Chemical warfare is the most terrifying and debilitating way to gain the advantage on your enemy or adversary. The use of chemical warfare dates back to World War I; although it is believed that Spartan and Greek armies used a type of chemical warfare dated back to 82-72 BC. Chemicals were used in combat during World War I. Some of the chemicals being used were chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas. The Chemical Warfare in World War I began as the Germans used chlorine gas, and threw it into the trenches where the troops and most of the defensive positions were located. Nearly 33% of casualties during World War I resulted from chemical warfare. Only 25% percent were fatalities. At the end of World War I, the casualties resulting from chemical attacks multiplied to a devastating 1,240,853. A total of 91,198 died from injuries sustained from the chemical attacks (Service, 1953). Doctors had no cure or remedy this early in time. Throughout this informative research paper, in this history of I will be breaking down the history and origins of chemical warfare. The history of chemical warfare has changed the world. Our fears of chemical attacks in the future have increased and will continue to get worse.
Chemical warfare has been used as early as B.C. and A.D. Mostly used as smoke screens, incendiary devices, and some that may have been disguised as sleeping agents. “During the sieges of Plataea and Delium, the Spartan army used arsenic smoke. The pitch and sulfur were ignited and the consequence was a fire greater than anyone had ever yet seen produced by human agency’, the Greek historian wrote” (Coleman, 2005). The Romans used toxic smoke against the Charakitanes in Spain. The Charakitanes were defeated in two da...
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...d not get used. This would have caused losses on
Either side much of the agents used was blister agents which are a persistent agent. Napalm was
Introduced during World war II. Napalm would be used on the soldiers in entrenched positions.
This greatly reduced the morale and causing extreme mayhem. Phosphorous grenades were also
Used, causing major skin burns after explosion. The use of chemical weapons has become
Harder to guard against, causing more casualties, and becoming harder to detect and defend
Against.
The history of chemical warfare has ever so changed the world our fears of chemical
Attacks in the future has all, but been diminished. The fear that any country could launch a
Chemical attacks in many forms will always be a threat in our country for years to come.
Chemical warfare will never be history the threat is real and will never go away.
3Brophy, L. (1959). The Chemical Warfare Service (1st ed.). Washington: Office of the Chief of
This paper is about what chemical agent being employed during the attack of Yichang during the Sin-Japanese war in 1940 and which side of the conflict or both would employ it. What type of agent that was used if any? Employment methods used to disperse the chemical agent in wartime. Finally, I examined situations in which the agent would be employed by military forces to gain maximum effectiveness. A brief description of Unit 731, its commander, and a bit about what the kinds has been explained. Next key point is a brief summary of the actual war previous to the incident usage, and the attack itself. The war is followed by research on the chemical actually used during the course of the paper a slight background of the war and. Next explained is the main battle where the chemical was found to be employed. Afterwards the chemical mustard gas is detailed in prosperities and symptoms.
History has proven the use of chemical weapons ranging back for decades. From the Greeks in ancient Europe using Greek fire to South American tribes using a form of tear gas made of grounded up hot chili peppers to scare away enemy tribes. As well as dipping the tips of spear heads with a poisonous toxin. Poisonous toxins used from live reptiles like frogs and venom from the snakes found from whichever region had enough potency venom to exterminate. The past has proven, that in order for Armies to survive and win, it relied on out smarting the enemy. New technologies and the evolution of weaponry were left to the brightest minds from those eras to develop.
There have been many wars and battles fought with different weapons, but chemical weapons used in these wars are the worst kind. These weapons cause mutations and horrible deceases to a state in which some deceases even exist many years after the incident. These chemical weapons were unfortunately used by Iraq during the 8-year war between Iran and Iraq: 1980–1988. Iraq started using these chemical weapons excessively after 1984, until the end of the war even though countries are not allowed to use chemical weapons in any cases. However, Iraq got confirmation from The United States.
Napalm and Agent Orange, two of the most morally terrifying weapons used in the mid to late 1900’s. These destructive weapons were most famous in the Vietnam War for inflicting fatal wounds and even deformities. In World War Two, napalm was mostly used in tanks and incendiary bombs to destroy enemy ground troops. These were extremely effective and later used in planes like bombers. The word napalm comes from the combination of naphthene and palmitate, which are powdered aluminum soap.
Before the CDTF was built Soldiers had live toxic training, but it had to be conducted outdoors as it represented the most effective training. Since 1973 the use of training with live chemical agents stops due to environmental concerns and low safety regulations (Unknown, 2011). In 1981the US Army Chemical School (USACMLS) plan and develop a training facility to be used indoors and safer for the environment and the Soldiers. The construction of the new training facility was 14.9 million dollars and it was finished in 1986 at Fort McClellan, Alabama. (Unknown, Transition Force, United States Army Garrison-FT McClellan, Alabama) The first chemical class to utilize the new CDTF was on March 1987. Thus started the age of Chemical (Unknown, 2011) Soldier’s being able to have assurance that their equipment is more than capable of protecting them in a chemical attack. Many allied nations have used and received training from our CDTF but no other like Germany. In 1988, Germany’s decontamination trai...
