Freeing the green genie

One hundred years ago today, German troops released chlorine gas into the air facing Canadian and French forces at Ypres, Belgium. It was an attempt to break the stalemate in the trenches that had spoiled everyone’s plans for early victory, triumph at home and massive territorial acquisition.

The chemist responsible for the development of chlorine (and other toxic and poison gases for warfare), Fritz Haber, put forth the idea that using gas to stun and debilitate (and, later in the war, outright kill) enemy soldiers was humane, really, because it would cause the Allies to, well, you know, surrender in the face of such obvious superiority.

(Haber won the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1918, “for the synthesis of ammonia from its elements.” Go figure.)

Kaiser Wilhelm II and German high command agreed with that whole superiority thing, and authorized the release of the gas from canisters dug into the ground, which required favorable winds to disseminate the vapor. Not only that—it required wind, the lack of which delayed the tactical execution of what they termed “Operation Disinfection” for some days.

At around the same time, Wilhelm and the High Command also embarked on unrestricted submarine warfare (meaning shoot first and don't bother asking questions) and Zeppelin raids on cities in England. Both strategies had as a primary aim inflicting terror on Britain to induce it to withdraw from the war. Poison gas attacks were in fact aimed at soldiers, but of course the winds carried the gas over non-combatant areas as well.

I have never understood the attraction of such a fickle, uncontrollable delivery system. Because—think about it: when the winds change, the gas blows over your own troops.

The Allies had actually been warned of this new weapon, but their commanders disregarded or dismissed the warnings. So the Canadians and French (including a division of Algerians) were taken completely unawares, and they fled their positions.

The immediate results of the attack were appalling, not only from actual physiological injuries (much worse was to come with the introduction of phosgene and mustard gases), but from the utter terror inflicted on the unsuspecting soldiers on the receiving end.

Picture it—the very air around you turns green and poisons you. And because the gas is heavier than air, it settled near the ground and flooded the trenches. There was no defense.

Here's a sampling of the effects, depending on whether it's chlorine, phosgene or mustard: You can't see; you can't breathe. Your eyes, throat, skin, lungs all burn. Your skin blisters; your lungs blister. You cough up copious amounts of blood and fluid; but it brings no relief. Eventually your lungs fill with fluid and you drown.

You could see chlorine, but later gases weren't visible. So the first sign of being gassed is when your body reacts. By then it's too late to defend against it.

At Ypres the Germans advanced a couple of miles in some sectors, but they were unable to follow through on the attack, and in the end the lines reverted to almost exactly what they had been before. Story of the entire four years on the Western Front, really.

There was a massive, outraged outcry from the Allied military, politicians, newspapers and citizens. After all, chemical weapons were banned by the Hague Convention. The Germans insisted that what was banned was using chemical weapons in artillery, so this wasn’t covered. Also, see above about being superior.

Eventually, the Brits began issuing their troops with gas masks, and made a huge push to research, manufacture and deploy their own chemical weapons. So did we, when we entered the war. Of course, there was quite the distinction made between Hun barbarians using all those gases and the civilized Allies doing so. Don’t get me started.

And here’s the thing—chlorine gas is still being used as a weapon of war, even today. One hundred years after letting one of the most appalling genies ever dreamed up in a chemist’s nightmare, it’s being deployed all over the place in the Middle East.

And you can believe that most every country with a military budget has stockpiles of it. Because it still works, after all this time.