Chemical weapons are one of the main ones in the First World War and in total about the 20th century. The lethal potential of the gas was limited - only 4% of the deaths of the total number of those affected. Nonetheless, the proportion of non-fatal cases was high, and gas remained one of the main hazards for soldiers. As it became possible to develop effective countermeasures against gas attacks, unlike most other types of weapons of this period, in the later stages of the war, its effectiveness began to decline, and it almost went out of circulation. But due to the fact that poisonous substances were first used in the First World War, it was also sometimes called the war of chemists.

Poison gas history

1914

In the early days of the use of chemicals as weapons, there were tear irritants rather than fatal ones. During World War I, the French pioneered the use of gas using 26mm tear gas (ethyl bromoacetate) grenades in August 1914. However, the Allies' stocks of bromoacetate quickly ran out, and the French administration replaced it with another agent, chloroacetone. In October 1914, German forces opened fire with shells, partially filled with chemical irritants, against British positions at Neuve Chapelle, despite the fact that the concentration achieved was so low that it was barely noticeable.

1915 Deadly gases widespread

On May 5, 90 people died at once in the trenches; Of the 207 people who were admitted to field hospitals, 46 died on the same day, and 12 after prolonged torment.

On July 12, 1915, near the Belgian city of Ypres, Anglo-French troops were fired upon by mines containing an oily liquid. So for the first time, mustard gas was used by Germany.

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• De-Lazari Alexander Nikolaevich. Chemical weapons on the fronts of the world war 1914-1918

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Poison gas was first used by German forces in 1915 on the western front. It was later used in Abyssinia, China, Yemen, and also in Iraq. Hitler himself was the victim of a gas attack during the First World War.

Inaudible, invisible and in most cases deadly: poison gas is a terrible weapon - not only in the physical sense, since chemical warfare agents can destroy huge numbers of soldiers and civilians, but probably even more psychologically, since fear in the face of the terrible threat contained in the inhaled air, it inevitably causes panic.

After 1915, when poison gas was first used in modern warfare, it was used to kill people in dozens of armed conflicts. However, just in the bloodiest war of the 20th century, in the struggle of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition against the Third Reich in Europe, both sides did not use these weapons of mass destruction. But, nevertheless, in those years it was applied, and took place, in particular, during the Sino-Japanese war, which began already in 1937.

Poisonous substances have been used as weapons since ancient times - for example, warriors in ancient times rubbed arrowheads with irritating substances. However, the systematic study of chemical elements began only before the First World War. By this time, police in some European countries were already using tear gas to disperse unwanted crowds. Therefore, it remained to take only a small step before the use of the deadly poisonous gas.


1915 first application

The first confirmed large-scale use of chemical warfare gas occurred on the western front in Flanders. Prior to this, there were repeated attempts - generally unsuccessful - to squeeze enemy soldiers out of the trenches with the help of various chemicals and thus complete the conquest of Flanders. On the eastern front, the German gunners also used shells with toxic chemicals - without much consequence.

Against the backdrop of this kind of "unsatisfactory" results, chemist Fritz Haber, who later received the Nobel Prize, suggested spraying chlorine gas in the presence of a suitable wind. More than 160 tons of this by-product of the chemical industry were used on 22 April 1915 in the Ypres region. The gas was released from about 6 thousand cylinders, and as a result, a poisonous cloud six kilometers long and one kilometer wide covered the enemy positions.

There are no exact figures on the number of victims of this attack, but they were quite significant. In any case, the German army on the "Day of Ypres" managed to break through to a great depth for the strengthening of the French and Canadian units.

The Entente countries actively protested against the use of poison gas. The German side in response to this stated that the use of chemical munitions is not prohibited by the Hague Convention on the Waging of Ground War. Formally, this was correct, but the use of chlorine gas was contrary to the spirit of the Hague Conferences of 1899 and 1907.

The death rate was almost 50%

In the following weeks, the poisonous gas was applied several more times on the arc in the Ypres region. At the same time, on May 5, 1915, at an altitude of 60 in the British trenches, 90 of the 320 soldiers who were there were killed. Another 207 people were taken to hospitals, but 58 of them did not need any help. The death rate when poisonous gases were used against unprotected soldiers was then approximately 50%.

The use of poisonous chemicals by the Germans broke the taboo, and after that, other participants in the hostilities also began to use poisonous gases. The British first used chlorine gas in September 1915, while the French used phosgene. Another spiral of the arms race began: more and more chemical warfare agents were developed, and our own soldiers received more and more advanced gas masks. In total, during the First World War, 18 various potentially deadly toxic substances were used and another 27 chemical compounds"Annoying" action.

According to existing estimates, in the period from 1914 to 1918, about 20 million gas shells were used, in addition, more than 10 thousand tons of chemical warfare agents were fired from special containers. According to the estimates of the Stockholm Peace Research Institute, as a result of the use of chemical warfare agents, 91 thousand people died, and 1.2 million were injured of varying degrees of severity.

Hitler's personal experience

Among the victims was also Adolf Hitler. On October 14, 1918, during a French attack using mustard gas, he temporarily lost his sight. In the book “My Struggle” (Mein Kampf), where Hitler sets out the foundations of his worldview, he describes this situation as follows: “Around midnight, some of the comrades were out of action, some of them forever. Towards the morning, I also began to feel severe pain, increasing every minute. About seven o'clock, stumbling and falling, I somehow wandered to the point. My eyes burned with pain. " After a few hours, “my eyes turned to burning coals. Then I stopped seeing. "

And after the First World War, the accumulated, but already unnecessary in Europe, shells with poisonous gases were used. For example, Winston Churchill advocated their use against "wild" rebels in the colonies, but at the same time he made a reservation and added that it was not necessary to use deadly substances. In Iraq, the Royal Air Force has also used chemical bombs.

Spain, which remained neutral during the First World War, used poison gases during the Rif War against Berber tribes in its North African dominions. The Italian dictator Mussolini used this kind of weapon in the Libyan and Abyssinian wars, and it was often used against the civilian population. Western public opinion reacted to this with indignation, but as a result, it was possible to agree only on the adoption of symbolic retaliatory actions.

Unambiguous prohibition

In 1925, the Geneva Protocol banned the use of chemical and biological weapons in hostilities, as well as their use against civilians. Nevertheless, virtually all states in the world continued to prepare for future chemical warfare wars.

After 1918, the largest use of chemical warfare agents occurred in 1937 during Japan's war of conquest against China. They have been used on several thousand separate occasions and have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Chinese soldiers and civilians, but there is no exact record from those theaters of war. Japan did not ratify the Geneva Protocol and was not formally bound by its provisions, but already at that time the use of chemical weapons was considered a war crime.

Thanks also to Hitler's personal experience, the threshold for the use of toxic chemicals during World War II was very high. However, this does not mean that both sides did not prepare for a possible gas war - in case the opposite side unleashed it.

The Wehrmacht had several laboratories for the study of chemical warfare agents, and one of them was located in the Spandau Citadel, located in the western part of Berlin. Including there in not large quantities the highly toxic poisonous gases sarin and soman were produced. And at the factories of I.G. Farben, several tons of nerve gas herd were even produced on a phosphoric basis. However, it was not applied.

The First World War was going on. On the evening of April 22, 1915, opposing German and French troops were under the Belgian city of Ypres. They fought for the city for a long time and to no avail. But this evening the Germans wanted to test a new weapon - poison gas. They brought with them thousands of cylinders, and when the wind blew towards the enemy, they opened the taps, releasing 180 tons of chlorine into the air. A yellowish gas cloud was blown towards the enemy line by the wind.

The panic began. The French soldiers immersed in the gas cloud were blind, coughing and suffocating. Three thousand of them died of suffocation, another seven thousand were burned.

"At that point, science lost its innocence," says science historian Ernst Peter Fischer. According to him, if before that the purpose of scientific research was to facilitate the living conditions of people, now science has created conditions that facilitate the murder of a person.

"In the war - for the fatherland"

The way to use chlorine for military purposes was developed by the German chemist Fritz Haber. He is considered the first scientist to subdue scientific knowledge military needs. Fritz Haber discovered that chlorine is an extremely poisonous gas that, due to its high density, concentrates low above the ground. He knew that this gas causes severe swelling of the mucous membranes, coughing, suffocation, and ultimately leads to death. In addition, the poison was cheap: chlorine is contained in the waste of the chemical industry.

"Haber's motto was" In the world - for humanity, in the war - for the fatherland, "- Ernst Peter Fischer quotes the then head of the chemical department of the Prussian War Ministry. - Then there were other times. Everyone tried to find poison gas that they could use in the war . And only the Germans succeeded. "

The Ypres attack was a war crime as early as 1915. After all, the Hague Convention of 1907 prohibited the use of poison and poisoned weapons for military purposes.

Arms race

The "success" of Fritz Haber's military innovation became infectious, and not only for Germans. Simultaneously with the war of states, the "war of chemists" began. Scientists were tasked with creating a chemical weapon that would be ready for use as soon as possible. "Abroad looked at Haber with envy," says Ernst Peter Fischer. "Many wanted to have such a scientist in their country." In 1918, Fritz Haber received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. True, not for the discovery of a poisonous gas, but for his contribution to the implementation of ammonia synthesis.

The French and British also experimented with poisonous gases. The use of phosgene and mustard gas became widespread in war, often in combination with each other. Yet poisonous gases did not play a decisive role in the outcome of the war: these weapons could be used only in favorable weather.

Scary mechanism

Nevertheless, in the First World War, a terrible mechanism was launched, and Germany became its engine.

The chemist Fritz Haber not only laid the foundation for the military use of chlorine, but also through his good connections in the field of industry, contributed to the establishment of the mass production of these chemical weapons. Thus, the German chemical concern BASF produced large quantities of toxic substances during the First World War.

After the war, with the creation of the IG Farben concern in 1925, Haber joined its supervisory board. Later, during National Socialism, a subsidiary of IG Farben was engaged in the production of "Cyclone B", which was used in the gas chambers of concentration camps.

Context

Fritz Haber himself could not have foreseen this. "He's a tragic figure," says Fischer. In 1933, Haber, a Jew by birth, emigrated to England, expelled from his country, in the service of which he placed his scientific knowledge.

Red line

In total, more than 90 thousand soldiers died from the use of poisonous gases on the fronts of the First World War. Many died of complications a few years after the end of the war. In 1905, the members of the League of Nations, which included Germany, under the Geneva Protocol pledged not to use chemical weapons. Meanwhile, scientific research on the use of poisonous gases continued, mainly under the guise of developing means to combat harmful insects.

"Cyclone B" - hydrocyanic acid - insecticidal agent. "Agent orange" - a substance for de-leafing plants. The Americans used defoliant during the Vietnam War to thin out the local dense vegetation. As a consequence - poisoned soil, numerous diseases and genetic mutations in the population. The latest example of the use of chemical weapons is Syria.

“You can do whatever you want with poisonous gases, but they cannot be used as a target weapon,” says science historian Fischer. “Everyone who is in the vicinity becomes victims.” The fact that the use of poisonous gas is still “a red line that cannot be crossed”, he considers correct: “Otherwise, the war becomes even more inhuman than it already is.”

Evgeny Pavlenko, Evgeny Mitkov

This brief review was prompted by the publication below:
Scientists have established that the ancient Persians were the first to use chemical weapons against their enemies. British archaeologist Simon James of the University of Leicester discovered that Persian troops used poisonous gases in the siege of the ancient Roman city of Dura in eastern Syria in the 3rd century AD. His theory is based on a study of the remains of 20 Roman soldiers found at the base of the city wall. The British archaeologist presented his find at the annual meeting of the American Archaeological Institute.

