World War I: Chemical Warfare

Improved Essays
The weaponry of World War I proclaimed the dawning of a new era of human conflict. The days of honorable combat were replaced with weapons of mass casualties such as machine guns and explosives of catastrophic proportions. But these tools of death paled in comparison to the horrors of chemical warfare. Poison gases removed the enemy, replacing him with a faceless horror that more resembled the superstitions and ghosts of the Dark Ages than the newest scientific advantages of the 20th century. From the personal accounts surrounding the first gas attack of World War I and subsequent relevant studies, it is evident that chemical weapons were far more lethal psychologically than physically.

In the spring of 1915, the second battle of Ypres,
…show more content…
British nurse Irene Rathbone described the state of the Ypres hospital in the aftermath of the attack, “Our hospital soon became a shambles…fully sensible, choking, suffocating [soldiers], dying in horrible agony”. While the physical effects of chlorine gas were only deadly in cases of significant inhalation, its psychological consequences were both long-term and extreme. The unknown elements of chemical warfare caused widespread mania or “gas fright” and set soldiers into a panic at any unordinary sound or scent. Hossack describes the distance reduced effects as a “nauseating smell that tickled the throat and made our eyes smart”. Significantly nearer to the front lines, Methodist Reverend, O.S. Watkins, also attached to the British army gave a chilling account of the fleeing …show more content…
In the event that a gas attack was survived, the psychological effects were immediate, debilitating, and permanent. One medical officer noted: “When after a few days the bodily hurt had gone, there was left an emotional disturbance like a mild attack of shell shock…it was the mind that suffered hurt.” Often soldiers would come to be treated for gas poisoning with symptoms of vomiting, nausea and abdominal pains even when no actual attack had occurred. It became increasingly difficult to tell a true case from an imagined one. The hysteria of gas fright had a huge effect on medical operations throughout

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Essay On PTSD In Veterans

    • 1362 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Introduction Veterans living every day with post-traumatic stress disorder often feel on edge, have feelings of panic, or feel emotionally numb and disconnected from family, friends, and loved ones. Post-traumatic stress disorder occurs after experiencing severe trauma or a life-threatening event, and the mind and body in still in a state of shock (Smith, 2015; Robinson, 2015; Segal, 2015). Some other major symptoms of PTSD for veterans include night terrors, extreme emotional and physical reactions to reminders of trauma, panic attacks, shaking, heaving breathing, avoiding certain places and people, and withdrawing from family and friends. Wartime experiences, most particularly in the First World War, prompted physicians to speculate on the…

    • 1362 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Shell Shock In War

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Firstly, it provides definitions for what constitutes shell shock. Secondly, it provides an evolution of the term from merely “nervousness” to a much more charged term “shell shock”. Thirdly, it reveals the public opinion of shell shock, which according to the journal is in opposition to reality: “based on false premises … [and] by its pitiful and romantic sound, has tended to perpetuate symptoms and to excite no determination in the mind of the sufferer to regain his control or in the fighting man to still endure.” In other words, the phrase shell shock was meant to invoke sympathy in the general population. In addition, it also exemplifies the expectations of soldiers to continue fighting in the face of the overwhelming trauma brought about by trench…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Vimy Ridge Essay

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages

    This helped soldier recover quicker, but it also meant more nurse and doctor casualties. Nurses…

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Vimy Ridge Letters

    • 1492 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The letter was written by John Leslie McNaughton, a Canadian soldier who served in World War. John joined the Canadian army in June, 1915, and was appointed overseas for one year, before his capture and imprisonment on May, 1917. 15 of the letters he wrote, including four he wrote after the battle of Vimy Ridge were recovered after the war. This specific letter was written in France, on 21st April 1917, days after Vimy Ridge, a month before his confinement, and later published online on the website Canadian Letters on November 2013.…

    • 1492 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Speaking of Annihilation”: Mobilizing for War Against Human and Insect Enemies, 1914-1945 written by Edmund P. Russell is about the chemicals from World War II that affects human and insect and the impact to the environment. In term of protecting the environment and wilderness, not many of the environmentalist have focus on warfare impacting the environment and the cause of chemical industries that have shape our environmental history on domestically and globalize. Hence, Russell’s journal broadens our understanding on the relationships between humans and environment and the further research that contributes to our knowledges. In Russell’s journal, he introduce the cartoons name Leatherneck that is relate to the mass bombing of Japanese cities.…

    • 555 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Relationship Between World War I and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918-1919 War and disease have been intertwined throughout history as human pathogens, weapons and armies have met on the battlefield. 1914-1919 marked the cruelest war in the chronicles of the human race preceded by the world’s deadliest unspoken pandemic. The aftermath of World War I proved so profound in their consequences that the influenza virus remained a blur in the public’s memory. Instead, focus was shifted towards the events that were results of World War I such as the rise of fascism, the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War (Kent Introduction 23).…

