Introduction to Chemical Warfare in WWI
British emplacement after unreckoned gas attack
On this website, the main topic of study is chemical warfare in World War I. This will show how chemical warfare was used, what nations utilized it, and why it was used so much in World War I. Chemical Warfare was primarily used to demoralize, injure and ultimately kill entrenched defenders. Types of weapons within chemical warfare were gases, like mustard gas, to lethal agents like phosgene and chlorine. This was the first major war that chemical warfare was used in consistently. The longer chemical warfare was used in World War I, the more its effectiveness diminished because of countermeasures such as Gas Masks. With that stated, chemical warfare accounted for about 40 percent of deaths in WWI and had an eerie mental affect on the war as well.