According to James's theory, in order to capture the city, the Persians dug under the surrounding ramparts. The Romans dug their own tunnels to counterattack the attackers. When they entered the tunnel, the Persians set fire to bitumen and sulfur crystals, resulting in a thick, poisonous gas. After a few seconds, the Romans lost consciousness, after a few minutes they died. The bodies of the dead Romans, the Persians piled one on top of the other, thus creating a protective barricade, and then set fire to the tunnel.

“The results of the archaeological excavations at Dura indicate that the Persians were as sophisticated in the art of siege as the Romans, and they used the most brutal techniques,” says Dr. James.

Judging by the excavations, the Persians also expected to collapse the fortress wall and watchtowers as a result of digging. And although they did not succeed, they finally captured the city. However, how they entered Dura remains a mystery - the details of the siege and assault have not been preserved in historical documents. Then the Persians left Dura, and its inhabitants were either killed or driven to Persia. In 1920, the well-preserved ruins of the city were excavated by Indian troops who dug defensive trenches along the backfilled city wall. The excavations were carried out in the 1920s and 1930s by French and American archaeologists. As the BBC informs, in recent years they have been re-studied using modern technology.

As a matter of fact, there are a great many versions of the priority in the development of OM, probably as many as there are versions of the powder priority. However, a word to a recognized authority on the history of BOV:

A. N. DE LAZARI

"CHEMICAL WEAPONS ON THE FRONTS OF THE WORLD WAR 1914-1918."

The first chemical weapons used were the "Greek fire", consisting of sulfur compounds emitted from pipes during naval battles, was first described by Plutarch, as well as hypnotic drugs described by the Scottish historian Bukanan, causing continuous diarrhea as described by Greek authors, and a whole range of drugs, including arsenic compounds and the saliva of mad dogs, as described by Leonardo da Vinci. In Indian sources of the 4th century BC. NS. there were descriptions of alkaloids and toxins, including abrin (a compound close to ricin, a component of the poison with which the Bulgarian dissident G. Markov was poisoned in 1979). Aconitine, (an alkaloid) found in plants of the genus aconitium (aconitium) had an ancient history and was used by Indian courtesans for murder. They covered their lips with a special substance, and on top of it, in the form of lipstick, they applied aconitine to their lips, one or more kisses or a bite, which, according to sources, led to a terrible death. lethal dose was less than 7 milligrams. With the help of one of the poisons mentioned in the ancient "teachings about poisons", describing the effects of their effects, Nero's brother Britannikus was killed. Several clinical experimental works were carried out by Madame de "Brinville, who poisoned all her relatives claiming inheritance, she also developed a" inheritance powder ", testing it on patients of clinics in Paris to assess the strength of the drug. In the 15th and 17th centuries, poisoning of this kind was very popular. we should remember the Medici, they were a natural phenomenon, because it was almost impossible to detect poison after an autopsy.If poisoners were found, then the punishment was very cruel, they were burned or forced to drink huge amounts of water. until the middle of the 19th century. Until the time when, suggesting that sulfur compounds could be used for military purposes, Admiral Sir Thomas Cochran (10th Earl of Sunderland) in 1855 used sulfur dioxide as a chemical warfare agent, which was greeted with indignation by the British military establishment.During World War I, hee Chemical substances were used in huge quantities: 12 thousand tons of mustard gas, which affected about 400 thousand people, and a total of 113 thousand tons of various substances.

In total, during the years of the First World War, 180 thousand tons of various toxic substances were produced. Total losses from chemical weapons are estimated at 1.3 million people, of which up to 100,000 are fatal. The use of poisonous substances during the First World War is the first recorded violation of the 1899 and 1907 Hague Declarations. by the way, the USA refused to support the 1899 Hague Conference. In 1907, Great Britain joined the declaration and accepted its obligations. France agreed with the 1899 Hague Declaration, as did Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan. The parties agreed not to use asphyxiant and nerve gases for military purposes. Referring to the exact wording of the declaration, Germany on October 27, 1914 used ammunition filled with shrapnel mixed with irritating powder, arguing that given application was not the only target of this shelling. This also applies to the second half of 1914, when Germany and France used non-lethal tear gases,

German 155mm howitzer projectile ("T-Projectile") containing xylyl bromide (7 pounds - about 3 kg) and an explosive charge (trinitrotoluene) in the bow. Drawing from the manual by F. R. Sidel et al (1997)

but on April 22, 1915, Germany launched a massive chlorine attack, resulting in 15,000 defeats, of which 5,000 were killed. The Germans at the 6 km front released chlorine from 5730 cylinders. Within 5-8 minutes, 168 tons of chlorine were released. This perfidious use of chemical weapons by Germany was met with a powerful propaganda campaign denouncing the use of chemical weapons for military purposes and directed against Germany, initiated by Britain. Julian Parry Robinson researched propaganda materials released after the Ypresian events that called attention to the description of allied losses due to the gas attack, based on information provided by reliable sources. The Times published an article on April 30, 1915: "The Complete History of Events: New German Weapons." This is how eyewitnesses described this event: “The faces and hands of the people were of a glossy gray-black color, their mouths were open, their eyes were covered with lead glaze, everything was rushing around, spinning, fighting for life. The sight was frightening, all these terrible blackened faces groaning and begging for help ... The effect of the gas consists in filling the lungs with a watery mucous liquid that gradually fills all the lungs, because of this, suffocation occurs, as a result of which people died within 1 or 2 days ". German propaganda responded to its opponents in the following way: "These shells are no more dangerous than the poisonous substances used during the British unrest (meaning the Luddite explosions using explosives based on picric acid)." This first gas attack came as a complete surprise to the Allied forces, but on September 25, 1915, British forces conducted their trial chlorine attack. In further gas balloon attacks, both chlorine and mixtures of chlorine and phosgene were used. For the first time, a mixture of phosgene with chlorine was first used as an agent by Germany on May 31, 1915, against the Russian troops. At the 12 km front - near Bolimov (Poland), 264 tons of this mixture were produced from 12 thousand cylinders. Despite the lack of protective equipment and surprise, the German attack was repulsed. In 2 Russian divisions almost 9 thousand people were put out of action. Since 1917, the belligerent countries began to use gas jets (a prototype of mortars). They were first used by the British. The mines contained from 9 to 28 kg of a poisonous substance, firing from gas jets was carried out mainly with phosgene, liquid diphosgene and chloropicrin. German gas jets were the cause of the "miracle at Caporetto", when after the shelling of 912 gas jets with phosgene mines of the Italian battalion, all living things were destroyed in the Isonzo River valley. Gas jets were able to suddenly create high concentrations of OM in the target area, so many Italians died even in gas masks. Gas jets gave impetus to the use of artillery, the use of toxic substances, from the middle of 1916. The use of artillery increased the effectiveness of gas attacks. So on June 22, 1916, in 7 hours of continuous shelling, German artillery fired 125 thousand shells with 100 thousand liters. suffocating agents. The mass of the poisonous substances in the cylinders was 50%, in the shells only 10%. On May 15, 1916, during an artillery bombardment, the French used a mixture of phosgene with tin tetrachloride and arsenic trichloride, and on July 1, a mixture of hydrocyanic acid with arsenic trichloride. On July 10, 1917, diphenylchloroarsine was first used by the Germans on the Western Front, causing a severe cough even through a gas mask, which had a poor smoke filter in those years. Therefore, in the future, to defeat the enemy's manpower, diphenylchloroarsine began to be used together with phosgene or diphosgene. A new stage in the use of chemical weapons began with the use of a persistent blister agent (B, B-dichlorodiethyl sulfide). Used for the first time by German troops near the Belgian city of Ypres.

On July 12, 1917, within 4 hours, 50 thousand shells containing 125 tons of B, B-dichlorodiethyl sulfide were fired at the Allied positions. 2490 people received various lesions. The French called the new OM "mustard gas" after the place of its first use, and the British called the "mustard gas" because of its strong specific smell. British scientists quickly deciphered its formula, but it was possible to establish the production of a new OM only in 1918, which is why it was possible to use mustard gas for military purposes only in September 1918 (2 months before the armistice). Until November 1918, more than 50 gas attacks were carried out by German troops, 150 by the British, and 20 by the French.

The first anti-chemical masks of the British army:
A - servicemen of the Argyllshire Sutherland Highlander (Highland Scottish) regiment demonstrate the latest tools gas protection received on May 3, 1915 - eye protection goggles and a cloth mask;
B - shows the soldiers of Indian troops in special flannel hoods moistened with a sodium hyposulfite solution containing glycerin (to prevent its rapid drying) (West E., 2005)

The understanding of the danger of the use of chemical weapons in war was reflected in the decisions of the Hague Convention of 1907, which banned poisonous substances as a means of warfare. But already at the very beginning of the First World War, the command of the German troops began to intensively prepare for the use of chemical weapons. The official date for the beginning of the large-scale use of chemical weapons (precisely as weapons of mass destruction) should be considered April 22, 1915, when the German army in the area of ​​the small Belgian town of Ypres used a chlorine gas attack against the Anglo-French Entente troops. A huge, 180-tonne (out of 6,000 cylinders) poisonous yellow-green cloud of highly toxic chlorine, reaching the enemy's forward positions, struck 15,000 soldiers and officers in a matter of minutes; five thousand died immediately after the attack. The survivors either died in hospitals or became disabled for life, having received silicosis of the lungs, severe damage to the organs of vision and many internal organs. The "overwhelming" success of chemical weapons in action has stimulated their use. In the same 1915, on May 31, on the Eastern Front, the Germans used an even more highly toxic poisonous substance called "phosgene" (complete carbonic acid chloride) against the Russian troops. 9 thousand people died. On May 12, 1917, another battle at Ypres. And again the German troops are using chemical weapons against the enemy - this time a chemical warfare agent of skin-blistering and general toxic action - 2,2 - dichlorodiethyl sulfide, which received the name "mustard gas" after that. The small town became (like Hiroshima later) the symbol of one of the greatest crimes against humanity. During the First World War, other toxic substances were also "tested": diphosgene (1915), chloropicrin (1916), hydrocyanic acid (1915). Before the end of the war, poisonous substances (OM) based on organo arsenic compounds with a general toxic and pronounced irritating effect - diphenylchloroarsine, diphenylcyanarsine, are given a "start in life". Were tested in combat and some other broad-spectrum weapons. During the years of the First World War, all the belligerent states used 125 thousand tons of toxic substances, including 47 thousand tons - by Germany. Chemical weapons claimed 800 thousand lives in this war

COMBAT POISONS
SHORT REVIEW

The history of the use of chemical warfare agents

Until August 6, 1945, chemical warfare agents (CWA) were the deadliest weapon on Earth. The name of the Belgian city of Ypres sounded as ominous to people as Hiroshima would later sound. Chemical weapons caused fear even among those born after The great war... No one doubted that BOV, along with aviation and tanks, would become the main means of waging war in the future. In many countries, they were preparing for a chemical war - they built gas shelters, explanatory work was carried out with the population on how to behave during a gas attack. The arsenals accumulated stocks of toxic substances (OM), increased capacities for the production of already known images of chemical weapons and actively worked on the creation of new, more lethal "poisons".

But ... The fate of such a "promising" means of mass murder of people was paradoxical. Chemical weapons, as well as nuclear weapons later, were destined to turn from combat to psychological. And there were several reasons for this.

The most essential reason is its absolute dependence on meteorological conditions. The effectiveness of the use of OF depends, first of all, on the nature of the movement of air masses. If too strong wind leads to rapid dispersion of OM, thereby reducing its concentration to safe values, then too weak, on the contrary, leads to stagnation of the OM cloud in one place. Stagnation does not allow covering the required area, and if the OM is unstable, it can lead to the loss of its damaging properties.

The inability to accurately predict the direction of the wind at the right time, to predict its behavior, is a significant threat to those who decide to use chemical weapons. It is impossible to determine absolutely exactly in which direction and at what speed the OM cloud will move and whom it will cover.

