THE CHEMIST’S WAR

WWI marked the first large scale use of chemical weapons. Primarily, they were used to demoralize, injure & ultimately kill entrenched men. The slow-moving, static nature of gas clouds proved to be the most effective. The weapons employed ranged all the way from tear gas to mustard gas to lethal agents like phosgene and chlorine. This Chemical warfare was a major component that caused roughly 90k fatalities from around 1 million casualties caused by gas attacks. 

In the later stages of WWI, the use of gas increased but its effectiveness diminished as forces developed technology to cope with such attacks. The widespread use of these chemical weapons, in addition to the use of high explosives gave WWI the nickname as “the chemist’s war”.