The Origins of Chemical Warfare in the French Army (original) (raw)
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Medical History, 2021
This dual-focussed examination will critically compare and contrast the British Royal Army Medical Corps and the French Medical Service’s involvement in the Western Front chemical campaign between 1915 and 1918. Because the Anglophone historiography has tended to marginalise the French contribution to the allied chemical war, this article will attempt to re-balance the historical narrative by emphasising the collective nature and importance of this joint Franco-British enterprise. By interrogating a raft of under-utilised primary evidence in the French and British archives, this investigation will contribute to the ‘alliance literature’ by arguing that when it comes to aspects of the Franco-British chemical war such as the co-operation of the medical services, the appellation ‘together but alone’ does not fully hold. The article will explore avenues of the two national armies evolving process of mutual medical assistance, material exchange and scientific collaboration. The striking ...
Chemical Weaponry and Warfare in The Great War
Chemical Weaponry and Warfare in The Great War. 𝘖𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘙𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴, 2019
World War I has been called the «The Chemist's War»; not only for the extend of the use of the chemical weapons in the war, but also for the complicity of the scientific and engineering efforts to create and select the most appropriate chemical agents for military use, to improve the procedures of their production, and to discover the most lethal and effective techniques for their usage and deployment in warfare. The involvement of chemical weaponry was deemed necessary at the first stages of war, given the devastating effects that the trench warfare had induced on the troops, where battles lasted months and hundreds of thousands of casualties had to be suffered for a warring side to advance merely several kilometers. While the effect that the chemical weapons had for the termination of the trench warfare is debatable, they constituted the terror of the soldiers at the trenches 1 .
Terror weapons: the British experience of gas in the First World War
Chemical weapons accounted for only 1 per cent of the 750,000 British troops killed in the First World War and yet caused disproportionate casualties (estimated at 180,100). The considerable investment in the development of new toxins and methods of delivery was designed to maintain the elements of surprise and uncertainty as these accentuated their psychological effect. Soldiers were continually challenged on the battlefield by combinations of different types of agent designed to undermine their confidence in respirators, disorientate them, and erode their morale. At first, army doctors practised defensive medicine, invaliding their patients for protracted periods to the UK or base hospitals. By 1917, progressive study of the physical and psychological effects of different types of toxin allowed physicians to design new management strategies. Borrowing ideas from shell shock, specialist units were set up closer to the front line and medical officers taught to identify crucial points in the course of illness to accelerate recovery times and forestall the accretion of psychosomatic symptoms.
One hundred and one years after a milestone: Modern chemical weapons and World War I
While chemical weapons have been used since the beginning of armed struggles, either for their flammable or toxic properties, it was only during World War I when what is known as ''modern'' chemical warfare began. July 28 marks the one hundred and one anniversary of the beginning of what is also known as ''The Great War''. This conflict created enormous consequences for society at the time, marking a before and after in the history of mankind, as well as being the genesis of modern
A NEW TYPE OF WARFARE: Chemical Filling Facilities in Istanbul, 1914-1918
Journal of International Committee for the History of Technology , 2023
In the total war era, states committed their scientific research to rapidly changing warfare conditions, making the management of war the primary goal of contemporary states. The weakness of primary weapons in neutralising the enemy (or enemies) was obvious from the beginning of the First World War. Constantly changing war strategies, integration of civilians into warfare, and the growing sense of impotence as the war proceeded longer than expected, prompted a return to the components of violence. Although research into the use of different chemicals, gases, and suffocating substances in weapons was not something new, its successful employment climaxed during the First World War. This study provides an analysis of the employment of chemical weapons during the First World War and revisits the scarce arguments on whether the Ottomans had taken part in producing chemical weapons. The primary focus here is the gasfilling facilities established in Istanbul under the supervision of German efforts for military purposes. Additionally, the unanticipated extraordinary effects of the use of chemical weapons, the strategies employed to cause attrition in trenches, and its effects on the Ottoman army are within the scope of this article.
2021
Effects of Chemical Warfare; A selective review and bibliography of British state papers is the result of an exploration of the state papers of the United Kingdom undertaken with the aim of discovering information about the past use of chemical warfare. This information may serve as a point of historical reference in speculation upon the possible nature and consequences of large-scale chemical warfare recurring in Europe. Part I of the monograph concentrates primarily on material documenting the use of chemical weapons in the First and Second World Wars, the impact of this use on the civilian populations of France and Belgium, casualties incurred in the production, research, development, training and deployment of chemical warfare agents, and the attempts made to incorporate chemical weapons into military doctrine and war-preparedness. Part II supplements the citation of documents in Part I. It comprises an ordered bibliography listing not only the location of the records found to be of primary concern to this study, but also the location of other records not cited in Part I which appear to form much of the remainder of the official record of the British CW effort. A list of some of the papers which have not been released comprises the concluding section.