What substance was the first chemical weapon. The Germans were the first to use chemical weapons. Trials in Nazi Germany

The ability of toxic substances to cause death of people and animals has been known since time immemorial. In the 19th century, poisonous substances began to be used during large-scale hostilities.

However, the birth of chemical weapons as a means of conducting armed struggle in modern understanding should be attributed to the time of the 1st World War.

The First World War, which began in 1914, soon after the start acquired a positional character, which forced the search for new offensive weapons. german army began to use massive attacks on enemy positions with the help of poisonous and asphyxiating gases. On April 22, 1915, a chlorine gas attack was carried out on the Western Front near the town of Ypres (Belgium), which for the first time showed the effect of the massive use of toxic gas as a means of warfare.

The first harbingers.

April 14, 1915 near the village of Langemarck, not far from the then little-known Belgian city of Ypres, French units captured German soldier. During the search, they found a small gauze bag filled with identical pieces of cotton fabric, and a bottle with a colorless liquid. It looked so much like a dressing bag that it was initially ignored.

Apparently, its purpose would have remained incomprehensible if the prisoner had not stated during interrogation that the handbag is a special means of protection against the new "crushing" weapon that the German command plans to use on this sector of the front.

When asked about the nature of this weapon, the prisoner readily replied that he had no idea about it, but it seems that this weapon is hidden in metal cylinders that are dug in no man's land between the lines of trenches. To protect against this weapon, it is necessary to soak a flap from the purse with the liquid from the vial and apply it to the mouth and nose.

The French gentlemen officers considered the story of the captured soldier gone mad and did not attach any importance to it. But soon the prisoners captured in neighboring sectors of the front reported about the mysterious cylinders.

On April 18, the British knocked out the Germans from the height of "60" and at the same time captured a German non-commissioned officer. The prisoner also spoke about an unknown weapon and noticed that the cylinders with it were dug at this very height - ten meters from the trenches. Out of curiosity, an English sergeant went with two soldiers to reconnaissance and specified place really found heavy cylinders of an unusual appearance and incomprehensible purpose. He reported this to the command, but to no avail.

In those days, English radio intelligence, which deciphered fragments of German radio messages, also brought riddles to the Allied command. Imagine the surprise of the codebreakers when they discovered that the German headquarters were extremely interested in the state of the weather!

An unfavorable wind is blowing ... - the Germans reported. “… The wind is getting stronger… its direction is constantly changing… The wind is unstable…”

One radiogram mentioned the name of a certain Dr. Haber. If only the British knew who Dr. Gaber was!

Dr. Fritz Gaber

Fritz Gaber was deeply civilian. At the front, he was in an elegant suit, aggravating the civilian impression with the brilliance of gilded pince-nez. Before the war, he headed the Institute of Physical Chemistry in Berlin and even at the front did not part with his "chemical" books and reference books.

Haber was in the service of the German government. As a consultant to the German War Office, he was tasked with creating an irritant poison that would force enemy troops to leave the trenches.

A few months later, he and his staff created a weapon using chlorine gas, which was put into production in January 1915.

Although Haber hated war, he believed that the use of chemical weapons could save many lives if the exhausting trench warfare on the Western Front stopped. His wife Clara was also a chemist and strongly opposed his wartime work.

April 22, 1915

The point chosen for the attack was in the north-eastern part of the Ypres salient, at the point where the French and English fronts converged, heading south, and from where the trenches departed from the canal near Besinge.

The sector of the front closest to the Germans was defended by soldiers who arrived from the Algerian colonies. Once out of their hiding places, they basked in the sun, talking loudly to each other. About five o'clock in the afternoon a large greenish cloud appeared in front of the German trenches. According to witnesses, many Frenchmen watched with interest the approaching front of this bizarre "yellow fog", but did not attach any importance to it.

Suddenly they smelled a strong smell. Everyone had a pinching in the nose, their eyes hurt, as if from acrid smoke. "Yellow fog" choked, blinded, burned the chest with fire, turned inside out. Not remembering themselves, the Africans rushed out of the trenches. Who hesitated, fell, seized by suffocation. People rushed about the trenches, screaming; colliding with each other, they fell and fought in convulsions, catching air with twisted mouths.

And the "yellow fog" rolled farther and farther to the rear of the French positions, sowing death and panic along the way. Behind the fog, German chains marched in orderly rows with rifles at the ready and bandages on their faces. But they had no one to attack. Thousands of Algerians and French lay dead in the trenches and in artillery positions.”

However, for the Germans themselves, such a result is unexpected. Their generals treated the venture of the "bespectacled doctor" as an interesting experience and therefore did not really prepare for a large-scale offensive.

When the front turned out to be actually broken, the only unit that poured into the gap was infantry battalion which could not, of course, decide the fate of the French defense.

The incident made a lot of noise and by the evening the world knew that a new participant had entered the battlefield, capable of competing with "His Majesty the machine gun." Chemists rushed to the front, and by the next morning it became clear that for the first time the Germans used a cloud of suffocating gas - chlorine - for military purposes. It suddenly turned out that any country that even has the makings of a chemical industry can get its hands on a powerful weapon. The only consolation was that it was not difficult to escape from chlorine. It is enough to cover the respiratory organs with a bandage moistened with a solution of soda, or hyposulfite, and chlorine is not so terrible. If these substances are not at hand, it is enough to breathe through a wet rag. Water significantly weakens the effect of chlorine, which dissolves in it. Many chemical institutions rushed to develop the design of gas masks, but the Germans were in a hurry to repeat the gas balloon attack until the Allies had reliable means of protection.

On April 24, having collected reserves for the development of the offensive, they launched a strike on a neighboring sector of the front, which was defended by the Canadians. But the Canadian troops were warned about the "yellow fog" and therefore, seeing the yellow-green cloud, they prepared for the action of gases. They soaked their scarves, stockings and blankets in puddles and applied them to their faces, covering their mouths, noses and eyes from the caustic atmosphere. Some of them, of course, suffocated to death, others were poisoned for a long time, or blinded, but no one moved. And when the fog crept to the rear and the German infantry followed, the Canadian machine guns and rifles spoke, making huge gaps in the ranks of the advancing, who did not expect resistance.