    • 1483 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Clapham's Analysis

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Wars inevitably cause immense human suffering, but the suffering in World War I for soldiers and civilians alike was especially traumatic and unbearable. What is there in Clapham’s account that may explain this phenomenon? (June 19, 1915, 341). Clapham’s account displays not only the physical trauma resulting in debilitating physical effects, but also severe and everlasting emotion trauma. By Clapham’s tone in this writing, the events he is seeing do not appear to be abnormal, he appears to witness these traumatic and unbearable experiences every single day.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Great War Dbq

    • 1639 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Throughout history, war has often proven to be a transformative event not only to the countries involved, but also to the soldiers and citizens who lived through and experienced the war. World War 1, also known as the Great War, was one of the most globally transformative events in human history. This war mainly pitted Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire against France, Britain, Russia, and Italy. War is not only tragic, but it transforms the public’s opinion about their enemies and of war in general. The true horrors of war are shown by the effect on the soldier’s minds.…

    • 1639 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Trauma appears in 1980, only thirty-six years ago. Trauma exists in the ancient time and memorial since we suffered. Trauma is always associated with veteran combat where the soldiers suffering from shell shock in World War I(WWI). The concept of shell shock was describing of changing behavioural, where at that time the most soldier had symptoms of head injuries or loss of consciousness. In February 1915, the term shell shock was used by Charles Myers in an article in The Lancet to describe three soldiers suffering from “loss of memory, vision, smell, and taste.”…

    • 310 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ww1 Unit 1 Research Paper

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages

    It has been omitted from history the suffering females experienced during the great war, even though they were close enough to the firing lines to see the true monstrosities of war. It was reported that there were about 9,000 women volunteering in the Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC), 13,124 female nurses in the Imperial Military Nursing Service (Reserve) (QAIMNS(r)), about 500 women that were part of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), and 82,857 in the women's Voluntary Aid Detachment's (VADs). These women saw indescribable horrors that one cannot even begin to comprehend, with FANY’s moving the mangled bodies of soldiers to hospitals while shells rained down on them. For instance, Their experiences included tremendous violence and physical suffering; their diaries and letters home include descriptions of being fired on by enemy forces, who used the…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    According to statistics as of 2012, veterans are taking their lives at an astonishing rate of 22 a day or more. This is unacceptable and most of these cases probably could have been prevented; given the fact that people just need to know about and be aware of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) its origins and signs. From WW I to present day PTSD is a very real and misunderstood by many. Ever sense there has been war there have been signs of PTSD according to history. The signs are in writings from the great army’s that were before us.…

    • 2428 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Shell Shock

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages

    During the 20th Century, war became a condition of existence for both soldiers and civilians partly because, this condition, PTSD/Shell Shock was spreading. What was thought to be a physical and mental issue and is now known as a psychological condition. Although society today has come much farther than when in World War One or Two, it was a slow road getting to how society views it now. The social stigma against PTSD makes it arduous to treat and slowed the progression of how it’s viewed. The transitions from viewing PTSD as a disciplinary issue and the harsh of types of treatment that followed suit, as well as the failure to recognize this as a psychological malady are some of the causes of this.…

    • 1007 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The lives of men in war are completely different than any ordinary day for someone not in war. They face many things that regular people couldn’t cope with. They have to worry about loud noises; the machine guns, diseases, and exploding artillery shells that often caused them to panic and lose their bearings. They only went forward because they were carried on by the force of the soldiers around them. Soldiers in war also lived with the persistent presence of death and watching people they loved die.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Ww1 Chemical Weapons

    • 177 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Air pollution and the earth also apply effects of widespread use of chemical weapons in a fierce battle. First World War, WW1 is the starting point for the use of chemical weapons is the most terrible. Power Associates (English, France and Italy) as well as the Axis powers (Germany, Austria and Turkey) use of poison gas in warfare. In April 1915, the German army releases chlorine gas through steel container against Allied, Allies in Langemarck, near Ypres. This has led to the resulting Cloud Akrid and then enveloped the Allied forces.…

    • 177 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    cultural norms of a nation or region by a much “advanced” nation with access to superior weapons. The ideology of superiority can be seen in Rudyard Kipling’s poem, The White Man 's Burden, in which he called on the “white” European nations, and the United States, to educate and help those “sullen peoples [that were] half-devil and half-child” of the world, for it was their obligation to take on this “thankless” burden. For years, Europeans had believed that they were truly the superior being, civilizing the primitive people of the world. This way of thinking lulled them into a virtual reality where they could beat anyone and anything. Nationalism was another theme that could explain why people thought the way they did.…

    • 1207 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays