![]() It was found that the ammonia in the pad neutralized the poison. This increased the army's range of attack and helped to protect their own troops when weather conditions were not completely ideal.Īfter the first German chlorine gas attacks, Allied troops were supplied with masks of cotton pads that had been soaked in urine. This problem was solved in 1916 when gas shells were produced for use with heavy artillery. When the British Army launched a gas attack on 25th September in 1915, the wind blew it back into the faces of the advancing troops. ![]() It was important to have the right weather conditions before a gas attack could be made. His biographer, John Bourne, has argued: "Despite Foulkes' energy, the ingenuity of his men and the consumption of expensive resources, gas was ultimately disappointing as a weapon, despite its terrifying reputation." German soldiers after a gas attack in 1915. He worked closely with scientists working at the governmental laboratories at Porton Down near Salisbury. Foulkes accepted the post he eventually received the title of General Officer Commanding the Special Brigade responsible for Chemical Warfare and Director of Gas Services. General William Robertson recommended Brigadier General Charles Howard Foulkes to General John French as the best man to organise the retaliation. Chlorine gas destroyed the respiratory organs of its victims and this led to a slow death by asphyxiation. The Germans first used chlorine gas cylinders in April 1915 when it was employed against the French Army at Ypres. In October 1914 the German Army began firing shrapnel shells in which the steel balls had been treated with a chemical irritant. The French Army were the first to employ it as a weapon when in the first month of the war they fired tear-gas grenades at the Germans. Poisonous gases were known about for a long time before the First World War but military officers were reluctant to use them as they considered it to be a uncivilized weapon.
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