Replenishment of the arsenal of chemical weapons

As the war went on, many toxic compounds in addition to chlorine were being tested for effectiveness as chemical warfare agents.

In June 1915 was applied bromine, used in mortar shells; the first tear substance also appeared: benzyl bromide combined with xylene bromide. This gas was filled artillery shells. The use of gases in artillery shells, which later became so widespread, was first clearly observed on June 20 in the Argonne forests.

Phosgene
Phosgene was widely used during the First World War. It was first used by the Germans in December 1915 on the Italian front.

At room temperature, phosgene is a colorless gas, with the smell of rotten hay, which turns into a liquid at a temperature of -8 °. Before the war, phosgene was mined in large quantities and served to make various colors for woolen fabrics.

Phosgene is very poisonous and, in addition, acts as a substance that strongly irritates the lungs and causes damage to the mucous membranes. Its danger is further increased by the fact that its effect is not detected immediately: sometimes painful phenomena appear only 10-11 hours after inhalation.

Relative cheapness and ease of preparation, strong toxic properties, lingering effect and low persistence (the smell disappears after 1 1/2 - 2 hours) make phosgene a substance very convenient for military purposes.

Mustard gas
On the night of July 12-13, 1917, in order to disrupt the offensive of the Anglo-French troops, Germany used mustard gas- liquid poisonous substance of skin and blistering action. At the first application of mustard gas lesions of varying severity received 2490 people, of whom 87 died. Mustard gas has a pronounced local effect - it affects the eyes and respiratory organs, gastrointestinal tract and skin coverings. Being absorbed into the blood, it also exhibits a generally poisonous effect. Mustard gas affects the skin when exposed, both in the droplet and in the vapor state. Regular summer and winter military uniforms, like almost any type of civilian clothing, do not protect the skin from drops and vapors of mustard gas. There was no real protection of troops from mustard gas in those years, and its use on the battlefield was effective until the very end of the war.

It is amusing to note that with a certain degree of fantasy, poisonous substances can be considered a catalyst for the emergence of fascism and the initiator of the Second World War. After all, it was after the English gas attack near Comyn that the German corporal Adolf Schicklgruber, temporarily blinded by chlorine, lay in the hospital and began to think about the fate of the deceived German people, the triumph of the French, the betrayal of the Jews, etc. Subsequently, while in prison, he streamlined these thoughts in his book Mein Kampf (My Struggle), but the title of this book already had a pseudonym - Adolf Hitler.

Results of the First World War.

The ideas of chemical warfare have taken strong positions in the military doctrines of all the world's leading states without exception. Great Britain and France took up the improvement of chemical weapons and the increase in production capacities for their manufacture. Germany, defeated in the war, which was forbidden to have chemical weapons under the Treaty of Versailles, and Russia, not recovering from the civil war, agree to build a joint mustard gas plant and test samples of chemical weapons at Russian test sites. The United States met the end of the World War with the most powerful military-chemical potential, surpassing England and France combined in the production of poisonous substances.

Nerve gases

The history of nerve agents begins on December 23, 1936, when Dr. Gerhard Schroeder of the I. G. Farben laboratory in Leverkusen first obtained tabun (GA, ethyl ester of dimethylphosphoramidocyanide acid).

In 1938, the second powerful organophosphorus agent, sarin (GB, 1-methylethyl ester of methylphosphonofluoride acid), was discovered there. At the end of 1944, a structural analogue of sarin was obtained in Germany, called soman (GD, 1,2,2-trimethylpropyl ester of methylphosphonofluoric acid), which is about 3 times more toxic than sarin.

In 1940, in the city of Oberbayern (Bavaria), a large plant belonging to "IG Farben" was put into operation for the production of mustard gas and mustard compounds, with a capacity of 40 thousand tons. In total, in the pre-war and first war years in Germany, about 17 new technological installations for the production of OM were built, the annual capacity of which exceeded 100 thousand tons. In the city of Dühernfurt, on the Oder (now Silesia, Poland), there was one of the largest production facilities for organic matter. By 1945, Germany had 12 thousand tons of herd in stock, the production of which was nowhere else.

The reasons why Germany did not use chemical weapons during the Second World War remain unclear to this day; according to one version, Hitler did not give the command to use CWA during the war because he believed that the USSR large quantity chemical weapons. Churchill recognized the need to use chemical weapons only if they were used by the enemy. But the indisputable fact is the superiority of Germany in the production of poisonous substances: the production of nerve gases in Germany came as a complete surprise to the Allied forces in 1945.

Separate work on obtaining these substances was carried out in the USA and Great Britain, but a breakthrough in their production could not occur until 1945. During the years of World War II in the United States, 135 thousand tons of toxic substances were produced at 17 installations, half of the total volume was accounted for mustard gas. Mustard gas was equipped with about 5 million shells and 1 million air bombs. From 1945 to 1980, only 2 types of chemical weapons were used in the West: lacrimators (CS: 2-- tear gas) and herbicides (the so-called "Orange Agent") used by the US Army in Vietnam, the consequences of this are the infamous "Yellow Rains". CS alone, 6,800 tons were used. The United States produced chemical weapons until 1969.

Conclusion

In 1974, President Nixon and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev signed a significant agreement aimed at banning chemical weapons. It was confirmed by President Ford in 1976 at bilateral talks in Geneva.

However, the history of chemical weapons did not end there...

In the early April morning of 1915, a light breeze blew from the side of the German positions that opposed the line of defense of the Entente troops twenty kilometers from the city of Ypres (Belgium). Together with him, a dense yellowish-green cloud suddenly appeared in the direction of the Allied trenches. At that moment, few people knew that it was the breath of death, and, in the stingy language of front-line reports, the first use of chemical weapons on the Western Front.

Tears before death

To be absolutely precise, the use of chemical weapons began in 1914, and the French came up with this disastrous initiative. But then ethyl bromoacetate, which belongs to the group of chemicals of an irritant effect, and not a lethal one, was put into use. They were filled with 26-mm grenades, which fired at the German trenches. When the supply of this gas came to an end, it was replaced with chloroacetone, similar in effect.

In response to this, the Germans, who also did not consider themselves obliged to comply with the generally accepted legal norms enshrined in the Hague Convention, at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, held in October of the same year, fired at the British with shells filled with a chemical irritant. However, at that time they failed to reach its dangerous concentration.

Thus, in April 1915, there was not the first case of the use of chemical weapons, but, unlike the previous ones, the lethal chlorine gas was used to destroy the enemy's manpower. The result of the attack was stunning. One hundred and eighty tons of sprayed killed five thousand soldiers of the allied forces and another ten thousand became disabled as a result of the resulting poisoning. By the way, the Germans themselves suffered. The death-bearing cloud touched their position with its edge, the defenders of which were not fully provided with gas masks. In the history of the war, this episode was designated "a black day at Ypres."

Further use of chemical weapons in World War I

Wanting to build on their success, the Germans repeated a chemical attack in the Warsaw region a week later, this time against the Russian army. And here death got a plentiful harvest - more than a thousand two hundred killed and several thousand left crippled. Naturally, the Entente countries tried to protest against such a gross violation of the principles international law, but Berlin cynically stated that the 1896 Hague Convention only referred to poison projectiles, not gases per se. To them, to admit, they did not try to object - the war always crosses out the works of diplomats.

The specifics of that terrible war

As military historians have repeatedly emphasized, during the First World War, the tactics of positional actions were widely used, in which solid front lines were clearly marked, distinguished by stability, density of troops and high engineering and technical support.

This largely reduced the effectiveness of offensive operations, since both sides met with resistance from the powerful defense of the enemy. The only way out of the impasse could be an unconventional tactical solution, which was the first use of chemical weapons.

New war crimes page

The use of chemical weapons in World War I was a major innovation. The range of its influence on a person was very wide. As can be seen from the episodes of the First World War cited above, it ranged from harmful, which was caused by chloracetone, ethyl bromoacetate and a number of others that had an irritant effect, to deadly - phosgene, chlorine and mustard gas.

Despite the fact that statistics indicate the relative limitation of the lethal potential of the gas (from total number affected - only 5% of deaths), the number of dead and maimed was huge. This gives the right to claim that the first use of chemical weapons opened new page war crimes in human history.

In the later stages of the war, both sides managed to develop and put into use quite effective means of protection against enemy chemical attacks. This made the use of poisonous substances less effective, and gradually led to the abandonment of their use. However, it was the period from 1914 to 1918 that went down in history as the "war of chemists", since the first use of chemical weapons in the world took place on its battlefields.

The tragedy of the defenders of the Osovets fortress

However, let us return to the chronicle of military operations of that period. At the beginning of May 1915, the Germans launched a target against the Russian units defending the Osovets fortress, located fifty kilometers from Bialystok (present-day Poland). According to eyewitnesses, after a long shelling with deadly substances, among which several of their types were used at once, all life was poisoned at a considerable distance.

Not only people and animals that fell into the shelling zone died, but all vegetation was destroyed. The leaves of the trees turned yellow and crumbled before our eyes, and the grass turned black and fell to the ground. The picture was truly apocalyptic and did not fit into the consciousness of a normal person.

But, of course, the defenders of the citadel suffered the most. Even those of them who escaped death, for the most part, received severe chemical burns and were terribly mutilated. It is no coincidence that their appearance terrified the enemy so much that the counterattack of the Russians, who eventually threw the enemy back from the fortress, entered the history of the war under the name “attack of the dead”.

Development and use of phosgene

The first use of chemical weapons revealed a significant number of their technical shortcomings, which were eliminated in 1915 by a group of French chemists led by Victor Grignard. The result of their research was a new generation of deadly gas - phosgene.

Absolutely colorless, in contrast to the greenish-yellow chlorine, it betrayed its presence only with a barely perceptible smell of moldy hay, which made it difficult to detect. Compared to its predecessor, the novelty had greater toxicity, but at the same time had certain disadvantages.

Symptoms of poisoning, and even the death of the victims, did not occur immediately, but a day after the gas entered the respiratory tract. This allowed the poisoned and often doomed soldiers to participate in hostilities for a long time. In addition, phosgene was very heavy, and to increase mobility it had to be mixed with the same chlorine. This infernal mixture was called the "White Star" by the Allies, since it was with this sign that the cylinders containing it were marked.

Devilish novelty

On the night of July 13, 1917, in the area of ​​the Belgian city of Ypres, which had already won notoriety, the Germans made the first use of a chemical weapon of skin-blister action. In the place of its debut, it became known as mustard gas. Its carriers were mines, which sprayed a yellow oily liquid when they exploded.

The use of mustard gas, like the use of chemical weapons in World War I in general, was another diabolical innovation. This "achievement of civilization" was created to damage the skin, as well as the respiratory and digestive organs. Neither soldier's uniforms, nor any types of civilian clothing saved from its impact. It penetrated through any fabric.

In those years, any reliable means of protection against its contact with the body were not yet produced, which made the use of mustard gas quite effective until the end of the war. Already the first use of this substance disabled two and a half thousand enemy soldiers and officers, of whom a significant number died.

Gas that does not creep on the ground

German chemists took up the development of mustard gas not by chance. The first use of chemical weapons on the Western Front showed that the substances used - chlorine and phosgene - had a common and very significant drawback. They were heavier than air, and therefore, in atomized form, they fell down, filling trenches and all kinds of depressions. The people who were in them were poisoned, but those who were on the hills at the time of the attack often remained unharmed.

It was necessary to invent a poison gas with a lower specific gravity and capable of hitting its victims at any level. They became mustard gas, which appeared in July 1917. It should be noted that British chemists quickly established its formula, and in 1918 launched a deadly weapon into production, but the truce that followed two months later prevented large-scale use. Europe breathed a sigh of relief - the First World War, which lasted four years, ended. The use of chemical weapons became irrelevant, and their development was temporarily stopped.

The beginning of the use of poisonous substances by the Russian army

The first case of the use of chemical weapons by the Russian army dates back to 1915, when, under the leadership of Lieutenant General V.N. Ipatiev, a program for the production of this type of weapon in Russia was successfully implemented. However, its use was then in the nature of technical tests and did not pursue tactical goals. Only a year later, as a result of work on the introduction into production of developments created in this area, it became possible to use them on the fronts.

