Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfare (2008) - The Black Vault

History of Chemical WarfareFig. 2-2. Map of western Europe in World War I. Symbols depict major cities, lines indicating the furthest extent of Germanoccupation, and battles where the American Expeditionary Forces engaged German lines in chemical warfare.Map: Courtesy of Dr Corey J Hilmas, United States Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense.ethyl bromoacetate grenades before the war, and theycontinued to use tear agents against the Germansthroughout the conflict. However, the ineffectivenessof these weapons caused poison agents to remain unnoticeduntil the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915.The British also examined their chemical technologyfor battlefield use in the early stages of the war,investigating tear agents but later turning to moretoxic chemicals. In January 1915 several chemists atthe Imperial College gassed a representative of theWar Office, successfully demonstrating the use ofethyl iodoacetate as a tear gas. A suggestion for usingsulfur dioxide as a chemical weapon, after beingrejected for the army by Field Marshal Lord Kitchener,was presented to Winston Churchill at the admiraltyin March 1915. The proposal included a plan to use asulfur dioxide cloud against the Germans, a smokescreen to provide cover, and gas-proof helmets forBritish troops. Churchill rejected the plan but formeda committee the following month to discuss the use ofsmoke on land and sea. 14German Chemical Warfare PlansPossibly aware of the Allied interest in chemicalweapons, the Germans also pursued war applicationsfor chemical technology. The strong German dye industryand the plethora of scientists in Berlin createdan ideal situation for developing offensive chemicalweapons. Professor Walther Nernst, recipient of the 1920Nobel Prize in chemistry, suggested placing trinitrotoluene(TNT) in a 105-mm shrapnel shell with dianisidine13