germans used mustard gas - an agent of strong blistering and general toxic action.

During the First World War, the opposing sides used 125,000 tons of chemical agents, which claimed 800,000 human lives. At the very end of the war, not having time to prove themselves in a combat situation, they receive a "ticket" to long life adamsite and lewisite, later nitrogen mustards.

In the 1940s, nerve agent agents appeared in the west: sarin, soman, tabun, and later the "family" of VX (VX) gases. The effectiveness of OV is growing, the methods of their use (chemical munitions) are being improved ...

The basis of the damaging effect of chemical weapons is toxic substances (S), which have a physiological effect on the human body.

Unlike other warfare weapons, chemical weapons are effective against manpower the enemy over a large area without destroying materiel. This weapon mass destruction.

Together with the air, toxic substances penetrate into any premises, shelters, military equipment. Damage persists for some time, objects and terrain become infected.

Types of poisonous substances

Poisonous substances under the shell of chemical munitions are in solid and liquid form.

At the moment of their application, when the shell is destroyed, they come into a combat state:

vaporous (gaseous);
aerosol (drizzle, smoke, fog);
drip-liquid.

Poisonous substances are the main damaging factor of chemical weapons.

Characteristics of chemical weapons

Such weapons are shared:

According to the type of physiological effects of OM on the human body.
For tactical purposes.
By the speed of the coming impact.
According to the resistance of the applied OV.
By means and methods of application.

Human exposure classification:

OV nerve agent action. Deadly, fast-acting, persistent. They act on the central nervous system. The purpose of their use is the rapid mass incapacitation of personnel with the maximum number of deaths. Substances: sarin, soman, tabun, V-gases.
OV skin blister action. Deadly, slow acting, persistent. Infect the body through skin or respiratory organs. Substances: mustard gas, lewisite.
OV of general toxic action. Deadly, 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.
OV suffocating action. Deadly, slow acting, unstable. The lungs are affected. Substances: phosgene and diphosgene.
OV psychochemical action. Non-lethal. They temporarily affect the central nervous system, affect mental activity, cause temporary blindness, deafness, a sense of fear, restriction of movement. Substances: inuclidyl-3-benzilate (BZ) and lysergic acid diethylamide.
OV irritating action (irritants). Non-lethal. They act quickly, but for a short time. Outside the infected zone, their effect stops after a few minutes. These are lachrymal and sneezing substances that irritate the upper Airways and capable of damaging the skin. Substances: CS, CR, DM(adamsite), CN(chloroacetophenone).

Damage 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 determined by toxodose and concentration. The zone of chemical contamination can be divided into the focus of exposure (people are massively affected there) and the zone of distribution of the infected cloud.

First use of chemical weapons

Chemist Fritz Haber was a consultant to the German War Office 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 the task before him - to create chemical weapons with irritating and toxic substances. It's a paradox, but Haber believed that with the help of a gas war, he would save many lives by ending the trench war.

The history of application begins on April 22, 1915, when the German military first launched a chlorine gas attack. A greenish cloud arose in front of the trenches of the French soldiers, which they watched with curiosity.

When the cloud came close, a sharp smell was felt, the soldiers stinged in the eyes and nose. The mist burned the chest, blinded, choked. The smoke moved deep into the French positions, sowing panic and death, followed by German soldiers with bandages on their faces, but they had no one to fight with.

By evening, chemists from other countries found out what kind of gas it was. It turned out that any country can produce it. Salvation from him turned out to be simple: you need to cover your mouth and nose with a bandage soaked in a solution of soda, and plain water on a bandage weakens the effect of chlorine.

After 2 days, the Germans repeated the attack, but the Allied soldiers soaked 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, machine guns “spoke” to them.

Chemical weapons of the First World War

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 filled with corpses. Even the grass died from the gas.

In June 1915, they began to use a new poisonous substance - bromine. It was used in projectiles.

In December 1915 - phosgene. It smells like hay and has a lingering effect. Cheapness made it easy to use. At first they were produced in special cylinders, and by 1916 they began to make shells.

Bandages did not save from blistering gases. It penetrated through clothes and shoes, causing burns on the body. The area was poisoned for more than a week. Such 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 also poisoned by the British.

For the first time, Russia also used this weapon on the battlefields of the First World War.

Chemical weapons of mass destruction

Experiments with chemical weapons took place under the guise of developing poisons for insects. Used in the gas chambers of concentration camps "Cyclone B" - hydrocyanic acid - an insecticidal agent.

"Agent Orange" - a substance for deleafing vegetation. Used in Vietnam, soil poisoning caused severe illness and mutations in the local population.