The full-scale use of military developments that came out of domestic laboratories began in the summer of 1916 during the famous It is this event that makes it possible to determine the year of the first use of chemical weapons by the Russian army. It is known that during the period of the combat operation, artillery shells were used, filled with asphyxiating gas chloropicrin and poisonous - vensinite and phosgene. According to the report sent to the Chief artillery control, the use of chemical weapons rendered "a great service to the army."

The grim statistics of war

The first use of the chemical was a disastrous precedent. In subsequent years, its use not only expanded, but also underwent qualitative changes. Summing up the sad statistics of the four war years, historians state that during this period the warring parties produced at least 180 thousand tons of chemical weapons, of which at least 125 thousand tons were used. On the battlefields, 40 types of various poisonous substances were tested, which brought death and injury to 1,300,000 military personnel and civilians who found themselves in the zone of their application.

A lesson left unlearned

Did humanity learn a worthy lesson from the events of those years and did the date of the first use of chemical weapons become a black day in its history? Hardly. And today, despite international legal acts prohibiting the use of poisonous substances, the arsenals of most states of the world are full of their modern developments, and more and more often there are reports in the press about its use in various parts of the world. Humanity is stubbornly moving along the path of self-destruction, ignoring the bitter experience of previous generations.

Today we will discuss cases of the use of chemical weapons against people on our planet.

Chemical weapon- now banned for use as a means of warfare. It adversely affects all systems of the human body: it leads to paralysis of the limbs, blindness, deafness and rapid and painful death. In the 20th century international conventions the use of chemical weapons was prohibited. However, during the period of its existence, it caused many troubles to mankind. History knows a lot of cases of the use of chemical warfare agents during wars, local conflicts and terrorist attacks.

From time immemorial, mankind has tried to invent new ways of waging war that would provide the advantage of one side without big losses from my side. The idea of ​​using poisonous substances, smoke and gases against enemies was thought of even before our era: for example, the Spartans in the 5th century BC used sulfuric fumes during the siege of the cities of Plataea and Belium. They impregnated the trees with resin and sulfur and burned them right under the fortress gates. The Middle Ages was marked by the invention of shells with asphyxiating gases, made like Molotov cocktails: they were thrown at the enemy, and when the army began to cough and sneeze, the opponents went on the attack.

During the Crimean War in 1855, the British proposed to take Sevastopol by storm with the help of the same sulfur fumes. However, the British rejected this project as unworthy of a fair war.

World War I

April 22, 1915 is considered the start of the "chemical arms race", but before that, many armies of the world conducted experiments on the effects of gases on their enemies. In 1914 german army sent several shells with toxic substances to the French units, but the damage from them was so small that no one mistook it for a new type of weapon. In 1915, in Poland, the Germans tested their new development on the Russians - tear gas, but did not take into account the direction and strength of the wind, and the attempt to panic the enemy again failed.

For the first time on a terrifying scale, chemical weapons were tested by the French army during the First World War. It happened in Belgium on the Ypres River, after which the poisonous substance, mustard gas, was named. On April 22, 1915, a battle took place between the German and French armies, during which chlorine was sprayed. The soldiers could not protect themselves from harmful chlorine, they suffocated and died from pulmonary edema.

On that day, 15,000 people were attacked, of which more than 5,000 died on the battlefield and subsequently in the hospital. Intelligence warned that the Germans were placing cylinders with unknown contents along the front line, but the command considered them harmless. However, the Germans could not take advantage of their advantage: they did not expect such a damaging effect and were not ready for the offensive.

This episode was included in many films and books as one of the most horrifying and bloody pages of the First World War. A month later, on May 31, the Germans again sprayed chlorine during the battle on the Eastern Front in the battle against the Russian army - 1,200 people died, more than 9,000 people received chemical poisoning.

But here, too, the resilience of Russian soldiers became stronger than the power of poison gases - the German offensive was stopped. On July 6, the Germans attacked the Russians in the Sukha-Volya-Shydlovskaya sector. The exact number of dead is not known, but only two regiments lost about 4,000 men. Despite the terrible damaging effect, it was after this incident that chemical weapons began to be used more and more often.

Scientists from all countries hastily began to equip the armies with gas masks, but one property of chlorine became clear: its effect is greatly weakened by a wet bandage on the mouth and nose. However, the chemical industry did not stand still.

And in 1915, the Germans introduced into their arsenal bromine and benzyl bromide: they produced a suffocating and lachrymal effect.

At the end of 1915, the Germans tested their new achievement on the Italians: phosgene. It was an extremely poisonous gas that caused irreversible changes in the mucous membranes of the body. Moreover, it had a delayed effect: often the symptoms of poisoning appeared 10-12 hours after inhalation. In 1916, at the Battle of Verdun, the Germans fired more than 100,000 chemical shells at the Italians.

A special place was occupied by the so-called burning gases, which, when sprayed in the open air, remained active. long time and caused incredible suffering to a person: they penetrated under clothes on the skin and mucous membranes, leaving bloody burns there. Such was mustard gas, which the German inventors called "the king of gases."

Only by rough estimate more than 800,000 people died from gases during World War I. 125 thousand tons of poisonous substances of various effects were used in different sectors of the front. The numbers are impressive and far from definitive. The number of victims and then dead in hospitals and at home after a short illness was not found out - the meat grinder of the world war captured all countries, and losses were not considered.

Italo-Ethiopian War

In 1935, the government of Benito Mussolini ordered the use of mustard gas in Ethiopia. At that time, the Italo-Ethiopian war was being waged, and although the Geneva Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was adopted 10 years ago, from mustard gas in Ethiopia more than 100 thousand people died.

And not all of them were military - the civilian population also suffered losses. The Italians claimed to have sprayed a substance that could not kill anyone, but the number of victims speaks for itself.

Sino-Japanese War

Not without the participation of nerve gases and the Second World War. During this global conflict, there was a confrontation between China and Japan, in which the latter actively used chemical weapons.

The persecution of enemy soldiers with harmful substances was put on stream by the imperial troops: special combat units were created that were engaged in the development of new destructive weapons.

In 1927, Japan built the first plant for the production of chemical warfare agents. When the Nazis came to power in Germany, the Japanese authorities bought mustard gas production equipment and technology from them and began to produce it in large quantities.