Vertical movement of air masses - convection and inversion, also strongly affect the use of OM. During convection, the OM cloud, together with the air heated near the ground, quickly rises above the ground. When the cloud rises above two meters from the ground level - i.e. higher than human height, the exposure to OM is significantly reduced. During the First World War, during a gas attack to accelerate convection, the defenders burned fires in front of the positions.

The inversion causes the OM cloud to remain near the ground. In this case, if the soldiers of the Tivnik are in trenches and dugouts, they are most exposed to the effect of OV. But the cold air that has become heavy, mixed with OM, leaves the elevated places free, and the troops located on them are safe.

In addition to the movement of air masses, chemical weapons are affected by air temperature ( low temperatures dramatically reduce the volatility of OM) and precipitation.

Not only dependence on weather conditions creates difficulties in the use of chemical weapons. The production, transportation and storage of ammunition loaded with OF creates a lot of problems. The manufacture of the OV and the equipment of ammunition with it is very expensive and harmful production... A chemical projectile is deadly, and will remain so until disposal, which is also a very big problem. It is extremely difficult to achieve complete tightness of chemical munitions, to make them sufficiently safe to handle and store. The influence of meteorological conditions leads to the need to wait for favorable circumstances for the use of OF, which means that the troops will be forced to maintain vast warehouses of extremely dangerous ammunition in circulation, allocate significant units for their protection, and create special conditions for safety.

In addition to these reasons, there is another one, which, if it did not reduce the efficiency from the use of OM to zero, then significantly reduced it. Means of protection were born almost from the moment of the first chemical attacks. Along with the appearance of gas masks and protective equipment that exclude body contact with skin blisters (rubber coats and overalls) for people, horses received their own protective devices - the main and irreplaceable means of draft of those years, and even dogs.

Reducing the combat capability of a soldier due to countermeasures chemical protection 2 - 4 times could not have a significant impact in battle. The soldiers of both sides are forced to use the means of protection when using the OV, which means that the chances are equal. That time, in the duel of means of attack and means of defense, the latter were victorious. For one successful attack, there were dozens of unsuccessful ones. No chemical attack in World War I brought operational success, and tactical gains were fairly modest. All more or less successful attacks were carried out against an absolutely unprepared and without means of defense of the enemy.

Already in the First World War, the opposing sides very quickly became disillusioned with the combat qualities of chemical weapons and continued to use them only because they had no other ways to bring the war out of the positional impasse

All subsequent cases of the use of BOV were either test or punitive - against civilians who did not have means of protection and knowledge. The generals, both on the one hand and on the other, were well aware of the inexpediency and futility of the use of weapons, but were forced to reckon with politicians and the military-chemical lobby in their countries. Therefore, for a long time, chemical weapons remained a popular "horror story".

It remains so now. The example of Iraq confirms this. The accusation of Saddam Hussein in the production of weapons was the pretext for the outbreak of the war, and turned out to be a strong argument for the "public opinion" of the United States and its allies.

First experiments.

In the texts of the IV century BC. NS. an example is given of the use of poisonous gases to combat enemy burrows under the walls of a fortress. The defenders pumped smoke from burning seeds of mustard and wormwood into the underground passages with the help of furs and terracotta pipes. The poisonous gases caused asthma attacks and even death.

In ancient times, attempts were also made to use OV in the course of hostilities. Toxic fumes were used during the Peloponnesian War of 431-404. BC NS. The Spartans placed resin and sulfur in logs, which they then placed under the city walls and set on fire.

Later, with the advent of gunpowder, they tried to use bombs filled with a mixture of poisons, gunpowder and resin on the battlefield. Fired from catapults, they exploded from a burning fuse (the prototype of a modern remote fuse). Exploding, the bombs emitted clouds of poisonous smoke over the enemy troops - poisonous gases caused bleeding from the nasopharynx when using arsenic, irritation on the skin, blisters.

In medieval China, a cardboard bomb filled with sulfur and lime was created. During a naval battle in 1161, these bombs, falling into the water, exploded with a deafening roar, spreading poisonous smoke in the air. The smoke from water contact with lime and sulfur caused the same effects as modern tear gas.

As components in the creation of mixtures for equipping bombs, we used: hooked knotweed, croton oil, soap tree pods (for the formation of smoke), sulphide and arsenic oxide, aconite, tung oil, Spanish flies.

At the beginning of the 16th century, the inhabitants of Brazil tried to fight the conquistadors, using poisonous smoke obtained from burning red pepper against them. This method was subsequently used several times during the uprisings in Latin America.

During the Middle Ages and later, chemical agents continued to attract attention for military purposes. So, in 1456 the city of Belgrade was protected from the Turks by exposing the attackers to a poisonous cloud. This cloud appeared during the combustion of a toxic powder, which the inhabitants of the city sprinkled on rats, set them on fire and released them towards the besiegers.

A range of drugs, including those containing arsenic compounds and the saliva of rabid dogs, have been described by Leonardo da Vinci.

In 1855, during the Crimean campaign, the British admiral Lord Dandonald developed the idea of ​​fighting the enemy by using a gas attack. In his memorandum dated August 7, 1855, Dandonald proposed to the British government a project to capture Sevastopol using sulfur vapor. Lord Dandonald's memorandum, together with the explanatory notes, was forwarded by the English government of the time to a committee in which Lord Playfar played the main role. The committee, having familiarized itself with all the details of Lord Dandonald's project, expressed the opinion that the project was quite feasible, and the results he promised could certainly be achieved - but the results themselves are so terrible that no honest enemy should take advantage of this method. Therefore, the committee ruled that the draft could not be accepted and Lord Dandonald's note should be destroyed.

The project proposed by Dandonald was not rejected because "no honest enemy should take advantage of this method." From the correspondence between Lord Palmerston, the head of the British government at the time of the war with Russia, and Lord Panmuir, it follows that the success of the method proposed by Dandonald aroused the strongest doubts, and Lord Palmerston, along with Lord Panmuir, were afraid to find themselves in a ridiculous position if the experiment authorized by them failed.

If we take into account the level of the soldiers of that time, there is no doubt that the failure of the experiment to smoke the Russians out of their fortifications with the help of sulfuric smoke would not only amuse and raise the spirit of the Russian soldiers, but would even more discredit the British command in the eyes of the allied troops (French , Turks and Sardinians).

The negative attitude towards poisoners and the underestimation of this type of weapon by the military (or rather, the lack of need for a new, more lethal weapon) held back the use of chemicals for military purposes, until the middle of the 19th century.

The first tests of chemical weapons in Russia were carried out in the late 1950s. XIX century on Volkovo Pole. The shells, stuffed with cyanide cacodyl, were detonated in open log cabins where there were 12 cats. All cats survived. The report of Adjutant General Barantsev, in which the wrong conclusions were made about the low efficiency of the OS, led to a disastrous result. Work on testing projectiles filled with OV was discontinued and resumed only in 1915.

The cases of the use of agents during the First World War are the first recorded violations of the Hague Declaration of 1899 and 1907. The declarations prohibited "the use of projectiles that have the sole purpose of spreading asphyxiant or harmful gases." France agreed with the 1899 Hague Declaration, as did Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan. The parties agreed not to use asphyxiant and poisonous gases for military purposes. The USA refused to support the decision of the Hague Conference of 1899. In 1907 Great Britain joined the declaration and accepted its obligations.

The initiative in the use of CWA on a large scale belongs to Germany. Already in the September battles of 1914 on the Marne and on the Ain River, both belligerents experienced great difficulties in supplying their armies with shells. With the transition in October-November to trench warfare, there was no hope, especially for Germany, to overpower the enemy covered by trenches with the help of ordinary artillery shells. In contrast, OVs have the property of hitting a living enemy in places that are not accessible to the action of the most powerful projectiles. And Germany was the first to take the path of using CWA, having the most developed chemical industry.

Referring to the exact wording of the declaration, Germany and France in 1914 used non-lethal "tear" gases, and it should be noted that the French army did this first, using xylyl bromide grenades in August 1914.

Immediately after the declaration of war, Germany began to conduct experiments (at the Physicochemical Institute and the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute) with cacodyl oxide and phosgene in order to be able to use them militarily.

The Military Gas School was opened in Berlin, in which numerous material depots were concentrated. A special inspection was also housed there. In addition, a special chemical inspectorate A-10 was formed under the Ministry of War, specifically dealing with issues of chemical warfare.

The end of 1914 marked the beginning research activities in Germany to search for CWA, mainly for artillery ammunition. These were the first attempts to equip BOV projectiles. The first experiments on the use of BOV in the form of the so-called "projectile N2" (105-mm shrapnel with the replacement of bullet equipment in it with dianisidine chlorosulfate) were carried out by the Germans in October 1914.

On October 27, 3,000 of these shells were used on the Western Front in the attack on Neuve Chapelle. Although the irritating effect of the shells turned out to be small, according to German data, their use facilitated the capture of Neuve Chapelle. At the end of January 1915, the Germans in the Bolimov area used 15 cm artillery grenades ("T" grenades) with a strong blasting effect and an irritating chemical (xylyl bromide) when firing at Russian positions. The result was more than modest - due to low temperatures and insufficiently massed fire. In March, the French for the first time used chemical 26-mm rifle grenades loaded with ethyl bromoacetone, and similar hand chemical grenades. Both those, and others without any noticeable results.

In April of the same year, at Nieuport in Flanders, the Germans first tested the action of their "T" garnets, containing a mixture of benzyl bromide and xylyl, as well as brominated ketones. German propaganda declared that such projectiles were no more dangerous than picric acid-based explosives (BBs). Picric acid - its other name for melinite - was not a CWA. It was an explosive, the explosion of which gave off asphyxiant gases. There were cases of death from suffocation of soldiers who were in shelters after the explosion of a shell filled with melinite.

But at this time, a crisis began in the production of such shells and they were removed from service, and besides, the high command doubted the possibility of obtaining a mass effect in the manufacture of chemical shells. Then Professor Fritz Haber suggested using the OM in the form of a gas cloud.

Fritz Haber

Fritz Haber (1868-1934). Was awarded the title of laureate in 1918 Nobel Prize in chemistry for the synthesis in 1908 of liquid ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen on an osmium catalyst. During the war, he was in charge of the chemical service of the German troops. After the Nazis came to power, he was forced to leave the post of director of the Berlin Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry in 1933 (he took it in 1911) and emigrate - first to England and then to Switzerland. He died in Basel on January 29, 1934.

First use of BOV
Leverkusen became the center for the production of CWA, where a large amount of materials were produced, and where in 1915 the Military Chemical School was transferred from Berlin - it had 1,500 technical and command personnel and several thousand workers employed in production. In her laboratory in Gushte, 300 chemists worked non-stop. The OM orders were distributed between different plants.

The first attempts to use BOV were carried out on such a small scale and with such a negligible effect that no measures were taken by the allies in the area of ​​chemical defense.

On April 22, 1915, Germany carried out a massive chlorine attack on the Western Front in Belgium near the city of Ypres, releasing 5,730 chlorine cylinders from its positions between Bikschute and Langemark at 1700 hours.

The world's first gas-cylinder attack was prepared very carefully. Initially, they chose a section of the front of the XV corps, which occupied a position against the southwestern part of the Ypres salient. The burial of gas cylinders in the front sector of the XV corps was completed in mid-February. The sector was then slightly increased in width, so that by March 10, the entire front of the XV corps was prepared for a gas attack. But the dependence of the new weapon on weather conditions affected. The time of the attack was constantly postponed, since the necessary south and south-west winds did not blow. Due to the forced delay, the chlorine cylinders, although buried, were damaged by accidental hits from artillery shells

On March 25, the commander of the 4th Army decided to postpone preparations for the gas attack on the Ypres salient, choosing a new sector at the location of 46 res. divisions and XXVI res. corps - Pelkappele-Steenstraat. On the 6-km section of the attack front, gas-cylinder batteries were installed, 20 cylinders in each, which required 180 tons of chlorine to fill. A total of 6,000 cylinders were prepared, of which half were requisitioned commercial cylinders. In addition, 24,000 new half-volume cylinders have been prepared. The installation of the cylinders was completed on April 11, but they had to wait for a favorable wind.