In 2013, in Syria, in the suburbs of Damascus, a chemical attack residential area - the lives of hundreds of civilians have been claimed, including many children. A nerve agent was used, most likely Sarin.

One of the modern variants of chemical weapons is binary weapons. It comes in combat readiness as a result of a chemical reaction after the combination of two harmless components.

Victims of chemical weapons of mass destruction are all those who fell into the strike zone. Back in 1905 it was signed international agreement on the non-use of chemical weapons. To date, 196 countries around the world have signed up to the ban.

In addition to chemical to weapons of mass destruction and biological.

Types of protection

Collective. The shelter can provide long stays for people without personal protective equipment if it is equipped with filter-ventilation kits and is well sealed.
Individual. Gas mask, protective clothing and a personal chemical bag (PPI) with antidote and liquid to treat clothing and skin lesions.

Prohibition on 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 came into force on the prohibition of the use in war of asphyxiating, poisonous or other similar gases and bacteriological means. 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 manufacture and use, but also on 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, it was not recognized by Egypt, Angola, North Korea, South Sudan. It also entered into legal force in Israel and Myanmar.

On the night of July 12-13, 1917, the German army during the First World War first used the poison gas mustard gas (a liquid toxic agent with a skin blister effect). The Germans used mines, which contained an oily liquid, as a carrier of a poisonous substance. This event took place near the Belgian city of Ypres. The German command planned to disrupt the offensive of the Anglo-French troops with this attack. During the first use of mustard gas, 2,490 servicemen received injuries of varying severity, of which 87 died. British scientists quickly deciphered the formula for this OB. However, it was only in 1918 that the production of a new poisonous substance was launched. As a result, the Entente managed to use mustard gas for military purposes only in September 1918 (2 months before the armistice).

Mustard gas has a pronounced local effect: OM affects the organs of vision and respiration, the skin and the gastrointestinal tract. The substance, absorbed into the blood, poisons the entire body. Mustard gas affects the skin of a person when exposed, both in a droplet and in a vapor state. From the impact of mustard gas, the usual summer and winter uniforms of a soldier did not protect, like almost all types of civilian clothing.

From drops and vapors of mustard gas, ordinary summer and winter army uniforms do not protect the skin, like almost any type of civilian clothing. Full-fledged protection of soldiers from mustard gas did not exist 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, agents were used in such quantities as in 1915-1918. During this war, the fighting armies used 12,000 tons of mustard gas, which affected up to 400,000 people. In total, during the years of the First World War, more than 150 thousand tons of poisonous substances (irritant and tear gases, skin blister agents) were produced. The leader in the use of OM was the German Empire, which has a first-class chemical industry. In total, more than 69 thousand tons of poisonous substances were produced in Germany. 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 among all participants in the war from the effects of OM. The German army was the first to use poison gases as a mass destruction on a large scale during the First World War against Russia. On August 6, 1915, the German command used the OV 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 did not have any means of protection. All living things were poisoned.

Following the gas wave and the fire shaft (German artillery opened massive fire), 14 Landwehr battalions (about 7 thousand infantrymen) went on the offensive. After a gas attack and an artillery strike, no more than a company of half-dead soldiers, poisoned with OM, remained in the advanced Russian positions. It seemed that Osovets was already in German hands. However, the 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 marched into the bayonet with their faces wrapped in rags, shaking from a terrible cough, literally spitting out pieces of their lungs onto their bloody uniforms. It was only a few dozen fighters - 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, which, as 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 the fierce shelling from heavy guns and assaults by German infantry, held from September 1914 to August 22, 1915.

Russian empire in the pre-war period was a leader in the field of various "peace initiatives". Therefore, it did not have in its arsenals OV, countermeasures similar species weapons, did not lead serious research work in this direction. In 1915, the Chemical Committee had to be urgently established and the issue of developing technologies and large-scale production of poisonous substances was urgently raised. In February 1916, the production of hydrocyanic acid was organized at Tomsk University by local scientists. By the end of 1916, production was also 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 poisonous substances. However, they remained unclaimed in warehouses.

First use of chemical weapons in World War I

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 the OV, including en masse.

In August 1914, the French were the first to use tear irritants (they did not cause death). The carriers were grenades filled with tear gas (ethyl bromoacetate). Soon his stocks ran out, and the French army began to use chloracetone. In October 1914 German troops used artillery shells partially filled with a chemical irritant against the British positions on the 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 countered this accusation. The Germans stated that the Hague Convention only prohibited the use of shells with explosive agents, but not gases. After that, attacks using chlorine 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 mixed with chlorine to increase gas mobility.