The scope was impressive: they worked for the military industry research institutes, factories for the production of chemical weapons, schools for training specialists in their use. Since many aspects of the influence of gases on the human body were not clarified, the Japanese tested the effects of their gases on prisoners and prisoners of war.

To practice Imperial Japan switched in 1937. In total, during the history of this conflict, chemical weapons were used from 530 to 2000. According to the most rough estimates, more than 60 thousand people died - most likely, the numbers are much higher.

For example, in 1938, Japan dropped 1,000 chemical bombs on the city of Woqu, and during the Battle of Wuhan, the Japanese used 48,000 shells with war materials.

Despite clear successes in the war, Japan capitulated under the pressure of the Soviet troops and did not even try to use its arsenal of gases against the Soviets. Moreover, she hastily hid chemical weapons, although before that she had not hidden the fact of their use in hostilities. Until now, buried chemicals cause illness and death for many Chinese and Japanese.

Poisoned water and soil, many burials of military substances have not yet been discovered. Like many countries in the world, Japan has joined the convention banning the production and use of chemical weapons.

Trials in Nazi Germany

Germany, as the founder of the chemical arms race, continued to work on new types of chemical weapons, but did not use its developments on the fields of the Great Patriotic War. Perhaps this was due to the fact that the "space for life", cleared of Soviet people, was to be settled by the Aryans, and poisonous gases seriously harmed crops, soil fertility and the general ecology.

Therefore, all the developments of the Nazis moved to concentration camps, but here the scale of their work became unprecedented in its cruelty: hundreds of thousands of people died in gas chambers from pesticides under the code "Cyclone-B" - Jews, Poles, gypsies, Soviet prisoners of war, children, women and the elderly …

The Germans did not make distinctions and discounts for gender and age. The scale of war crimes in Nazi Germany is still difficult to assess.

Vietnam War

The United States also contributed to the development of the chemical weapons industry. They actively used harmful substances during Vietnam War since 1963. It was difficult for the Americans to fight in hot Vietnam with its humid forests.

There, our Vietnamese partisans are sheltering themselves, and the United States began to spray defoliants over the territory of the country - substances for the destruction of vegetation. They contained the strongest gas, dioxin, which tends to accumulate in the body and leads to genetic mutations. In addition, dioxin poisoning entails diseases of the liver, kidneys, and blood. In total, 72 million liters of defoliants were dropped over forests and settlements. The civilian population had no chance to escape: there was no talk of any personal protective equipment.

There are about 5 million victims, and the effect of chemical weapons is still affecting Vietnam.

Even in the 21st century, children are born here with gross genetic abnormalities and deformities. The effect of toxic substances on nature is still difficult to assess: relict mangrove forests were destroyed, 140 species of birds disappeared from the face of the earth, the water was poisoned, almost all the fish in it died, and the survivors could not be eaten. Across the country, the number of rats carrying the plague increased sharply, and infected ticks appeared.

Tokyo subway attack

The next time toxic substances were used in Peaceful time against an unsuspecting population. The attack with the use of sarin - a nerve agent with a strong effect - was carried out by the Japanese religious sect Aum Senrikyo.

In 1994, a truck drove onto the streets of Matsumoto City carrying a vaporizer coated with sarin. When sarin evaporated, it turned into a poisonous cloud, the vapors of which penetrated the body of passers-by and paralyzed their nervous system.

The attack was short-lived, as the fog emanating from the truck was visible. However, a few minutes were enough to kill 7 people, and 200 were injured. Emboldened by their success, the sect's activists repeated their attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995. On March 20, five people with sarin bags descended into the subway. The packages were opened in different formulations and the gas began to leak into the ambient air in the enclosed space.

Sarin- an extremely toxic gas, and one drop is enough to kill an adult. The terrorists had with them a total of 10 liters. As a result of the attack, 12 people died and more than 5,000 were seriously poisoned. If the terrorists had used spray guns, the victims would have been in the thousands.

Now "Aum Senrikyo" is officially banned worldwide. The organizers of the subway attack were detained in 2012. They admitted that they were conducting large-scale work on the use of chemical weapons in their terrorist attacks: experiments were carried out with phosgene, soman, tabun, and the production of sarin was put on stream.

Conflict in Iraq

During the Iraq war, both sides did not disdain the use of chemical warfare agents. Terrorists detonated chlorine bombs in the Iraqi province of Anbar, and later a chlorine gas bomb was used.

As a result, the civilian population suffered - chlorine and its compounds cause fatal injuries. respiratory system, and at low concentrations leave burns on the skin.

The Americans did not stand aside: in 2004 they dropped white phosphorus bombs on Iraq. This substance literally burns out all life within a radius of 150 km and is extremely dangerous if inhaled. The Americans tried to justify themselves and denied the use of white phosphorus, but then stated that they considered this method of warfare to be quite acceptable and would continue to drop such projectiles.

It is characteristic that during the attack with incendiary bombs with white phosphorus, it was mainly civilians who suffered.

War in Syria

Recent history can also name several cases of the use of chemical weapons. Here, however, not everything is unambiguous - the conflicting parties deny their guilt, presenting their own evidence and accusing the enemy of falsifying evidence. At the same time, all means of conducting an information war are used: forgeries, fake photographs, fake witnesses, massive propaganda, and even staging attacks.

For example, March 19, 2013 Syrian fighters used a missile filled with chemicals in the battle of Aleppo. As a result, 100 people were poisoned and hospitalized, and 12 people died. It is not clear what gas was used - most likely it was a substance from a series of asphyxiants, as it affected the respiratory organs, causing them to fail and convulsions.

Until now, the Syrian opposition does not admit its guilt, assuring that the rocket belonged to government troops. independent investigation was not, as the work of the UN in this region is hindered by the authorities. In April 2013, East Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, was hit by surface-to-surface missiles containing sarin.

As a result, according to various estimates between 280 and 1,700 people died.

On April 4, 2017, a chemical attack took place on the city of Idlib, for which no one took the blame. The US authorities declared the Syrian authorities and President Bashar al-Assad personally to be the culprit and took advantage of this occasion to launch a missile attack on the Shayrat airbase. After being poisoned by an unknown gas, 70 people died and more than 500 were injured.