The gas attack lasted 5-8 minutes. Of the total number of prepared chlorine cylinders, 30% were used, which amounted to 168 to 180 tons of chlorine. The actions on the flanks were reinforced with chemical shells.

The result of the battle at Ypres, which began with a gas-cylinder attack on April 22 and lasted until mid-May, was the successive cleansing of a significant part of the territory of the Ypres salient by the allies. The allies suffered significant losses - 15 thousand soldiers were defeated, of which 5 thousand were killed.

Newspapers of that time wrote about the effect of chlorine on the human body: "filling the lungs with a watery mucous fluid, which gradually fills all the lungs, because of this suffocation occurs, as a result of which people died within 1 or 2 days." Those who were "lucky" to survive, from the gallant soldiers who were awaited at home with victory, turned into blind cripples with burnt lungs.

But the success of the Germans was limited only to such tactical achievements. This is due to the lack of confidence in the command as a result of the impact of chemical weapons, which did not support the offensive with any significant reserves. The first echelon of German infantry, cautiously, at a considerable distance, advancing behind a cloud of chlorine, was late for the development of success, thereby allowing the British to close the gap with reserves.

In addition to the above reason, both the lack of reliable protective equipment and the chemical training of the army in general and specially trained personnel in particular played a deterrent role. Chemical warfare is impossible without the protective equipment of your troops. However, at the beginning of 1915, the German army had a primitive protection from gases in the form of pillows of tow soaked in a hyposulfite solution. The prisoners captured by the British in the days following the gas attack confirmed that they had no masks or any other protective equipment, and that the gas was causing a sharp pain in their eyes. They also argued that the troops were afraid to advance for fear of being harmed by the poor performance of the gas masks.

This gas attack came as a complete surprise to the Allied forces, but already on September 25, 1915, British forces conducted their trial chlorine attack.

Subsequently, both chlorine and mixtures of chlorine and phosgene were used in gas balloon attacks. The mixtures usually contained 25% phosgene, but sometimes in the summer the proportion of phosgene reached 75%.

For the first time, a mixture of phosgene with chlorine was used on May 31, 1915 at Volya Shydlovskaya near Bolimov (Poland) against the Russian troops. 4 gas battalions were transferred there, consolidated after Ypres into 2 regiments. Units of the 2nd Russian army, which with its stubborn defense blocked the path to Warsaw of General Mackensen's 9th army, were chosen as the object for the gas attack. In the period from 17 to 21 May, the Germans installed gas batteries in the forward trenches for 12 km, each consisting of 10-12 cylinders filled with liquefied chlorine - a total of 12 thousand cylinders (cylinder height 1 m, diameter 15 cm). There were up to 10 such batteries per 240-meter section of the front. However, after the completion of the deployment of gas batteries, the Germans were forced to wait for favorable meteorological conditions for 10 days. This time was spent on explaining to the soldiers of the upcoming operation - they were inspired that the Russian fire would be completely paralyzed by gases and that the gas itself is not fatal, but only causes temporary loss of consciousness. The propaganda of the new "miracle weapon" among the soldiers was not successful. The reason was that many did not believe this and even reacted negatively to the very fact of using gases.

In the Russian army there was information received from the defectors about the preparation of a gas attack, but they were ignored and were not communicated to the troops. Meanwhile, the command of the VI Siberian Corps and the 55th Infantry Division, which defended the sector of the front subjected to a gas-cylinder attack, knew about the results of the attack at Ypres and even ordered gas masks in Moscow. Ironically, the gas masks were delivered in the evening of May 31, after the attack.

On that day, at 3:20 am, after a short artillery barrage, the Germans released 264 tons of a mixture of phosgene with chlorine. Mistaking the cloud of gas for disguising the attack, the Russian troops strengthened the forward trenches, and pulled up reserves. Complete surprise and unpreparedness on the part of the Russian troops led to the fact that the soldiers showed more surprise and curiosity about the appearance of a gas cloud than anxiety.

Soon, the trenches, a maze of solid lines here, were filled with dead and dying. Losses from the gas attack amounted to 9,146 people, of which 1,183 died from gases.

Despite this, the result of the attack was very modest. After spending a huge preparatory work(installing cylinders on a 12 km long front section), the German command achieved only tactical success, which consisted in inflicting losses on the Russian troops - 75% in the 1st defensive zone. As well as at Yprom, the Germans did not ensure the development of the attack to the size of an operational breakthrough by concentrating powerful reserves. The offensive was stopped by the stubborn resistance of the Russian troops, who managed to close the breakthrough that had begun to form. Apparently, the German army still continued to experiment in the field of organizing gas attacks.

On September 25, a German gas attack followed in the Ikskylä area on the Dvina River, and on September 24, a similar attack south of Baranovichi station. In December, Russian troops underwent a gas attack on the Northern Front near Riga. In total, from April 1915 to November 1918, German troops carried out more than 50 gas attacks, the British - 150, the French - 20. Since 1917, the belligerent countries began to use gas jets (a prototype of mortars).

They were first used by the British in 1917. The gas meter consisted of steel pipe, tightly closed from the breech, and a steel plate (pallet) used as a base. The gas cannon was buried in the ground almost up to the muzzle, while the axis of the channel made an angle of 45 degrees with the horizon. Gas cannons were charged with ordinary gas cylinders with head fuses. The weight of the balloon was about 60 kg. The bottle contained from 9 to 28 kg of OM, mainly of a suffocating effect - phosgene, liquid diphosgene and chloropicrin. The shot was fired with an electric igniter. Gas cannons were connected by electric wires to form batteries of 100 pieces. The entire battery was fired simultaneously. The most effective was the use of 1,000 to 2,000 gas cannons.

The first British gas cannons had a firing range of 1-2 km. The German army received 180-mm gas cannons and 160-mm rifled gas cannons with a firing range of up to 1.6 and 3 km, respectively.

German gas jets were the cause of the Miracle at Caporetto. The massive use of gas cannons by the Kraus group advancing in the Isonzo River valley led to a rapid breakthrough of the Italian front. Kraus's group consisted of selected Austro-Hungarian divisions trained for the war in the mountains. Since they had to operate in high-altitude terrain, the command allocated relatively less artillery to support the divisions than the other groups. But they had 1,000 gas cannons with which the Italians were not familiar.

The surprise effect was also greatly aggravated by the use of OV, which until then were very rarely used on the Austrian front.

In the Plezzo Basin, the chemical attack had a lightning-fast effect: in only one of the ravines, south-west of the town of Plezzo, about 600 corpses were counted without gas masks.

Between December 1917 and May 1918, German forces launched 16 attacks on the British using gas cannons. However, their result, due to the development of means of anti-chemical protection, was no longer so significant.

The combination of the action of gas cannons with artillery fire increased the effectiveness of gas attacks. Initially, the use of OV by artillery was ineffective. Equipping the OV artillery shells presented great difficulties. For a long time, it was not possible to achieve uniform filling of ammunition, which affected their ballistics and firing accuracy. The share of the OM mass in the cylinders was 50%, and in the shells - only 10%. Improvement of guns and chemical ammunition by 1916 made it possible to increase the range and accuracy of artillery fire. From the middle of 1916, the belligerents began to widely use OF with artillery means. This made it possible to drastically reduce the preparation time for a chemical attack, made it less dependent on meteorological conditions and made it possible to use OM in any state of aggregation: in the form of gases, liquids, and solids. In addition, it became possible to hit the rear of the enemy.

So, already on June 22, 1916, near Verdun for 7 hours of continuous shelling, German artillery fired 125 thousand shells with 100 thousand liters of suffocating agents.

On May 15, 1916, during an artillery bombardment, the French used a mixture of phosgene with tin tetrachloride and arsenic trichloride, and on July 1, a mixture of hydrocyanic acid with arsenic trichloride.

On July 10, 1917, the Germans on the Western Front used diphenylchloroarsine for the first time, causing a severe cough even through a gas mask, which had a poor smoke filter in those years. After being exposed to the new agent, he was forced to drop the gas mask. Therefore, in the future, to defeat the enemy's manpower, diphenylchloroarsine began to be used together with a suffocating agent - phosgene or diphosgene. For example, a solution of diphenylchloroarsine in a mixture of phosgene and diphosgene (in a ratio of 10:60:30) was placed in the shells.

A new stage in the use of chemical weapons began with the use of persistent skin blister agents B, B "-dichlorodiethyl sulfide (here" B "is the Greek letter beta), first tested by German troops near the Belgian city of Ypres. July 12, 1917 for 4 hours after the positions of the allies were fired 60 thousand shells containing 125 tons of B, B "-dichlorodiethyl sulfide. 2,490 people received various lesions. The offensive of the Anglo-French troops in this sector of the front was thwarted and was able to resume only three weeks later.

Human exposure to blistering agents.

The French called the new OM "mustard gas" after the place of its first application, and the British called it "mustard gas" because of its strong specific smell. British scientists quickly deciphered its formula, but it was possible to establish the production of a new OM only in 1918, which is why it was possible to use mustard gas for military purposes only in September 1918 (2 months before the armistice). In total, for 1917-1918. the opposing sides used 12 thousand tons of mustard gas, which affected about 400 thousand people.

Chemical weapons in Russia.

In the Russian army, the high command reacted negatively to the use of OV. However, under the impression of a gas attack by the Germans in the Ypres region, as well as in May on the Eastern Front, it was forced to change its views.

On August 3, 1915, an order appeared on the formation of a special commission “for procurement of suffocating means” at the Main Artillery Directorate (GAU). As a result of the work of the GAU commission in Russia, first of all, the production of liquid chlorine was established, which was brought from abroad before the war.

In August 1915, chlorine was produced for the first time. Production of phosgene began in October of the same year. From October 1915, special chemical teams began to form in Russia to carry out gas attacks.

In April 1916, a Chemical Committee was formed at the GAU, which included a commission for "procurement of asphyxiant agents." Thanks to the energetic actions of the Chemical Committee, an extensive network of chemical plants (about 200) was created in Russia. Including a number of factories for the manufacture of OM.

New OM plants were put into operation in the spring of 1916. The number of OM manufactured reached 3.180 tons by November (about 345 tons were produced in October), and the 1917 program planned to increase the monthly productivity to 600 tons in January and to 1,300 tons in May.

The first gas-cylinder attack was carried out by the Russian troops on September 6, 1916 at 03:30. in the area of ​​Smorgon. On the 1,100 m section of the front, 1,700 small and 500 large cylinders were installed. The amount of OB was calculated for a 40-minute attack. In total, 13 tons of chlorine were released from 977 small and 65 large cylinders. The Russian positions were also partially affected by chlorine vapors due to the change in wind direction. In addition, several cylinders were destroyed by return artillery fire.

On October 25, to the north of Baranovichi, in the Skrobov area, another gas-cylinder attack was made by the Russian troops. The damage to the cylinders and hoses allowed during the preparation of the attack led to significant losses - only 115 people were dead. All the poisoned were without masks. By the end of 1916, there was a tendency to shift the center of gravity of chemical warfare from gas attacks to chemical projectiles.

Russia has taken the path of using chemical projectiles in artillery since 1916, manufacturing 76-mm chemical grenades of two types: suffocating, equipped with a mixture of chloropicrin with sulfuryl chloride, and general toxic action - phosgene with chlorine tin (or vencinite, consisting of hydrocyanic acid, chloroform , chlorine arsenic and tin). The action of the latter caused damage to the body and, in severe cases, led to death.

