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Warmatrix

War Matrix - Poison gas

World Wars 1914 CE - 1945 CE, Weapons and technology

Americans struggling with a poison gas attack during World War I
Americans struggling with a poison gas attack during World War I
Poison gas is one of the first and the most common type of chemical weapons. It was first used on large scale in World War I. Because if the indiscriminate deaths that they cause, several international conventions have forbidden the use of chemical weapons, but they continue to be used until this day.
Irritating and even somewhat poisonous smoke was used by the Chinese and Indians since ancient times. In the 17th century CE incendiary shells filled with toxic materials were used during sieges. However all these remained rare and had little effect. The situation started to change in the 19th century CE. Some chemists proposed the use of cacodyl cyanide and chlorine gas, though were ignored by the generals. Nonetheless the idea alarmed people all around the world and the Hague Conventions of 1899 CE and 1907 CE included rules to ban them.
Despite those, chemical weapons saw actual use during World War I, where the combatants vainly hoped that they would break the stalemate of trench warfare. The French were they first to use them, deploying teargas. The Germans responded and quickly all parties joined in. Teargas was replaced with chlorine and eventually the lethal phosgene and mustard gases. Soon soldiers were issued gas masks, but these were often defective, or the soldiers were unable to don them timely. Winds could blow clouds of poison gas back to friendly lines, or towards civilians, who seldom had gas masks. Though only 1% of the deaths in the war is attributed to chemical weapons, around 1.3 million people suffered chemical wounds, 10% - 20% of them civilian.
After the war, poison gas saw occasional use, for instance in the Tambov Rebellion and the Rif War. In 1925 CE the Geneva protocol explicitly forbade the use of chemical an biological weapons. Most countries honored the protocol, but fascist Italy ignored it in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War. In the 1930's CE German chemists developed the 'G-series' nerve agents, including tabun and sarin. Surprisingly, poison gas saw almost no use during World War II, each side fearing retaliation by its opponents. Only Japan used it against the Chinese, who lacked the capability to strike back.
Despite caution about their use, several countries retained stockpiles of chemical weapons and also kept researching more powerful nerve agents. The 'V-series' of the 1960's CE are 'persistent' agents that do not degrade naturally and can linger for a long time. The Soviet Union developed binary weapons, consisting of two components that are harmless when apart, yet poisonous when combined. After World War II, poison gas was used in several small conflicts, the Iran-Iraq War and the Syrian Civil War.