In spite of scary experience humanity in terms of the use of chemical weapons, colossal losses throughout the 20th century and the delayed period of action of toxic substances, due to which children with genetic abnormalities are still born in countries under attack, the risk of oncological diseases is increased, and even the ecological situation, it is clear that chemical weapons will be produced and used again and again. This is a cheap type of weapon - it is quickly synthesized on an industrial scale, it is not difficult for a developed industrial economy to put its production on stream.

Chemical weapons are amazing in their effectiveness - sometimes a very small concentration of gas is enough to cause the death of a person, not to mention the complete loss of combat capability. And although chemical weapons are clearly not among the honest methods of warfare and are prohibited from production and use in the world, no one can prohibit their use by terrorists. It is easy to carry poisonous substances into a catering establishment or entertainment center, where a large number of victims is guaranteed. Such attacks take people by surprise, few would even think to put a handkerchief to their face, and panic will only increase the number of victims. Unfortunately, terrorists are aware of all the advantages and properties of chemical weapons, which means that new attacks using chemicals are not excluded.

Now, after another case of the use of prohibited weapons, the country responsible is threatened with indefinite sanctions. But if a country has great influence in the world, like the United States, for example, it can afford not to pay attention to mild reproaches. international organizations. The tension in the world is constantly growing, military experts have long been talking about the Third World War, which is in full swing on the planet, and chemical weapons can still enter the forefront of the battles of the new time. The task of mankind is to bring the world to stability and prevent the sad experience of past wars, which was so quickly forgotten, despite the colossal losses and tragedies.

The first chemical weapons to be used were the "Greek fire" consisting of sulfur compounds thrown from pipes during naval battles, first described by Plutarch, as well as hypnotic agents described by the Scottish historian Buchanan, causing continuous diarrhea according to Greek authors and a range of drugs, including arsenic-containing compounds and the saliva of rabid dogs, which was described by Leonardo da Vinci. In Indian sources of the 4th century BC. e. there were descriptions of alkaloids and toxins, including abrin (a compound close to ricin, a component of the poison with which the Bulgarian dissident G. Markov was poisoned in 1979).

Aconitine, (alkaloid), contained in plants of the genus aconite (aconitium) had ancient history and was used by Indian courtesans for murder. They covered their lips with a special substance, and on top of it, in the form of lipstick, they applied aconitine to their lips, one or more kisses or a bite, which, according to sources, led to a terrible death, the lethal dose was less than 7 milligrams. With the help of one of the poisons mentioned in the ancient "teachings about poisons", describing the effects of their effects, brother Nero Britannicus was killed. Several clinical experimental work was carried out by Madame de "Brinville, who poisoned all her relatives claiming inheritance, she also developed a "powder of inheritance", testing it on patients in clinics in Paris to assess the strength of the drug.

In the XV and XVII centuries poisoning of this kind was very popular, we should remember the Medici, they were a natural phenomenon, because it was almost impossible to detect the poison after the autopsy of the corpse. If the poisoners were found, then the punishment was very cruel, they were burned or forced to drink a huge amount of water. Negative attitude to poisoners was held back by the use of chemicals for military purposes, until the middle of the 19th century. Until then, assuming that sulfur compounds could be used for military purposes, Admiral Sir Thomas Cochran (10th Earl of Sunderland) used sulfur dioxide as a chemical warfare agent in 1855, which was met with indignation by the British military establishment.

During the First World War, chemicals were used in huge quantities: 12,000 tons of mustard gas, which affected about 400,000 people, and a total of 113,000 tons of various substances. In total, during the years of the First World War, 180 thousand tons of various toxic substances were produced. The total losses from chemical weapons are estimated at 1.3 million people, of which up to 100 thousand were fatal. The use of poisonous substances during the First World War are the first recorded violations of the Hague Declaration of 1899 and 1907. Incidentally, the United States refused to support the 1899 Hague Conference. In 1907 Great Britain acceded to the declaration and accepted its obligations. France agreed to the 1899 Hague Declaration, as did Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan. The parties agreed on the non-use of asphyxiating and nerve-paralytic gases for military purposes. Referring to the exact wording of the declaration, on October 27, 1914, Germany used ammunition loaded with shrapnel mixed with an irritating powder, arguing that this use was not the only purpose of this shelling. This also applies to the second half of 1914, when Germany and France used non-lethal tear gases, but on April 22, 1915, Germany carried out a massive chlorine attack, as a result of which 15,000 soldiers were injured, of which 5,000 died. The Germans at the front of 6 km released chlorine from 5730 cylinders. Within 5-8 minutes, 168 tons of chlorine were released.

This perfidious use of chemical weapons by Germany was met with a powerful propaganda campaign against Germany, denouncing the use of poisonous substances for military purposes, initiated by Britain. Julian Parry Robinson examined propaganda material released after the Ypres events that drew attention to the description of Allied casualties due to the gas attack, based on information provided by credible sources. The Times published an article on April 30, 1915: Full history events: New german weapons". This is how eyewitnesses described this event: “The faces, hands of people were of a glossy gray-black color, their mouths were open, their eyes were covered with lead glaze, everything around was rushing about, spinning, fighting for life. The sight was frightening, all those terrible blackened faces, wailing and begging for help.

The effect of the gas is to fill the lungs with a watery mucous liquid, which gradually fills all the lungs, because of this, suffocation occurs, as a result of which people die within 1 or 2 days. German propaganda answered its opponents thus: "These shells * are no more dangerous than the poisonous substances used during the English unrest (meaning the Luddite explosions, which used explosives based on picric acid)." This first gas attack came as a complete surprise to the Allied troops, but on September 25, 1915, the British troops carried out their trial chlorine attack. In further gas attacks, both chlorine and mixtures of chlorine with phosgene were used.