The ability of toxic substances to cause death of people and animals has been known since time immemorial. In the 19th century toxic substances began to be used in the course of hostilities on a large scale.

However, the birth of chemical weapons as a means of conducting armed struggle in the modern sense should be attributed to the time of the 1st World War.

The First World War, which began in 1914, soon after the start acquired a positional character, which forced the search for new offensive weapons. german army began to use massive attacks on enemy positions with the help of poisonous and asphyxiating gases. On April 22, 1915, a chlorine gas attack was carried out on the Western Front near the town of Ypres (Belgium), which for the first time showed the effect of the massive use of toxic gas as a means of warfare.

The first harbingers.

On April 14, 1915, near the village of Langemarck, not far from the then little-known Belgian city of Ypres, French units captured a German soldier. During the search, they found a small gauze bag filled with identical pieces of cotton fabric, and a bottle with a colorless liquid. It looked so much like a dressing bag that it was initially ignored.

Apparently, its purpose would have remained incomprehensible if the prisoner had not stated during interrogation that the handbag is a special means of protection against the new "crushing" weapon that the German command plans to use on this sector of the front.

On April 18, the British knocked out the Germans from the height of "60" and at the same time captured a German non-commissioned officer. The prisoner also spoke about an unknown weapon and noticed that the cylinders with it were dug at this very height - ten meters from the trenches. Out of curiosity, an English sergeant went on reconnaissance with two soldiers and, in the indicated place, actually found heavy cylinders of an unusual appearance and incomprehensible purpose. He reported this to the command, but to no avail.

An unfavorable wind is blowing ... - the Germans reported. “… The wind is getting stronger… its direction is constantly changing… The wind is unstable…”

One radiogram mentioned the name of a certain Dr. Haber. If only the British knew who Dr. Gaber was!

Dr. Fritz Gaber

Fritz Gaber was deeply civilian. At the front, he was in an elegant suit, aggravating the civilian impression with the brilliance of gilded pince-nez. Before the war, he headed the Institute of Physical Chemistry in Berlin and even at the front did not part with his "chemical" books and reference books.

Haber was in the service of the German government. As a consultant to the German War Office, he was tasked with creating an irritant poison that would force enemy troops to leave the trenches.

A few months later, he and his staff created a weapon using chlorine gas, which was put into production in January 1915.

Although Haber hated war, he believed that the use of chemical weapons could save many lives if the exhausting trench warfare on the Western Front stopped. His wife Clara was also a chemist and strongly opposed his wartime work.

April 22, 1915

Suddenly they smelled a strong smell. Everyone had a pinching in the nose, their eyes hurt, as if from acrid smoke. "Yellow fog" choked, blinded, burned the chest with fire, turned inside out. Not remembering themselves, the Africans rushed out of the trenches. Who hesitated, fell, seized by suffocation. People rushed about the trenches, screaming; colliding with each other, they fell and fought in convulsions, catching air with twisted mouths.

However, for the Germans themselves, such a result is unexpected. Their generals treated the venture of the "bespectacled doctor" as an interesting experience and therefore did not really prepare for a large-scale offensive.

When the front turned out to be actually broken, the only unit that poured into the gap was an infantry battalion, which, of course, could not decide the fate of the French defense.

The incident made a lot of noise and by the evening the world knew that a new participant had entered the battlefield, capable of competing with "His Majesty the machine gun." Chemists rushed to the front, and by the next morning it became clear that for the first time the Germans used a cloud of suffocating gas - chlorine - for military purposes. It suddenly turned out that any country that even has the makings of a chemical industry can get its hands on a powerful weapon. The only consolation was that it was not difficult to escape from chlorine. It is enough to cover the respiratory organs with a bandage moistened with a solution of soda, or hyposulfite, and chlorine is not so terrible. If these substances are not at hand, it is enough to breathe through a wet rag. Water significantly weakens the effect of chlorine, which dissolves in it. Many chemical institutions rushed to develop the design of gas masks, but the Germans were in a hurry to repeat the gas balloon attack until the Allies had reliable means of protection.

On April 24, having collected reserves for the development of the offensive, they launched a strike on a neighboring sector of the front, which was defended by the Canadians. But the Canadian troops were warned about " yellow haze"and therefore, seeing a yellow-green cloud, they prepared for the action of gases. They soaked their scarves, stockings and blankets in puddles and applied them to their faces, covering their mouths, noses and eyes from the caustic atmosphere. Some of them, of course, suffocated to death, others for a long time were poisoned or blinded, but no one moved, and when the fog crept into the rear and the German infantry followed, Canadian machine guns and rifles spoke, making huge gaps in the ranks of the advancing, who did not expect resistance.