By the fall of 1916, the army's requirements for 76-mm chemical projectiles were fully satisfied: the army received 15,000 rounds a month (the ratio of poisonous and suffocating shells was 1: 4). The supply of the Russian army with large-caliber chemical projectiles was hampered by the lack of shells, which were entirely intended for the explosives equipment. Russian artillery began to receive chemical mines for mortars in the spring of 1917.

As for gas cannons, which were successfully used as a new means of chemical attack on the French and Italian fronts from the beginning of 1917, Russia, which withdrew from the war in the same year, did not have gas cannons. In the mortar artillery school, formed in September 1917, it was only supposed to begin experiments on the use of gas cannons.

The Russian artillery was not so rich in chemical projectiles to use massive fire, as was the case with the allies and opponents of Russia. She used 76-mm chemical grenades almost exclusively in trench warfare, as an auxiliary tool along with firing conventional shells. In addition to shelling enemy trenches immediately before the attack, firing with chemical shells was used with particular success to temporarily stop the fire of enemy batteries, trench guns and machine guns, to facilitate their gas-cylinder attack - by firing at those targets that were not captured by the gas wave. Shells stuffed with OV were used against the enemy troops accumulated in the forest or in another sheltered place, his observation and command posts, and covered communication passages.

At the end of 1916, GAU sent 9,500 hand-held glass grenades with asphyxiant fluids to the active army for combat tests, and in the spring of 1917 - 100,000 hand-held chemical grenades. Both hand grenades were thrown to 20-30 m and were useful in defense and especially during retreat to prevent the pursuit of the enemy.

During the Brusilov breakthrough in May-June 1916, the Russian army got some of the front-line supplies of German chemical warfare agents - shells and containers with mustard gas and phosgene. Although the Russian troops were several times subjected to German gas attacks, these weapons themselves were rarely used - either due to the fact that chemical munitions from the allies arrived too late, or due to a lack of specialists. And the Russian military did not have any concept of using weapons at that time.

During the First World War, chemicals were used in huge quantities. A total of 180 thousand tons of chemical munitions were produced different types, of which 125 thousand tons were used on the battlefield, including 47 thousand tons - by Germany. More than 40 types of OV have been tested in combat. Among them, 4 are skin-blistering, asphyxiant and at least 27 irritating. Total losses from chemical weapons are estimated at 1.3 million. Of these, up to 100 thousand were fatal. At the end of the war, the list of potentially promising and already approved agents included chloroacetophenone (a lacrimator with a strong irritant effect) and a-lewisite (2-chlorovinyldichloroarsine). Lewisite immediately attracted close attention as one of the most promising BOV. His industrial production began in the United States before the end of World War II. Our country began the production and accumulation of lewisite reserves in the first years after the formation of the USSR.

All arsenals with chemical weapons of the old Russian army at the beginning of 1918 were in the hands of the new government. In years Civil war chemical weapons were used on a small scale by the White Army and the British occupation forces in 1919. The Red Army used chemical weapons to suppress peasant uprisings. Probably, for the first time, the Soviet government tried to use OV when suppressing the uprising in Yaroslavl in 1918.

In March 1919, another uprising broke out in the Upper Don. On March 18, the artillery of the Zaamur regiment fired at the rebels with chemical shells (most likely with phosgene).

The massive use of chemical weapons by the Red Army dates back to 1921. Then, under the command of Tukhachevsky in the Tambov province, a large-scale punitive operation was launched against Antonov's rebel army. In addition to punitive actions - the shooting of hostages, the creation of concentration camps, the burning of entire villages, a large number of chemical weapons were used (artillery shells and gas cylinders). We can definitely talk about the use of chlorine and phosgene, but, possibly, mustard gas.

On June 12, 1921, Tukhachevsky signed order number 0116, which read:
For immediate cleaning of forests I ORDER:
1. The forests where the bandits are hiding must be cleaned with poisonous gases, it is precisely calculated that the cloud of suffocating gases spreads completely throughout the forest, destroying everything that was hiding in it.
2. The artillery inspector immediately supply the required number of cylinders with poisonous gases and the necessary specialists to the field.
3. The chiefs of combat areas persistently and energetically carry out this order.
4. To report on the measures taken.

For the implementation of the gas attack, technical training was carried out. On June 24, the chief of the operational directorate of the headquarters of Tukhachevsky's troops handed over to the chief of the 6th combat area (the area of ​​the village of Inzhavino in the Vorona River valley) A.V. Pavlov the order of the commander "to test the ability of the chemical company to operate with asphyxiant gases." At the same time, the artillery inspector of the Tambov army S. Kasinov reported to Tukhachevsky: “Regarding the use of gases in Moscow, I found out the following: an order for 2,000 chemical projectiles has been given, and these days they should arrive in Tambov. Distribution by sites: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th 200 each, 6th - 100 ".

On July 1, gas technician Puskov reported on his inspection of the gas cylinders and gas property delivered to the Tambov artillery warehouse: “... the E 56 chlorine cylinders are in good condition, there is no gas leak, there are spare caps for the cylinders. Technical accessories, such as: keys, hoses, lead pipes, washers and other equipment - in good condition, in excess of ... "

The troops were instructed on how to use chemical munitions, but a serious problem arose - the personnel of the batteries were not provided with gas masks. Due to the delay caused by this, the first gas attack was carried out only on 13 July. On this day, the artillery battalion of the brigade of the Zavolzhsky military district used up 47 chemical shells.

On August 2, the battery of the Belgorod artillery courses fired 59 chemical shells across an island on a lake near the village of Kipets.

By the time the operation was carried out with the use of chemical weapons in the Tambov forests, the uprising had actually been suppressed and there was no need for such a brutal punitive action. One gets the impression that it was carried out with the aim of training troops in chemical warfare. Tukhachevsky considered OV to be a very promising tool in a future war.

In his military-theoretical work "New Questions of War", he noted:

Fast development chemicals struggle allows you to suddenly apply more and more new means against which old gas masks and other anti-chemical agents are ineffective. And at the same time, these new chemical agents do not require alterations or recalculations of the material part at all or almost.

New inventions in the field of OV technology can be immediately applied on the battlefield and as a means of struggle can be the most sudden and demoralizing innovation for the enemy. Aviation is the most profitable means for spraying organic matter. OV will be widely used by tanks and artillery.

They tried to establish their own production of chemical weapons in Soviet Russia since 1922 with the help of the Germans. Bypassing the Versailles agreements, on May 14, 1923, the Soviet and German sides signed an agreement on the construction of a plant for the production of OM. Technological assistance in the construction of this plant was provided by the Stolzenberg concern within the framework of the Bersol joint stock company. They decided to deploy production in Ivaschenkovo ​​(later Chapayevsk). But for three years, nothing really was done - the Germans were clearly not eager to share technology and were playing for time.

The industrial production of OM (mustard gas) was first established in Moscow at the Aniltrest experimental plant. The Moscow experimental plant "Aniltrest" from August 30 to September 3, 1924 produced the first commercial batch of mustard gas - 18 poods (288 kg). And in October of the same year, the first thousand chemical projectiles were already equipped with domestic mustard gas. Later, on the basis of this production, a research institute was created for the development of OM with a pilot plant.

One of the main centers for the production of chemical weapons since the mid-1920s. becomes a chemical plant in the city of Chapaevsk, which produced BOV up to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Research in the field of improving the means of chemical attack and defense in our country was carried out in the "Institute of Chemical Defense named after Osoaviakhim ". The first head of the "Institute of Chemical Defense" was appointed the head of the military-chemical directorate of the Red Army, Ya.M. Fishman, and his deputy for science - N.P. Korolyov. Academicians N.D. Zelinsky, T.V. Khlopin, professors N.A. Shilov, A.N. Ginzburg

Yakov Moiseevich Fishman. (1887-1961). Since August 1925 Head of the Military Chemical Directorate of the Red Army, concurrently Head of the Institute of Chemical Defense (since March 1928). In 1935 he was awarded the title of Corps Engineer. Doctor of Chemistry since 1936. Arrested on June 5, 1937. Convicted on May 29, 1940 for 10 years in labor camp. Died July 16, 1961 in Moscow

The result of the work of the departments involved in the development of means of individual and collective protection from OV, was the adoption of the Red Army for the period from 1928 to 1941. 18 new types of protective equipment.

In 1930, for the first time in the USSR, S.V. Korotkov drew up a project for sealing the tank and its equipment with a FVU (filter ventilation unit). In 1934-1935. We have successfully implemented two projects on anti-chemical equipment of mobile objects - FVU equipped an ambulance based on a Ford-AA car and a saloon car. At the Institute of Chemical Defense, intensive work was carried out to find modes of degassing uniforms, machine methods for processing weapons and military equipment were developed. In 1928, a department for the synthesis and analysis of OM was formed, on the basis of which the departments of radiation, chemical and biological reconnaissance were subsequently created.

Thanks to the activities of the "Institute of Chemical Defense named after Osoaviakhim ", then renamed the Research Institute of the Red Army, by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the troops were equipped with anti-chemical protection and had clear instructions for their combat use.

By the mid-1930s. in the Red Army, the concept of the use of chemical weapons during the war was formed. The theory of chemical warfare was tested in numerous exercises in the mid-30s.

The Soviet chemical doctrine was based on the concept of "chemical retaliatory strike". The exclusive orientation of the USSR to a retaliatory chemical strike was enshrined both in international treaties (the 1925 Geneva Agreement was ratified by the USSR in 1928) and in the Red Army Chemical Weapons System. In peacetime, the production of OV was carried out only for testing and combat training of troops. Military stocks were not created in peacetime, which is why almost all the capacity for the production of BOV were mothballed and required a long time for the deployment of production.

By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the stocks of OM were sufficient for 1-2 days of active combat operations by aviation and chemical troops (for example, during the period of cover for mobilization and strategic deployment), then the deployment of production of OM and their delivery to the troops should be expected.

During the 1930s. the production of CW and their ammunition was deployed in Perm, Berezniki (Perm region), Bobriki (later Stalinogorsk), Dzerzhinsk, Kineshma, Stalingrad, Kemerovo, Shchelkovo, Voskresensk, Chelyabinsk.

For 1940-1945 more than 120 thousand tons of organic matter were produced, including 77.4 thousand tons of mustard gas, 20.6 thousand tons of lewisite, 11.1 thousand tons of hydrocyanic acid, 8.3 thousand tons of phosgene and 6.1 thousand tons of adamsite.

With the end of World War II, the threat of the use of CW did not disappear, and in the USSR, research in this area continued until the final prohibition of the production of CW and their delivery vehicles in 1987.

On the eve of the conclusion of the Chemical Weapons Convention, in 1990-1992, our country presented 40 thousand tons of OM for control and destruction.

Between two wars.

After World War I and up to World War II, public opinion in Europe was opposed to the use of chemical weapons, but among European industrialists who ensured the defense capabilities of their countries, the prevailing opinion was that chemical weapons should be an indispensable attribute of warfare.

Through the efforts of the League of Nations, at the same time, a number of conferences and rallies were held, propagandizing the prohibition of the use of weapons for military purposes and telling about the consequences of this. The International Committee of the Red Cross supported the events that took place in the 1920s. conferences condemning the use of chemical weapons of war.

In 1921, the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Arms was convened, at which chemical weapons were discussed by a specially created subcommittee. The Subcommittee had information on the use of chemical weapons during the First World War and intended to propose a ban on the use of chemical weapons.

He ruled: "The use of chemical weapons against the enemy on land and on water cannot be allowed."

The treaty has been ratified by most countries, including the United States and Great Britain. In Geneva on June 17, 1925, the "Protocol on the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiant, Poisonous and Other Similar Gases and Bacteriological Means" was signed. This document was later ratified by more than 100 states.