For the first time, a mixture of phosgene and chlorine was first used as an agent by Germany on May 31, 1915, against Russian troops. At the front of 12 km - near Bolimov (Poland), 264 tons of this mixture were produced from 12 thousand cylinders. Despite the lack of means of protection and surprise, the German attack was repulsed. Almost 9 thousand people were put out of action in 2 Russian divisions. Since 1917, the warring countries began to use gas launchers (a prototype of mortars). They were first used by the British. The mines contained from 9 to 28 kg of a poisonous substance, firing from gas guns was carried out mainly with phosgene, liquid diphosgene and chloropicrin. German gas guns were the cause of the “miracle at Caporetto”, when, after shelling from 912 gas guns with mines with phosgene of the Italian battalion, all life was destroyed in the Isonzo river valley. Gas cannons were capable of suddenly creating high concentrations of agents in the target area, so many Italians died even in gas masks.

Gas cannons gave impetus to the use of artillery, the use of poisonous substances, from the middle of 1916. The use of artillery increased the effectiveness of gas attacks. So on June 22, 1916, for 7 hours of continuous shelling, German artillery fired 125 thousand shells from 100 thousand liters. suffocating agents. The mass of poisonous substances in cylinders was 50%, in shells only 10%. On May 15, 1916, during an artillery shelling, the French used a mixture of phosgene with tin tetrachloride and arsenic trichloride, and on July 1, a mixture of hydrocyanic acid with arsenic trichloride. On July 10, 1917, diphenylchlorarsine was first used by the Germans on the Western Front, causing a severe cough even through a gas mask, which in those years had a poor smoke filter. Therefore, in the future, diphenylchlorarsine was used together with phosgene or diphosgene to defeat the enemy’s manpower. Used for the first time by German troops near the Belgian city of Ypres.

On July 12, 1917, within 4 hours, 50 thousand shells containing 125 tons of B, B-dichlorodiethyl sulfide were fired at the Allied positions. Defeats varying degrees received 2490 people. The French called the new OM "mustard gas", after the place of first use, and the British "mustard gas" because of the strong specific smell. British scientists quickly deciphered its formula, but they managed to establish the production of a new OM only in 1918, which is why it was possible to use mustard gas for military purposes only in September 1918 (2 months before the armistice). In this period from April 1915 Until November 1918, more than 50 gas balloon attacks were carried out by German troops, by the British 150, by the French 20. In Russia, chemical weapons were used in small volumes in the years civil war White Army and British occupying forces in 1919.

After World War I and up until World War II, public opinion in Europe was opposed to the use of chemical weapons. After the end of the First World War and until 1934, the movement of pacifists was very active in Europe, including the group “Poets of War”, who described the deaths that occurred as a result of the use of poisonous substances, occupied a special place. After the First World War, among the industrialists of Europe, who ensured the defense of their countries, the opinion prevailed that chemical weapons should be an indispensable attribute of warfare, the rest were considered either sick or crazy. At the same time, through the efforts of the League of Nations, a number of conferences and rallies were held to promote the prohibition of the use of poisonous substances for military purposes and talk about the consequences of this. The International Committee of the Red Cross supported conferences that denounced the use chemicals warfare that took place in the 1920s. The Committee also undertook a number of works in the field of protection of the civilian population from toxic substances. In 1929, The Times announced an award for the invention of the best instrument for determining the concentration of organic matter. In the USSR in 1928, a chemical attack was simulated using 30 airplanes over Leningrad. The Times reported that the application of the powder was not effective for the public.

In 1921, the Washington Conference on Arms Limitation was convened, chemical weapons were the subject of discussion by a specially created subcommittee that had information on the use of chemical weapons during the First World War, which intended to prohibit the use of chemical weapons, even more than conventional weapons of warfare. The subcommittee decided: the use of chemical weapons against the enemy on land and on water cannot be limited. The opinion of the subcommittee was supported by a public opinion poll in the United States. The treaty has been ratified by most countries, including the US and the UK. However, the United States simultaneously began to expand the Edgewood arsenal. Lewisite or was one of the main objects of repeated condemnation, it was even called "Death Dew". In Britain, some accepted the use of chemical weapons as a fait accompli, fearing that they would be at a disadvantage, as in 1915. And as a consequence of this, further work continued on chemical weapons, using propaganda for the use of toxic substances. One of the leading experts in the field of IA was J.B.S. Haldon had experience in conducting chemical attacks as an officer of the Black Watch (Black Guard), who was called from France to help his father Professor Haldon, for research in the field of chemical warfare agents. Haldon was often exposed to chlorine, all kinds of lacrimators and irritants. In 1925 he gave a series of lectures on chemical weapons entitled "Callinicus, Defense Against Chemical Weapons".

He named it after the Syrian Callinicus, who invented a special tar and sulfur mixture called "Greek fire". In it, he wrote: Chemical warfare requires effort to understand. It is more than ever different from those sports entertainments, which are similar to shooting from various types of weapons, even with the use of armored vehicles. Also, chemical weapons were used in large quantities: by Spain in Morocco in 1925, by Italian troops in Ethiopia (from October 1935 to April 1936). Mustard gas was used with great efficiency by the Italians, despite the fact that Italy acceded to the Geneva Protocol in 1925. 415 tons of blister agents and 263 tons of asphyxiating gases were sent to the Ethiopian front. Of the total losses of the Abyssinian army (about 750,000 people), one-third were losses from chemical weapons. And this is without counting the losses of the civilian population, who suffered during the 19 largest air raids. Japan used chemical weapons against Chinese troops in the 1937-1943 war. The losses of Chinese troops from poisonous substances amounted to 10% of the total. In 1913, Germany produced 85.91% of the dyes produced in the world, Britain - 2.54%, the USA - 1.84%.

The six largest chemical companies in Germany have merged into the IG Farben concern, created for complete dominance in the dyes and organic chemistry markets. The famous inorganic chemist Fritz Haber (winner Nobel Prize 1918), was the initiator combat use OV Germany during the First World War, his colleague Schroeder, who developed nerve gases in the early 1930s, was one of the most prominent chemists of his time. British and American sources saw in IG Farben an empire similar to the Krupp armaments empire, considering it a serious threat and made efforts to dismember it after the Second World War, and it was not for nothing that the specialists of this concern helped the Italians to establish the production of OV so effective in Ethiopia. Which led to dominance in the markets of the Allied countries. And in the rest of Europe there were quite a few chemists who believed that it was much more "humane" to use chemical weapons in military operations than to wait until others used them. The reasons why Germany did not use chemical weapons during World War II remain unclear to this day; according to one version, Hitler did not give the command to use CWA during the war because he believed that the USSR had more chemical weapons.

