The Painful Lessons of Chemical Warfare: Gas, Mud, and Blood at Ypres

It burned my throat, caused pains in my chest and made breathing all but impossible. I spat blood and suffered dizziness. We all thought that we were lost.--French soldier, 1915 (1)

A FORGOTTEN battlefield with significant lessons for the future, Ypres reminds us of one of the greatest fears in modern war--the use of chemical weapons. On 22 April 1915, the German Army introduced poison gas at Ypres, France, in an effort to break the stalemate across Flanders. With nearly 13,000 gas-related casualties, Ypres marked the first successful demonstration of the incapacitating effects of poison gas against entrenched soldiers. Although a previous attempt took place in February that same year at the Battle of Bolimov, Russia, the gas did not have the desired effect because low temperatures caused the poisonous vapors to freeze and drop to the ground. (2)

Even though the use of gas was successful at Ypres, it still posed several dilemmas for commanders. Reviewing literature and primary sources, four significant problems emerge: the human reaction to unfamiliar and terrifying weapons; the management of chemical casualties; considerations for multinational forces; and short-notice logistics requirements. Based on the outcomes at Ypres, analysts can hypothesize on how these themes might affect future conflicts. (3)

Before 1915, armies relied on maneuver warfare to decide engagements. Less than a year later, maneuver warfare had become trench warfare, a morass of mud and blood on an unprecedented scale. Belligerents measured success in single yards of churned-up earth. …

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