Ww1 Chemical Warfare Essay

Chemical Warfare in WWI In the early 20th Century, Europe was strongly characterized by by the ideology nationalism. Nationalism is the “advocacy of or support for the interests of one’s own nation”(Oxford Dictionary). Nationalists placed their own country above others. Nationalism was predominant during the Fin de Siecle of the 19th and 20th centuries and was a notable cause for World War I. Before 1914, most Europeans believed in the economic and military power of their nation. Nationalism gave citizens great confidence in their nation, due to their economic and military strength. Prior to the war, citizens believed that The Great War would be very brief due to the advancements made in science, technology, and weapons. At the start of

In 1914, the day Germany declared war, Ernst Junger, a nineteen year old, enlisted in the army. Junger fought in some of the most famous and bloodiest battles over the next four years. He fought in the second and third battles at Ypres, as well as specifically the battles of the Somme, Cambrai, and Passchendaele. Throughout his four years of fighting, Junger was shot or wounded by shrapnel at least five times:

The cratered field stretched out ahead of me, apparently endlessly, with no sign of life. I paused, because unoccupied terrain is always a sinister thing in a war. Suddenly a shot rang out, and I was hit in both legs by a sniper’s bullet. I threw myself into the nearest creator, and tied up the wounds with my handkerchief, having of course forgotten my field dressing. A bullet had drilled through my right calf and brushed the left (Junger

Just as he had said that unoccupied territory was a sign of something bad about to happen, he is shot through both of his legs. Junger was able to safely getsafely back to a dressing station and therefore he didn 't bleed out and die on the battlefield. The Second Battle of Ypres is the first time chemical weapons were successfully used in warfare. The chemicals used included xylyl bromide, chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas. On April 22, 1915 the Ggerman be sure to get your capitalization correct throughout army were the first people to release chlorine gas successfully. Xylyl bromide gas had been used before at the Battle of Bolimow but due to the cold weather and wind direction the gas froze and proved to be ineffective (cite). To use gas in warfare the soldiers had to rely on the wind to move be moving in the correct direction. The Ggerman troops released 5,730 cylinders of gas from their own side for the wind to blow it across no-man’s land and into the allies trenches. Since the gas was denser than the air it would settle into the trenches and force the soldiers to climb out into heavy enemy fire: “a lot of our men died of the poisoning from the clouds of heavy phosgene nestling in the undergrowth” (Junger 114). This gas attack resulted in about 6,000 casualties from the French troops. Gas attacks only accounted for about 7% of the casualties in World