Churchill recognized the need to use chemical weapons only if they were used by the enemy. But the indisputable fact is the superiority of Germany in the production of poisonous substances: the production of nerve gases in Germany came as a complete surprise to the Allied forces in 1945. In 1935-1936. in Germany, nitrogen and "oxygen" mustards were obtained, tabun was synthesized in 1936, more toxic sarin in 1939, and soman at the end of 1944. In 1940, in the city of Oberbayern (Bavaria), a large plant owned by IG Farben was put into operation for the production of mustard gas and mustard compounds, with a capacity of 40,000 tons. In total, in the pre-war and first war years in Germany, about 17 new technological installations for the production of OM were built, the annual capacity of which exceeded 100 thousand tons.

In the city of Dühernfurt, on the Oder (now Silesia, Poland), there was one of the largest production facilities for organic matter. By 1945, Germany had 12 thousand tons of herd in stock, the production of which was nowhere else. Separate work on obtaining these substances was carried out in the USA and Great Britain, but a breakthrough in their production could not occur until 1945. During the years of World War II in the United States, 135 thousand tons of toxic substances were produced at 17 installations, half of the total volume was accounted for mustard gas. Mustard gas was equipped with about 5 million shells and 1 million air bombs. From 1945 to 1980, only 2 types of chemical weapons were used in the West: lachrymators (CS: 2-chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile - tear gas) and herbicides (the so-called "Orange Agent") used by the US Army in Vietnam, the consequences of which are the infamous "Yellow Rains".

CS alone, 6,800 tons were used. The United States produced chemical weapons until 1969. In 1974, President Nixon and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev signed a significant agreement aimed at banning chemical weapons. It was confirmed by President Ford in 1976 at bilateral talks in Geneva. From 1963 to 1967, Egyptian forces used chemical weapons in Yemen. During the 1980s, mustard gas was widely used by Iraq, and later nerve gas (presumably tabun) during the Iran-Iraq conflict. In the incident near Halabja, about 5,000 Iranians and Kurds were injured in a gas attack. In Afghanistan, Soviet troops, according to Western journalists, also used chemical weapons. In 1985, chemical weapons were used in Angola by the Cuban or Vietnamese military, resulting in hard-to-explain environmental impacts. Libya produced chemical weapons at one of its enterprises, which was recorded by Western journalists in 1988.

On April 7, the United States launched a missile attack on the Syrian Shayrat airbase in Homs province. The operation was a response to a chemical attack in Idlib on April 4, for which Washington and Western countries blame Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Official Damascus denies any involvement in the attack.

As a result chemical attack more than 70 people were killed, more than 500 were injured. This is not the first such attack in Syria and not the first in history. The largest cases of the use of chemical weapons are in the RBC photo gallery.

One of the first largest cases the use of chemical warfare agents occurred April 22, 1915, when German troops sprayed about 168 tons of chlorine on positions near the Belgian city of Ypres. The victims of this attack were 1100 people. In total, during the First World War, as a result of the use of chemical weapons, about 100 thousand people died, 1.3 million were injured.

In the photo: a group of British soldiers blinded by chlorine

Photo: Daily Herald Archive / NMeM / Global Look Press

During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War (1935-1936) Despite the ban on the use of chemical weapons established by the Geneva Protocol (1925), on the orders of Benito Mussolini, mustard gas was used in Ethiopia. The Italian military stated that the substance used during the hostilities was not lethal, however, during the entire conflict, about 100 thousand people (military and civilians) who did not have even the simplest means of chemical protection died from poisonous substances.

In the photo: Red Cross soldiers carry the wounded through the Abyssinian desert

Photo: Mary Evans Picture Library / Global Look Press

During the Second World War, chemical weapons were practically not used on the fronts, but were widely used by the Nazis to kill people in concentration camps. Hydrocyanic acid-based pesticide called "cyclone-B" was first used against humans in September 1941 in Auschwitz. For the first time, these deadly gas pellets were used September 3, 1941 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 Poles became victims, the second time 900 Soviet prisoners of war became victims. Hundreds of thousands of people died from the use of "cyclone-B" in Nazi concentration camps.

In November 1943 During the Battle of Changde, the Imperial Japanese Army used chemical and bacteriological weapons against Chinese soldiers. According to the testimonies of witnesses, in addition to the poisonous gases of mustard gas and lewisite, fleas infected with bubonic plague were thrown into the area around the city. The exact number of victims of the use of toxic substances is unknown.

Pictured: Chinese soldiers march through the ruined streets of Changde

During the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1971 American troops various chemicals were used to destroy vegetation to make it easier to find enemy units in the jungle, the most common of which was a chemical known as Agent Orange. The substance was produced using a simplified technology and contained high concentrations of dioxin, which causes genetic mutations and cancer. The Vietnamese Red Cross estimated that 3 million people were affected by the use of Agent Orange, including 150,000 children born with mutations.

Pictured: 12-year-old boy suffering from the effects of Agent Orange

March 20, 1995 members of the Aum Shinrikyo sect sprayed the nerve agent sarin on the Tokyo subway. As a result of the attack, 13 people were killed and another 6,000 were injured. Five members of the sect entered the carriages, lowered packages of volatile liquid onto the floor and pierced them with the tip of an umbrella, after which they left the train. According to experts, there could have been much more victims if the poisonous substance had been sprayed in other ways.

Pictured: Doctors treating passengers affected by sarin

November 2004 American troops used white phosphorus ammunition during the assault on the Iraqi city of Fallujah. Initially, the Pentagon denied the use of such ammunition, but eventually admitted this fact. The exact number of deaths from the use of white phosphorus in Fallujah is unknown. White phosphorus used as an incendiary agent (it causes severe burns to people), but it and its decay products are highly toxic.

Pictured: U.S. Marines escorting a captured Iraqi

The largest chemical attack in Syria since the standoff took place in April 2013 in Eastern Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus. As a result of shelling with sarin, according to various sources, from 280 to 1,700 people died. UN inspectors were able to establish that surface-to-ground missiles with sarin were used in this place, and they were used by the Syrian military.

Pictured: UN chemical weapons experts collect samples