However, at the same time, the United States began to expand the Edgewood arsenal. In Great Britain, many perceived the possibility of using chemical weapons as a fait accompli, fearing that they would find themselves in a disadvantageous situation like the one that developed in 1915.

The consequence of this was further work on chemical weapons, using propaganda for the use of chemical weapons. To the old ones, tested back in the First World War, new means of using OV were added - pouring aviation devices (VAP), chemical aviation bombs (AB) and chemical combat vehicles (BCM) based on trucks and tanks.

VAPs were intended to destroy manpower, infecting the area and objects on it with aerosols or droplet-liquid OM. With their help, the rapid creation of aerosols, droplets and OM vapors was carried out over a large area, which made it possible to achieve a massive and sudden application of OM. Various mustard-based formulations were used to equip the VAP, such as mustard / lewisite, viscous mustard, and diphosgene and hydrocyanic acid.

The advantage of the VAP was the low cost of their use, since only OV was used without additional costs for the shell and equipment. Refueling of the VAP was carried out immediately before the departure of the aircraft. The disadvantage of using VAP was mounting only on the external suspension of the aircraft, and the need to return with them after completing the task, which reduced the maneuverability and speed of the aircraft, increasing the likelihood of its destruction

There were several types of chemical AB. The first type consisted of ammunition filled with irritating agents (irritants). Fragmentation-chemical ABs were equipped with conventional explosives with the addition of adamsite. Smokers AB, similar in their action to smoke bombs, were equipped with a mixture of gunpowder with adamsite or chloroacetophenone.

The use of irritants forced the enemy's manpower to use protective equipment, and when favorable conditions allowed to temporarily disable it.

Another type was AB caliber from 25 to 500 kg, equipped with persistent and unstable formulations of OM - mustard gas (winter mustard gas, a mixture of mustard gas with lewisite), phosgene, diphosgene, hydrocyanic acid. For detonation, both a conventional contact fuse and a remote tube were used, which ensured the detonation of ammunition at a given height.

When the AB was equipped with mustard gas, detonation at a given height ensured the dispersion of OM droplets over an area of ​​2-3 hectares. The rupture of AB with diphosgene and hydrocyanic acid created a cloud of OM vapors that spread downwind and created a zone of lethal concentration 100-200 m deep. action of OB.

BKhM were intended for contamination of the area with persistent OM, degassing of the area with a liquid degasser and setting up a smoke screen. Tanks with OM with a capacity of 300 to 800 liters were installed on tanks or trucks, which made it possible to create an infestation zone with a width of up to 25 m when using a BCM on the basis of a tank

German medium vehicle for chemical contamination of the area. Drawing made from materials study guide"Means of chemical weapons of Nazi Germany" fortieth year of publication. A fragment from the album of the chief of the chemical service of the division (forties) - chemical weapons of Nazi Germany.

Combat chemical a car BHM-1 on GAZ-AAA for infestations terrain OV

Chemical weapons were used in large quantities in the "local conflicts" of the 1920-1930s: Spain in Morocco in 1925, Italy in Ethiopia (Abyssinia) in 1935-1936, Japanese troops against Chinese soldiers and civilians from 1937 to 1943

The study of OM in Japan began, with the help of Germany, in 1923, and by the beginning of the 30s. the production of the most efficient agents was organized in the arsenals of Tadonuimi and Sagani. Approximately 25% of the set of artillery and 30% of the aviation ammunition of the Japanese army were in chemical equipment.

Type 94 "Kanda" - a car for spraying toxic substances.
In the Kwantung Army, the "Manchurian Detachment 100", in addition to creating bacteriological weapons, conducted work on the research and production of chemical agents (6th section of the "detachment"). The infamous "detachment 731" conducted joint experiences with the chemical "detachment 531", using as living indicators of the degree of contamination of the area with human OM.

In 1937 - on August 12, in the battles for the city of Nankou and on August 22, in the battles for the Beijing-Suiyuan railway, the Japanese army used shells stuffed with OV. The Japanese continued to widely use OM in China and Manchuria. The losses of the Chinese troops from the OV were 10% of the total.

Italy used chemical weapons in Ethiopia, where almost all fighting Italian units were supported by a chemical attack with the help of aviation and artillery. Mustard was used with great efficiency by the Italians, despite the fact that they joined the Geneva Protocol in 1925. 415 tons of blister agents and 263 tons of asphyxiant substances were sent to Ethiopia. In addition to chemical AB, VAPs were used.

In the period from December 1935 to April 1936, the Italian aviation carried out 19 large-scale chemical raids on cities and towns of Abyssinia, spending 15 thousand chemical AB. OVs were used to pin down the Ethiopian troops - aviation created chemical barriers in the most important mountain passes and at crossings. They found widespread use in air strikes both against the advancing Negus troops (during the suicide offensive near Mai-Chio and Lake Ashangi) and in pursuit of the retreating Abyssinians. E. Tatarchenko in his book "The Air Force in the Italo-Abyssinian War" states: "It is unlikely that the success of aviation would have been so great if it had limited itself only to machine-gun shelling and bombing. In this pursuit from the air, the ruthless use of military forces by the Italians undoubtedly played a decisive role. Of the total losses of the Ethiopian army of 750 thousand people, about a third came from losses from chemical weapons. A large number of civilians were also affected.

In addition to large material losses, the use of OM resulted in a "strong, decomposing moral impression." Tatarchenko writes: “The masses did not know how the releasing substances worked, why so mysteriously, for no reason, for no reason, suddenly terrible torment began and death occurred. In addition, under the Abyssinian armies there were many mules, donkeys, camels, horses, which died in large numbers by eating contaminated grass, thereby further strengthening the depressed, hopeless mood of the mass of soldiers and officers. Many had their own pack animals in the wagon train ”.

After the conquest of Abyssinia, the Italian occupying forces were repeatedly forced to carry out punitive actions against the partisan detachments and the population supporting them. With these repressions, OVs were used.

The Italians were assisted by the specialists of the I.G. Farbenindustry ". The concern "I.G. Farben ”, created to completely dominate the markets for dyes and organic chemistry, merged the six largest chemical companies in Germany. British and American industrialists saw the concern as an empire similar to the Krupp empire, considering it a serious threat, and made efforts to dismember it after the Second World War.

An indisputable fact is the superiority of Germany in the production of agents - the well-established production of nerve gases in Germany was a complete surprise for the Allied troops in 1945.

In Germany, immediately after the Nazis came to power, by order of Hitler, work was resumed in the field of military chemistry. Beginning in 1934, in accordance with the plan of the high command of the ground forces, this work acquired a purposeful offensive character, in line with the aggressive policy of the Hitlerite leadership.

First of all, at newly created or modernized enterprises, the production of well-known agents began, which showed the greatest combat effectiveness during the First World War, based on the creation of a stock of them for 5 months of chemical warfare.

The high command of the fascist army considered it sufficient for this to have about 27 thousand tons of OM-type mustard gas and tactical formulations based on it: phosgene, adamsite, diphenylchloroarsine and chloroacetophenone.

At the same time, intensive work was carried out to search for new OM among the most diverse classes of chemical compounds. These works in the field of skin blistering agents were marked by the receipt in 1935 - 1936. "Nitrogen mustard" (N-Lost) and "oxygen mustard" (O-Lost).

In the main research laboratory of the I.G. Farbenindustry "in Leverkusen revealed high toxicity of some fluorine and phosphorus-containing compounds, some of which were later adopted by the German army.

In 1936, the herd was synthesized, which in May 1943 began to be produced on an industrial scale. In 1939, sarin, more toxic than the herd, was obtained, and at the end of 1944 - soman. These substances marked the emergence of a new class of nerve agents in the army of Nazi Germany - chemical weapons of the second generation, many times superior in toxicity to the agents of the First World War.

The first generation of OM, developed during the First World War, includes substances of skin blistering (sulfur and nitrogen mustards, lewisite - persistent OM), general toxic (hydrocyanic acid - unstable OM), suffocating (phosgene, diphosgene - unstable agents) and irritating effect (adamsite, diphenylchloroarsine, chloropicrin, diphenylcyanarsine). Sarin, soman and herd belong to the second generation of OV. In the 50s. to them was added a group of organophosphates obtained in the USA and Sweden called "V-gases" (sometimes "VX"). V-gases are ten times more toxic than their organophosphorus "counterparts".

In 1940, in the city of Oberbaern (Bavaria), a large plant was put into operation, which belonged to I.G. Farben ", for the production of mustard gas and mustard compounds, with a capacity of 40 thousand tons.

In total, in the pre-war and early war years, about 20 new technological installations for the production of organic matter were built in Germany, the annual capacity of which exceeded 100 thousand tons. They were located in Ludwigshafen, Hüls, Wolfen, Urdingen, Ammendorf, Fadkenhagen, Seelz and other places. In the city of Duchernfurt, on the Oder (now Silesia, Poland), there was one of the largest production of organic matter.

By 1945 Germany had in stock 12 thousand tons of herd, the production of which was not found anywhere else. The reasons why Germany did not use chemical weapons during the Second World War are still not clear.

Wehrmacht to the beginning of the war with The Soviet Union had 4 regiments of chemical mortars, 7 separate battalions of chemical mortars, 5 degassing detachments and 3 road degassing detachments (armed with Shweres Wurfgeraet 40 (Holz) rocket launchers) and 4 headquarters of special chemical regiments. A battalion of six-barreled mortars 15cm Nebelwerfer 41 out of 18 installations could fire 108 mines containing 10 kg of OM in 10 seconds.

Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces of the Nazi Army, Colonel-General Halder, wrote: “By June 1, 1941, we will have 2 million chemical shells for light field howitzers and 500 thousand shells for heavy field howitzers ... to be shipped: by June 1, six echelons of chemical munitions, after June 1, ten echelons a day. To speed up the delivery to the rear of each army group, three echelons with chemical ammunition will be placed on the sidings. "

According to one of the versions, Hitler did not give the command for the use of chemical weapons during the war because he believed that the USSR had more chemical weapons. Another reason could be the insufficiently effective effect of OV on enemy soldiers equipped with chemical protection equipment, as well as its dependence on weather conditions.

Designed for, infestations terrain toxic substances version of the BT wheeled-tracked tank
If the OV was not used against the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition, then the practice of its use against the civilian population in the occupied territories became widespread. The main place for the use of OV became the gas chambers of the death camps. The Nazis, when developing means of destroying political prisoners and all those classified as "inferior races", were faced with the task of optimizing the ratio of "cost-effectiveness" parameters.

And here the gas "Cyclone B", invented by SS Lieutenant Kurt Gerstein, came to the fore. The gas was originally intended to disinfect barracks. But people, although it would be more correct to call them nonhumans, saw a cheap and effective method of killing in a means for exterminating linen lice.

"Cyclone B" was a blue-violet crystals containing hydrocyanic acid (the so-called "crystalline hydrocyanic acid"). These crystals begin to boil and turn into gas (hydrocyanic acid, also known as "hydrocyanic acid") at room temperature. Inhalation of 60 milligrams of bitter almond-scented vapors caused painful death. Gas production was carried out by two German companies that received a patent for gas production from I.G. Farbenindustri "-" Tesch and Shtabenov "in Hamburg and" Degesh "in Dessau. The first supplied 2 tons of "Cyclone B" per month, the second - about 0.75 tons. The income was about 590,000 Reichsmarks. As the saying goes - "money does not smell." The lives lost by this gas are in the millions.

Separate work on obtaining herd, sarin, soman was carried out in the United States and Great Britain, but a breakthrough in their production could have occurred not earlier than 1945. During the years of World War II, 135 thousand tons of organic matter were produced in the USA at 17 plants, mustard gas accounted for half of the total volume ... Mustard gas was equipped with about 5 million shells and 1 million AB. Initially, mustard gas was supposed to be used against enemy landings on the sea coast. In the period of the outlined turning point in the course of the war in favor of the Allies, serious fears arose that Germany would decide to use chemical weapons. This was the basis for the decision of the American military command to supply mustard ammunition to the troops on the European continent. The plan provided for the creation of stocks of chemical weapons for the ground forces for 4 months. combat operations and for the Air Force - by 8 months.

