World War I: Chemical Warfare

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Chemical warfare had many effects on World War I. The Hague Declaration of 1899 and the Hague Convention of 1907 forbade the use of “poison and poisonous weapons” in warfare, yet more than 124,000 tons of gas were produced by the end of World War I. On April 22, 1915, members of the German Army opened the valves on more than 6,000 steel cylinders arrayed in trenches along their defensive perimeter at Ypres, Belgium. The use of chlorine gas allowed the Germans to defeat the French line alone a front, causing terror and forcing a panicked and chaotic retreat. The development of war gases, like many of the other new weapon systems created during this period, depended on the work of academic and industrial scientists who increasingly served the …show more content…
As the American war effort intensified, a new chemical weapon, an arsenic-based agent similar to mustard gas called lewisite. Chemical warfare had begun in a tentative way before Ypres with the French use of tear gas grenades in 1914 and early 1915. The Germans started experimental work on chemical agents in late 1914 at the suggestion of University of Berlin chemist and Nobel laureate Walther Nernst. As an offensive response to chlorine, both the French and the British quickly developed “annoyer” grenades, but these chemical weapons were not lethal and few even made it onto the battlefield. By mid-1915, both sides regularly used cylinders to deploy chlorine gas, and by mid-1916 both sides mixed chlorine and phosgene in an attempt to create larger numbers of casualties. By the end of the war, most belligerents employed a variety of chemical agents in combat, including chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas. The gas mask drill- the donning of all protective gear as rapidly as possible under the most difficult conditions-became an integral part of life in the trenches and in preparing recruits for …show more content…
D. Roosevelt was made of aware of the possibility that German Scientist were racing to build an atomic bomb. As a result, Roosevelt set up the Advisory Committee on Uranium consisting of both civilian and military representatives. In 1940, Roosevelt established a voice for the scientific community by establishing a Nation Defense Research Committee (NDRC), reorganization of the Advisory Committee on Uranium into a scientific body that eliminated military membership. The NDRC would have more influence and more direct access to money for nuclear research. On August 13, 1942, the Manhattan Engineer District, which got its name from the geographical location of its headquarters, was established. In September, the Army appointed Colonel Leslie R. Groves to head the effort. Theoretical studies in fission research and instrument and measurement studies, led by Robert Oppenheimer and including Felix Bloch, Hans Bethe, and Edward Teller. On December 28, 1942, President F. D. Roosevelt approved the authorization for the Manhattan Project to build a full-scale gaseous diffusion, plutonium, and electromagnetic plants. With the Manhattan Project on the brink of success in spring 1945, the atomic bomb became an increasingly important element in American strategy to bring an end to World War II. Because of the generally accepted view that the Japanese would fight to the bitter end, a costly invasion of the home island
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