Replenishment of the arsenal of chemical weapons

As the war went on, many toxic compounds in addition to chlorine were tested for effectiveness as chemical warfare agents. chemical warfare.

In June 1915 was applied bromine, used in mortar shells; the first tear substance also appeared: benzyl bromide combined with xylene bromide. Artillery shells were filled with this gas. The use of gases in artillery shells, which later became so widespread, was first clearly observed on June 20 in the Argonne forests.

Phosgene
Phosgene was widely used during the First World War. It was first used by the Germans in December 1915 on the Italian front.

Relative cheapness and ease of preparation, strong toxic properties, lingering effect and low persistence (the smell disappears after 1 1/2 - 2 hours) make phosgene a substance very convenient for military purposes.

Mustard gas
On the night of July 12-13, 1917, in order to disrupt the offensive of the Anglo-French troops, Germany used mustard gas- liquid poisonous substance of skin and blistering action. During the first use of mustard gas, 2,490 people received injuries of varying severity, of which 87 died. Mustard gas has a pronounced local effect - it affects the eyes and respiratory organs, the gastrointestinal tract and the skin. Being absorbed into the blood, it also exhibits a generally poisonous effect. Mustard gas affects the skin when exposed, both in the droplet and in the vapor state. Regular summer and winter military uniforms, like almost any type of civilian clothing, do not protect the skin from drops and vapors of mustard gas. There was no real protection of troops from mustard gas in those years, and its use on the battlefield was effective until the very end of the war.

Results of the First World War.

The ideas of chemical warfare have taken strong positions in the military doctrines of all the world's leading states without exception. Great Britain and France took up the improvement of chemical weapons and the increase in production capacities for their manufacture. Germany, defeated in the war, forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles from having chemical weapons, and not recovering from civil war Russia is agreeing to build a joint mustard gas plant and test samples of chemical weapons at Russian test sites. The United States met the end of the World War with the most powerful military-chemical potential, surpassing England and France combined in the production of poisonous substances.

Nerve gases

The history of nerve agents begins on December 23, 1936, when Dr. Gerhard Schroeder of the I. G. Farben laboratory in Leverkusen first obtained tabun (GA, ethyl ester of dimethylphosphoramidocyanide acid).

In 1938, the second powerful organophosphorus agent, sarin (GB, 1-methylethyl ester of methylphosphonofluoride acid), was discovered there. At the end of 1944, a structural analogue of sarin was obtained in Germany, called soman (GD, 1,2,2-trimethylpropyl ester of methylphosphonofluoric acid), which is about 3 times more toxic than sarin.

In 1940, in the city of Oberbayern (Bavaria), a large plant belonging to "IG Farben" was put into operation 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 in Germany, about 17 new technological installations for the production of OM were built, the annual capacity of which exceeded 100 thousand tons. In the city of Dühernfurt, on the Oder (now Silesia, Poland), there was one of the largest production facilities for organic matter. By 1945, Germany had 12 thousand tons of herd in stock, the production of which was nowhere else.

The reasons why Germany did not use chemical weapons during the Second World War remain unclear to this day; according to one version, Hitler did not give the command to use CWA during the war because he believed that the USSR large quantity chemical weapons. Churchill recognized the need to use chemical weapons only if they were used by the enemy. But the indisputable fact is the superiority of Germany in the production of poisonous substances: the production of nerve gases in Germany came as a complete surprise to the Allied forces in 1945.

Separate work on obtaining these substances was carried out in the USA and Great Britain, but a breakthrough in their production could not occur until 1945. During the years of World War II in the United States, 135 thousand tons of toxic substances were produced at 17 installations, half of the total volume was accounted for mustard gas. Mustard gas was equipped with about 5 million shells and 1 million air bombs. From 1945 to 1980, only 2 types of chemical weapons were used in the West: lachrymators (CS: 2-chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile - tear gas) and herbicides (the so-called "Orange Agent") used by the US Army in Vietnam, the consequences of which are the infamous "Yellow Rains". CS alone, 6,800 tons were used. The United States produced chemical weapons until 1969.

Conclusion

In 1974, President Nixon and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev signed a significant agreement aimed at banning chemical weapons. It was confirmed by President Ford in 1976 at bilateral talks in Geneva.

However, the history of chemical weapons did not end there...