Image – WWI Soldiers Wearing Gas Masks in Trenches

Chapter 21

WWI Soldiers Wearing Gas Masks in Trenches

Among the many horrors of the Great War were gas attacks.  The Germans were the first to use poison gas, at Ypres in April 1915.  They released chlorine gas from canisters and relied on the wind to blow the poisonous clouds toward the enemy.   Later in the war gas attacks were delivered by shells fired from artillery.  The gas that caused the most casualties was mustard gas.  It seared the body, both inside and out, inflicting immense pain.  One British soldier recorded these impressions in his diary: “the horrible part of it is the slow lingering death of those who are gassed.  I saw some hundred poor fellows laid out in the open…slowly drowning with water in their lungs.” Survivors were scarred for life.   Early gas protection consisted of goggles worn over the eyes and gauze held to the nose and mouth.  The Germans were the first to develop true gas masks with a screw- on filter, such as the ones shown in this photograph.