Transportation by sea was not without incident. So, on December 2, 1943, German aircraft bombed ships located in the Italian port of Bari in the Adriatic Sea. Among them was the American transport "John Harvey" with a cargo of chemical bombs filled with mustard gas. After damage to the transport, part of the OM mixed with the spilled oil, and mustard gas spread over the surface of the harbor.

During the Second World War, extensive military biological research was also carried out in the United States. For these studies, the Camp Detrick Biological Center (later named Fort Detrick), opened in 1943 in Maryland, was intended. There, in particular, the study of bacterial toxins, including botulinum toxins, began.

In the last months of the war, a search and testing of natural and synthetic substances that affect the central nervous system and causing mental or physical disorders in a person in negligible doses

Chemical weapons in local conflicts in the second half of the 20th century

After World War II, OVs were used in a number of local conflicts. There are known facts of the use of chemical weapons by the US army against the DPRK and Vietnam. 1945 to 1980 in the West, only 2 types of agents were used: lacrimators (CS: 2-- tear gas) and defoliants - chemicals from the group of herbicides. The CS alone was used 6,800 tons. Defoliants belong to the class of phytotoxicants - chemicals that cause foliage to fall off plants and are used to unmask enemy targets.

During the hostilities in Korea, military forces were used by the US army both against the KPA and CPV forces, and against civilians and prisoners of war. According to incomplete data, from February 27, 1952 to the end of June 1953, more than a hundred cases of the use of chemical shells and bombs by American and South Korean troops against the CPV forces were noted. As a result, 1,095 people were poisoned, of which 145 died. More than 40 cases of the use of chemical weapons were also noted against prisoners of war. The largest number chemical projectiles were fired at the KPA forces on May 1, 1952. The symptoms of damage most likely indicate that diphenylcyanarsine or diphenylchloroarsine, as well as hydrocyanic acid, were used as equipment for chemical munitions.

Against prisoners of war, the Americans used tear and blister agents, and tear substances were used more than once. June 10, 1952 in camp number 76 on the island. In Kojedo, American guards sprayed the prisoners of war with a sticky poisonous liquid, which was a skin blister agent, three times.

May 18, 1952 on the island. Kojedo in three sectors of the camp against the prisoners of war, tears were used. The result of this "completely legal" action, according to the Americans, was the death of 24 people. Another 46 lost their sight. Repeatedly in the camps on about. Kojedo, chemical grenades were used against prisoners of war by American and South Korean soldiers. Even after the conclusion of the truce, during the 33 days of the work of the Red Cross commission, 32 cases of the use of chemical grenades by the Americans were noted.

Purposeful work on means of destruction of vegetation began in the United States during the Second World War. The level of herbicide development achieved by the end of the war, according to American experts, could allow them practical use... However, research for military purposes continued, and it was only in 1961 that a "suitable" test site was selected. The use of chemicals to destroy vegetation in South Vietnam was initiated by the US military in August 1961 with the approval of President Kennedy.

All areas of South Vietnam - from the demilitarized zone to the Mekong Delta, as well as many areas of Laos and Kampuchea - were treated with herbicides - everywhere, where, according to the assumption of the Americans, detachments of the People's Liberation Armed Forces (NPLF) of South Vietnam could be located or their communications run.

In addition to woody vegetation, herbicides have also begun to affect fields, orchards and rubber plantations. Since 1965, chemicals have been sprayed over the fields of Laos (especially in its southern and eastern parts), two years later - already in the northern part of the demilitarized zone, as well as in the adjacent regions of the DRV. Woodlands and fields were cultivated at the request of the commanders of American units stationed in South Vietnam. Spraying of herbicides was carried out with the help of not only aviation, but also special ground devices available in the American troops and Saigon units. Herbicides were used especially intensively in 1964-1966. for the destruction of mangrove forests on the southern coast of South Vietnam and on the shores of the shipping canals leading to Saigon, as well as the forests of the demilitarized zone. The operations were fully occupied by two air squadrons of the United States Air Force. The use of chemical anti-plant agents reached the maximum extent in 1967. Subsequently, the intensity of operations fluctuated depending on the intensity of hostilities.

The use of aviation for spraying OM.

In South Vietnam, during Operation Ranch Hand, the Americans tested 15 different chemicals and formulations to destroy crops, crop plantations and trees and shrubs.

The total amount of chemicals used for the destruction of vegetation, used by the US military from 1961 to 1971, amounted to 90 thousand tons, or 72.4 million liters. Four herbicide formulations were predominantly used: purple, orange, white and blue. The most widely used formulations in South Vietnam are: orange - against forests and blue - against rice and other crops.

Within 10 years, in the period from 1961 to 1971, almost a tenth of the territory of South Vietnam, including 44% of all its forests, was treated with defoliants and herbicides, designed, respectively, to remove foliage and completely destroy vegetation. As a result of all these actions, mangrove forests (500 thousand hectares) were almost completely destroyed, about 1 million hectares (60%) of jungle and more than 100 thousand hectares (30%) of plain forests were affected. The yield of rubber plantations has fallen by 75% since 1960. From 40 to 100% of crops of bananas, rice, sweet potatoes, papaya, tomatoes, 70% of coconut plantations, 60% of hevea, 110 thousand hectares of casuarina plantations were destroyed. Of the numerous species of tree and shrub species of the humid tropical forest in the areas affected by herbicides, only a few species of trees and several species of thorny grasses that are not suitable for livestock feed remained.

The destruction of vegetation has seriously affected the ecological balance of Vietnam. In the affected areas, out of 150 bird species, 18 remained, amphibians and even insects almost completely disappeared. The number has decreased and the composition of fish in the rivers has changed. Poisonous chemicals violated the microbiological composition of the soil, poisoned the plants. The species composition of ticks has also changed, in particular, ticks that carry dangerous diseases have appeared. The species of mosquitoes have changed, in areas remote from the sea, instead of harmless endemic mosquitoes, mosquitoes characteristic of coastal forests, such as mangroves, have appeared. They are the main carriers of malaria in Vietnam and neighboring countries.

The chemical agents used by the United States in Indochina were directed not only against nature, but also against people. The Americans in Vietnam used such herbicides and with such high consumption rates that they represented an undoubted danger to humans. For example, picloram is as persistent and as poisonous as DDT, which is universally banned.

By that time, it was already known that poisoning with 2,4,5-T poison leads to embryonic deformities in some domestic animals. It should be noted that these pesticides were used in huge concentrations, sometimes 13 times higher than those allowed and recommended for use in the United States itself. Not only vegetation, but also people were sprayed with these chemicals. Particularly detrimental was the use of dioxin, which, according to the Americans, "by mistake" was included in the orange recipe. In total, several hundred kilograms of dioxin, which is toxic to humans in fractions of a milligram, was sprayed over South Vietnam.

American experts could not have been unaware of its lethal properties - at least from cases of injuries at the enterprises of a number of chemical companies, including the results of an accident at a chemical plant in Amsterdam in 1963. Being a persistent substance, dioxin is still found in Vietnam in regions application of the orange formulation, both in surface and deep (up to 2 m) soil samples.

This poison, entering the body with water and food, causes cancer, especially of the liver and blood, massive congenital malformations of children and numerous violations of the normal course of pregnancy. Medical and statistical data obtained by Vietnamese doctors indicate that these pathologies appear many years after the Americans stopped using the orange formulation, and there is reason to fear their growth in the future.

According to the Americans, the "non-fatal" agents that were used in Vietnam include: CS - orthochlorobenzylidene malononitrile and its prescription forms, CN - chloroacetophenone, DM - adamsite or chlordihydrophenarsazine, CNS - a prescription form of chloropicrin, BAEZ - bromoacetone -benzylate. Substance CS at a concentration of 0.05-0.1 mg / m3 has an irritating effect, 1-5 mg / m3 becomes unbearable, above 40-75 mg / m3 can cause death within a minute.

At a meeting of the International Center for the Study of War Crimes, held in Paris in July 1968, it was established that, under certain conditions, CS is a lethal weapon. These conditions (the use of CS in large quantities in a confined space) existed in Vietnam.

Substance CS - such a conclusion was made by the Russell Tribunal in Roskilde in 1967 - is a toxic gas prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925. The amount of substance CS ordered by the Pentagon in 1964-1969. for use in Indochina, was published in Congressional Record on June 12, 1969 (CS - 1.009 tons, CS-1 - 1.625 tons, CS-2 - 1.950 tons).

It is known that in 1970 it was consumed even more than in 1969. With the help of CS gas, civilians survived from villages, partisans were expelled from caves and shelters, where lethal concentrations of CS were easily created, turning these shelters into “gas chambers ".

The use of gases was probably effective, judging by the significant increase in the amount of C5 used by the American army in Vietnam. Another proof serves this: since 1969, a lot of new means for spraying this toxic substance have appeared.

The chemical war affected not only the population of Indochina, but also thousands of participants in the American campaign in Vietnam. Thus, contrary to the assertions of the US Department of Defense, thousands of American soldiers were victims of a chemical attack by their own troops.

Many veterans of the Vietnam War demanded in this regard, treatment of various diseases from ulcers to cancer. In Chicago alone, there are 2,000 veterans with symptoms of dioxin exposure.

BOV were widely used during the protracted Iran-Iraq conflict. Both Iran and Iraq (November 5, 1929 and September 8, 1931, respectively) signed the Geneva Convention on the Non-Proliferation of Chemical and Bacteriological Weapons. However, Iraq, seeking to turn the tide in trench warfare, actively used chemical weapons. Iraq used military forces mainly to achieve tactical goals, in order to break the resistance of one or another point of the enemy's defense. This tactic in the context of trench warfare has borne some fruit. During the battle for the Majun Islands, the OVs played an important role in disrupting the Iranian offensive.

Iraq was the first to use OB during the Iran-Iraq War and later widely used it both against Iran and in operations against the Kurds. Some sources claim that against the latter in 1973-1975. OVs purchased in Egypt or even in the USSR were used, although there were reports in the press that scientists from Switzerland and Germany, back in the 1960s. made the OV Baghdad specifically to fight the Kurds. Work on the production of its own OM began in Iraq in the mid-70s. According to Mirfisal Bakrzade, head of the Iranian Foundation for the Preservation of Sacred Defense Documents, companies from the United States, Great Britain and Germany were directly involved in the creation and transfer of chemical weapons to Hussein. According to him, firms from such states as France, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Scotland and several others took part in “indirect (indirect) participation in the creation of chemical weapons for the Saddam regime”. During the Iran-Iraq war, the United States was interested in supporting Iraq, since if it was defeated, Iran could greatly expand the influence of fundamentalism over the entire Persian Gulf region. Reagan, and later Bush Sr., saw in Saddam Hussein's regime an important ally and protection against the threat posed by the followers of Khomeini who came to power as a result of the 1979 Iranian revolution. The successes of the Iranian army forced the US leadership to provide Iraq with intensive assistance (in the form of the supply of millions of anti-personnel mines, a large number of various types of heavy weapons and information on the deployment of Iranian troops). Chemical weapons were chosen as one of the means designed to break the spirit of the Iranian soldiers.

Until 1991, Iraq possessed the largest stockpiles of chemical weapons in the Middle East and carried out wide works to further improve their arsenal. He had at his disposal general poisonous substances (hydrocyanic acid), blistering agents (mustard gas) and nerve agents (sarin (GB), soman (GD), herd (GA), VX) actions. Iraq's chemical stockpile included more than 25 Scud missile warheads, about 2,000 aerial bombs and 15,000 rounds (including mortar mines and MLRS missiles), and land mines.