Though biological weapons have been available for under a century, there is a long history of their use between 1914 and 1972. Chemical warfare was first introduced in 1914 at the beginning of World War I. Because of the new style of warfare with automatic weapons, trenches were dug out from the ground to defend against a slaughter. The introduction of this issue caused us to invent weapons such as the grenade, flame thrower, and finally, biological weapons. Biological weapons were distributed by hoses, grenades, and aerial attacks. By doing this, we eliminated many enemy trenches and saved a large amount of Ally lives. (Menace)
However, for what the North lacked in firepower, they more than adequately countered with ingenuity and creativity.2 One of the militants fighting for the North Vietnamese cause, the Viet Cong, engaged in guerrilla warfare against it’s Southern enemies.3 Specifically, the Viet Cong skillfully and successfully employed hundreds of thousands of booby traps to weaken the attacking American Forces.4 The production of both explosive and non-explosive booby traps coupled with the efficacy of the techniques employed by the Viet Con Vietnam.5 Furthermore, for all the success that the booby traps had in wounding and killing, these found success in inflicting psychological trauma on the enemies of the Viet Cong and of the North Vietnamese. Ultimately, these practices allowed the Communist forces to succeed against the Anti Communists in the Vietnam War.6 The guerrilla Vietnamese forces first utilized booby traps in the First Indochinese War against French colonial forces between 1946 and 1954.7 A land mine or booby trap is “a hidden [explosive or non explosive] charge having its firing mechanism so placed that it is detonated when an apparently harmless object is disturbed by an unsuspecting person”.8 By using improvised explosive and non explosive devices, the Viet Minh were able to weaken and demoralize, enemy soldiers, in addition to inflicting heavy casualties.
The French were the first to start experimenting on chemical agents in 1912. They first used it on their people as riot control to capture criminals that who had robbed a bank. They used 26 millimeter grenades filled with chemical agents into the center of the group criminals they were attempting to apprehend. It was not said if it was effective but continued to look into using it for other means. However, the Germans at this time had not been interested in producing any kinds of chemical weapons.
device was named napalm because the original formula used naphthenic palmitic acid; the device was
Poison gas was perhaps the most feared weapon out of all. Created to overcome the long stalemate style of trench warfare, its purpose was to draw out soldiers hiding in the trenches. One side would throw the poison gas into the enemy trenches and they would either wait for their enemy to come out into open fire or perish in the trenches. The first poison gas used in battle was chlorine at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres on April 22, 1915 by the Germans. Shortly after, followed the phosgene. The effects of these gases were ghastly. Chlorine was the most deadly as "within seconds of inhaling its vapor, it destroys the victim's respiratory organs, bringing on choking attacks" (Duffy). Phosgene had similar effects, except the fact that the effects started kicking in after 48 hours of inhalation. In September 1917, the Germans introduced the mustard gas or Yperite which was contained in artillery shells against the Russians at Riga. Those exposed t...
To begin, during World War one Germans first developed poisonous gas and brought them into war by 1915. Chlorine was the first gas brought into trench warfare as a grenade-like projectile. In the beginning of poisonous gas usage, soldiers didn’t know that the poisonous gas existed so the gas cloud unknowingly forming put soldiers into fear and would cause a few casualties. Soon after, France developed phosgene gases that is 18 times more powerful than chlorine gas. In the first appearance of phosgene gas, which was at Ypres, soldiers would get blinded. Germans further developed another gas, mustard gas. Mustard gas was the most brutal and more developed. It was produced in 75 or 105 shells rather than the regular grenade-like projectiles. Mustard gas caused painful blisters internally and externally, burns skin and more. The introduction to mustard gas brought the most disabled soldiers, deaths, terror and overall brought emotional and physical pain to those affected.
Sandra Steingraber’s father was a war veteran who fought in world war 2. She mentions that he was saved from war by his excellent typing skills because he was much better in the office, so he did not have to go into the frontlines. World war 2 is mentioned frequently with statistics and references about synthetic production from then as compared to today. The production of synthetic organic chemicals has skyrocketed since the 1960’s, as well as the use of them. These chemicals are extremely unhealthy which cause unwanted health problems and cancers. Many of the synthetic chemicals created were used in wars such as WW2 and the Vietnam War. A huge problem that has been occurring is the enormous contamination we release into the water, land, and
This tactic significantly protected troops from small arms fire and artillery. Weapons, such as mustard gas, were soon invented in order to damage the troops
Seidenstat argues that security is a relative thing and that no set of policies or measures can eliminate all terrorist acts (Seidenstat 2009 ,4). Terrorists will stop at nothing to foil our defenses. They are very patient and creative in planning their attacks. Terrorists will continue to invent ways to defeat our security measures while we are busy with our lives and forgetting about the last attack. Sometimes they don’t need to do nothing but wait for us to let our guard down so they can easily slip passed security measures.