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[Page 24]
The Bulletin, October 2, 1919
Devil's Breath
(For The Bulletin)
Gases to be useful for war purposes have to be (1) lethal or irritating (2) heavier than air and (3) easily manufactured and handled. The gases used in the earlier part of the Great War did not fill all these requirements. Because they were experimental the Huns probably did not care to spend very much money upon them, and therefore at first used chlorine, with which they slaughtered the Canadians at Ypes. This is a cheap gas, capable of being manufactured by the ton from sea-water. The British chemists saw at once that if gas was to be a weapon of warfare, something that would give Fritz a lot more trouble could be produced. Chlorine weighs only 2 ½ atmospheres and is effective at 1 part in 10,000. Now, a 2 ½ atmosphere gas is too light for propulsion in a shell, as the explosion necessary to burst the metal container dissipates it too rapidly. Moreover cloud-gas attacks, for which alone it was suitable, became for the most part useless against helmets and masks. They were also frequently impracticable because of the weight of the cylinders, the number necessary, the danger to ones own side, and the uncertainty of getting the proper breeze at the proper time to blow the gas across.
So it came about that both sides got down to shell and projector gas, the former being fired from any gun or howitzer in almost any kind of shell; the latter propelled from hundreds of mortars (short lengths of metal tube closed at the base) connected with electric batteries. The advantage of shell and projector gas over cloud gas was that nothing was wasted in the journey over No Mans Land, it could be dropped right on the required spot without regard for the strength or direction of the wind, and an attack of unlimited intensity or duration was possible.
The principal enemy gases for shells and projectors were phosgene, diphosgene, chloropicrin, 25 forms of mustard gas, sneezing or Blue Cross gas, Green Cross gas and tear gas.
The lethal phosgene weighed 3 ½ atmospheres, its minimum effective concentration (M.E.C.) was 1 in 20,000 it was practically colorless - sometimes slightly whitish - and smelt rather like musty hay. It was mixed with tear, sneezing, irritating and vomiting gases.
Diphosgene was totally different from phosgene. It weighed 7 ½ atmospheres, and therefore hung around near the ground much longer, was colorless and odorless and had a M.E.C. of 1 in 40,000. Its proper name is trichloromethylchloroformate. It also was mixed with the irritants. A good whiff of it meant lifelong misery, and 2 good breaths a little wooden cross in France.
Chloropicrin smelt like bad honey, weighed 8 atmospheres and had an M.E.C. of 1 in 80,000. It was not lethal but as it instantaneously produced violent coughing and vomiting, it caused one to get rid of his mask and breathe in the phosgene or diphosgene.
Blue Cross gas came over in a shell with a yellow head on which was stamped a blue cross. It was a nasal and throat irritant and was, like chloropicrin, sent over to make men take off their masks and breathe in death. Thousands of Diggers at Zonnebeke lost their voices for weeks with Blue Cross gas. Its proper name is diphenylchlorarsine.
The tear gases were the first ones used in shells. They were generally scented like pineapple, or something else as pleasant. They weighed 8 ½ atmospheres and had an M.E.C. of 1 in 1,000,000. Their Sunday names were benxyle bromide and xylyle bromide.
The 25 mustard gases were variants of the two principal ones - dichlorethylsulphide or Mustard Gas No. 1, or ethyldichlorarisine, or Mustard Gas No. 2. No. 1 M.G. weighed 7 ½ atmospheres and had an M.E.C. of 1 in 600,000. It was often seen lying about as a thick heavy liquid, waiting for someone to disturb it. It was carried on boots and clothes into warm dug-outs, where it immediately vaporised and played hell. No. 2 M.G. weighed 7 ½ atmospheres. One part in 50,000 parts of air was extremely dangerous. Any mustard gas affected the skin, nerves, lungs, air passages, eyes and practically every part of the body. It was common to see men in delirium from the effects of it. Each blister caused by it formed other blisters. Blisters on the lungs caused bronchitis and broncho-pneumonia and dreadful agony until the blistering of the whole lung killed the sufferer. Photophobia or set pupil, conjunctivitis, blindness through rubbing (in consequence of the dreadful irritation), and a lackadaisial, tired-of-living-feeling were also among the affects of this invention of Kuliur.
The British gases are still secret, but our famous "B.B." gas beat in devilishness anything the Germans had. It was invented during the war and played a tremendous part in smashing the enemy morale. On the burst of the"B.B." shell, a heavy drifting cloud hung about, or was carried on the wind, remaining close to the ground however. In the shell it was liquid and some of this liquid remained on the ground, slowly vaporising for days. The cloud on at least one occasin drifted a mile with a 12 miles per hour wind, and this caused serious casualties. It attacked the eyes and the respiratory organs mainly, and a concentration of 1 part in more than a million caused blindness and loss of voice. Its M.E.C. point was 1 in100,000,000. One characteristic was the absence of immediate effect. Whole German battalions had to be evacuated a day or even two days after our gas-shell bombardment, without anyone noticing any earlier effect, and on many occasions, as we know from German documents, hundreds fell dead 20, 30 or even 40 hours after breathing in a little of our "B.B.".
Many men, after long periods of excellent service in the field, suddenly started to soil their conduct -sheets, and even to receive court-martial sentences. My opinion, formed during three winters of gas work in France with our Infantry, is that many of these men deteriorated as an unrecognised result of the operation of some of the above poisons on their minds and bodies. It is not too late to have such men's cases sympathetically reviewed.
Blanc