Since 1982, the use of tear gas (CS) by Iraq has been noted, and since July 1983 - mustard gas (in particular, 250-kg AB with mustard gas from Su-20 aircraft). During the conflict, mustard gas was actively used by Iraq. By the beginning of the Iran-Iraq War, the Iraqi army had 120-mm mortar mines and 130-mm artillery shells equipped with mustard gas. In 1984, Iraq began producing herd (at the same time marked the first case of its use), and in 1986 - sarin.

Difficulties arise with the exact dating of the start of production by Iraq of one or another type of OM. The first case of using the herd was noted in 1984, but Iran reported 10 cases of using the herd in 1980-1983. In particular, cases of the use of the herd were noted on the Northern Front in October 1983.

The same problem arises when dating the cases of the use of OM. So, back in November 1980, the Tehran radio reported a chemical attack on the city of Sussengerd, but there was no reaction in the world to this. Only after Iran's statement in 1984, in which it stated 53 cases of Iraqi use of chemical weapons in 40 border areas, the UN took some steps. The number of victims by this time exceeded 2,300 people. An inspection by a group of UN inspectors revealed traces of warfare agents in the Khur al-Khuzwazeh area, where the Iraqi chemical attack took place on March 13, 1984. Since then, evidence of the use of weapons by Iraq began to appear en masse.

The embargo imposed by the UN Security Council on the supply to Iraq of a number of chemicals and components that could be used for the production of chemical agents could not seriously affect the situation. The plant's capacity allowed Iraq at the end of 1985 to produce 10 tons of OM of all types per month, and already at the end of 1986 more than 50 tons per month. At the beginning of 1988, the capacity was increased to 70 tons of mustard gas, 6 tons of herd and 6 tons of sarin (i.e. almost 1,000 tons per year). Intensive work was going on to establish the production of VX.

In 1988, during the assault on the city of Fao, the Iraqi army bombed Iranian positions with the use of agents, most likely unstable formulations of nerve action.

During a raid on the Kurdish city of Halabja on March 16, 1988, Iraqi aircraft struck with chemical weapons. As a result, from 5 to 7 thousand people died, and over 20 thousand were injured and poisoned.

From April 1984 to August 1988, chemical weapons were used by Iraq over 40 times (more than 60 in total). 282 settlements were affected by this weapon. The exact number of victims of the chemical war on the part of Iran is unknown, but their minimum number is estimated by experts at 10 thousand people.

Iran has embarked on the development of chemical weapons in response to Iraqi use of BOV during the war. The lag in this area even forced Iran to buy large quantities of CS gas, but it soon became clear that it was ineffective for military purposes. Since 1985 (and possibly since 1984), there have been isolated cases of Iran using chemical shells and mortar mines, but, apparently, it was then about captured Iraqi ammunition.

In 1987-1988 isolated cases of Iranian use of chemical munitions filled with phosgene or chlorine and hydrocyanic acid were noted. Before the end of the war, the production of mustard gas and, possibly, nerve agents was established, but they did not have time to apply them.

According to Western sources, Soviet troops chemical weapons were also used in Afghanistan. Foreign journalists deliberately "thickened the paint" in order to once again emphasize the "cruelty of Soviet soldiers." It was much easier to use the exhaust gases of a tank or an infantry fighting vehicle to "smoke out" dushmans from caves and underground shelters. The possibility of using an irritating agent - chloropicrin or CS - cannot be ruled out. One of the main sources of funding for the dushmans was the cultivation of the opium poppy. For the destruction of poppy plantations, it is possible that pesticides were used, which could also be perceived as the use of CWA.

Libya produced chemical weapons at one of its enterprises, which was recorded by Western journalists in 1988. Libya produced more than 100 tons of nerve and blister gases. During the fighting in 1987 in Chad, the Libyan army used chemical weapons.

On April 29, 1997 (180 days after ratification by the 65th country, which became Hungary), the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction entered into force. This also means an approximate date for the start of the activities of the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons, which will ensure the implementation of the provisions of the convention (headquartered in The Hague).

The document was announced for signing in January 1993. In 2004, Libya joined the treaty.

Unfortunately, the "Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction" may face the fate of the "Ottawa Convention on the Banning of Anti-Personnel Mines." In either case, the most modern types of weapons can be removed from the scope of the conventions. This can be seen on the example of the problem of binary chemical weapons.

The technical idea of ​​binary chemical munitions is that they are equipped with two or more initial components, each of which can be non-toxic or low-toxic substance. These substances are separated from each other and enclosed in special containers. In the flight of a projectile, missile, bomb or other ammunition to the target, it mixes the initial components with the formation of CWA as the end product of the chemical reaction. Mixing of substances is carried out by rotating the projectile or by special mixers. In this case, the role of a chemical reactor is played by ammunition.

Despite the fact that in the late thirties the US Air Force began developing the world's first binary AB, in the post-war period the problem of binary chemical weapons was of secondary importance for the United States. During this period, the Americans forced the equipping of the army with new nerve agents - sarin, herd, "V-gases", but from the beginning of the 60s. American experts again returned to the idea of ​​creating binary chemical munitions. They were forced to do this by a number of circumstances, the most important of which is the lack of significant progress in the search for an OM with ultra-high toxicity, i.e., a third-generation OM. In 1962, the Pentagon approved a special program for the creation of binary chemical weapons (Binary Lenthаl Winter Systems), which became a priority for many years.

In the first period of the implementation of the binary program, the main efforts of American specialists were directed to the development of binary compositions of standard nerve agents, VX and sarin.

By the end of the 60s. work was completed on the creation of a binary sarin - GВ-2.

The increased interest in work in the field of binary chemical weapons was explained by government and military circles by the need to solve the problems of the safety of chemical weapons during production, transportation, storage and operation. The first binary munition adopted by the American army in 1977 was the M687 155-mm howitzer projectile, loaded with binary sarin (GV-2). Then a 203.2-mm XM736 binary projectile was created, as well as various samples of ammunition for artillery and mortar systems, missile warheads, and AB.

Research continued after the signing on April 10, 1972 of the convention on the prohibition of the development, production and stockpiling of toxin weapons and on their destruction. It would be naive to believe that the United States will abandon such a "promising" type of weapon. The decision to organize the production of binary weapons in the United States not only cannot provide an effective agreement on chemical weapons, but will even completely take out of control the issues of development, production and stockpiling of binary weapons, since the components of binary agents can be the most ordinary chemicals. For example, isopropyl alcohol is a component of binary sarin, and pinacolin alcohol is a component of soman.

In addition, the basis of binary weapons is the idea of ​​obtaining new types and compositions of OM, which makes it senseless to draw up any lists of OM to be banned in advance.

Gaps in international legislation are not the only chemical safety threat in the world. Terrorists did not put their signatures to the Convention, and there is no doubt about their ability to use weapons in terrorist attacks after the tragedy in the Tokyo subway.

On the morning of March 20, 1995, members of the Aum Shinrikyo sect opened plastic containers with sarin in the subway, resulting in the deaths of 12 subway passengers. Another 5,500-6,000 people received poisoning of varying severity. This was not the first, but the most "effective" gas attack by the sectarians. In 1994, seven people died from sarin poisoning in the city of Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture.

From the point of view of terrorists, the use of OV allows for the greatest public resonance. OS have the greatest potential in comparison with other types of weapons of mass destruction due to the fact that:

• some BOV are highly toxic, and their number required to achieve a lethal outcome is very small (the use of an agent is 40 times more effective than conventional explosives);
• it is difficult to determine the specific agent used in the attack and the source of infection;
• a small group of chemists (sometimes even one qualified specialist) is quite capable of synthesizing simple-to-manufacture CWA, in the quantities necessary for a terrorist attack;
• OVs are extremely effective for inducing panic and fear. Indoor crowd losses can be in the thousands.

All of the above indicates that the likelihood of the use of weapons in a terrorist act is extremely high. And, unfortunately, we can only wait for this new stage in the terrorist war.

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4. Articles from the site "Weapons of the First World War" - "Campaign of 1914 - the first experiments", "From the history of chemical weapons.", M. Pavlovich. "Chemical warfare."
5. Trends in the development of chemical weapons in the United States and its allies. A.D. Kuntsevich, Yu.K. Nazarkin, 1987.
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7. The Korean War, 1950-1953. - SPb .: LLC "Polygon Publishing House", 2003. (Military-Historical Library).
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9 Development of TsVHP in the pre-war period. Creation of the Institute of Chemical Defense., Letopis Publishing House, 1998.

Chemical weapons are one of three types of weapons of mass destruction (the other 2 types are bacteriological and nuclear weapons). Kills people with toxins in gas cylinders.

History of chemical weapons

Chemical weapons began to be used by humans a very long time ago - long before the Copper Age. Then people used a bow with poisoned arrows. After all, it is much easier to apply poison, which will surely slowly kill the beast, than to run after it.

The first toxins were obtained from plants - man got it from the varieties of the acokantera plant. This poison causes cardiac arrest.

With the advent of civilizations, bans on the use of the first chemical weapons began, but these bans were violated - Alexander the Great used all the chemicals known at that time in the war against India. His soldiers poisoned water wells and food stores. In ancient Greece, the roots of the zemstvo were used to poison wells.

In the second half of the Middle Ages, alchemy, the forerunner of chemistry, began to develop rapidly. Acrid smoke began to appear, driving away the enemy.

First use of chemical weapons

The French were the first to use chemical weapons. It happened in the early days of the First World War. They say safety rules are written in blood. Safety rules for the use of chemical weapons are no exception. At first there were no rules, there was only one piece of advice - when throwing grenades stuffed with poisonous gases, you must take into account the direction of the wind. Also, there were no certain, tested substances that kill people 100%. There were gases that did not kill, but simply caused hallucinations or mild suffocation.

On April 22, 1915, the German armed forces used mustard gas. This substance is very toxic: it severely injures the mucous membrane of the eye and the respiratory system. After the application of mustard gas, the French and Germans lost about 100-120 thousand people. And for the entire First World War, 1.5 million people died from chemical weapons.

In the first 50 years of the 20th century, chemical weapons were used everywhere - against uprisings, riots and civilians.

The main toxic substances

Zarin... Sarin was opened in 1937. Sarin was discovered by accident - German chemist Gerhard Schrader was trying to create a stronger chemical against agricultural pests. Sarin is a liquid. Acts on the nervous system.

Soman... In 1944, Richard Kuhn discovered soman. Very similar to sarin, but more poisonous - two and a half times more than sarin.

After the Second World War, the research and production of chemical weapons by the Germans became known. All research classified as "secret" became known to the allies.

VX... In 1955, VX was opened in England. The most poisonous chemical weapon created artificially.

At the first signs of poisoning, you need to act quickly, otherwise death will occur in about a quarter of an hour. Protective means are a gas mask, OZK (combined arms protective kit).

VR... Developed in 1964 in the USSR, it is an analogue of the VX.

In addition to highly toxic gases, gases were also produced to disperse crowds of rioters. These are tear and pepper gases.

In the second half of the twentieth century, more precisely from the early 1960s to the late 1970s, there was a flourishing of discoveries and developments in chemical weapons. During this period, they began to invent gases that have a short-term effect on the human psyche.

Chemical weapons in our time

Currently, most of the chemical weapons are prohibited by the 1993 Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction.

The classification of poisons depends on the hazard posed by the chemical:

• The first group includes all the poisons that have ever been in the arsenal of countries. Countries are prohibited from storing any chemicals in this group in excess of 1 ton. If the weight is over 100g, the control committee must be notified.
• The second group consists of substances that can be used both for military purposes and in peaceful production.
• The third group includes substances that are used in large quantities in production. If the production produces more than thirty tons per year, it must be registered in the register for control.

First aid for poisoning with chemically hazardous substances