One hundred and ten years ago, on this day, April 22nd, 1915,
On April 22, 1915 at 5 p.m. a wave of asphyxiating gas released from cylinders embedded in the ground by German specialist troops smothered the Allied line on the northern end of the Ypres salient, causing panic and a struggle to survive a new form of weapon.
The attack forced two colonial French divisions north of Ypres from their positions, creating a 5-mile gap in the Allied line defending the city. This was the first effective use of poison gas on the Western Front and the debut of Germany’s newest weapon in its chemical arsenal, chlorine gas, which irritated the lung tissue causing a choking effect that could cause death.
A British officer described the effect of the gas on the French colonial soldiers:
“A panic-stricken rabble of Turcos and Zouaves with gray faces and protruding eyeballs, clutching their throats and choking as they ran, many of them dropping in their tracks and lying on the sodden earth with limbs convulsed and features distorted in death.”
There was no technology to protect the soldiers from this new weapon; an operational gas mask was not available, so the Allied soldiers improvised with linen masks soaked in water and “respirators” made from lint and tape.
Stunned by their overwhelming outcome of the attack, the Germans tentatively advanced, losing an opportunity to exploit their success.
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 301ppm. As of 2025 it is 427ppm, but check here for daily measures.
First Usage of Poison Gas | National WWI Museum and Memorial
See also How Gas Became A Terror Weapon In The First World War | IWM
The context was that the First World War, the great wars, or the war to end all wars, or whatever you want to call it, was bogged down already in trench warfare. So what do you do when you’re stuck? You innovate. What did the Germans innovate? Gas!
Was this the first use of gas against humans? I’m not sure. Had it been tried out in the colonies? I don’t know.
What we learn is that ideas of polluted air as a menace had been around for a long time, and it appeared in science fiction, the weather as a nightmare, and now a deliberate man made (local) climate modification was happening
What happened next? The Germans kept using it for a while, but it was a tricky thing, because when the wind changed, you would cause mayhem for your own troops (literal blowback). Then, after the war, people’s lungs were shot. See also that poem by Wilfred Owen poem Futility.
See also Thomas Hardy’s poem Christmas 1924,
‘Peace upon earth!’ was said. We sing it,
And pay a million priests to bring it.
After two thousand years of mass
We’ve got as far as poison-gas.
Murder apes. We’re not just murder apes. But mostly, of late, murder apes.
What happened next
See also Churchill’s suggestion of it as a cheap way of maintaining empire, and the Churchill Society’s inevitable attempt at explaining it away. Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
Also on this day:
April 22, 1965 – Manchester Evening News article on C02 and global warming – All Our Yesterdays
April 22, 1975 – UK Civil Service scratches its head on #climate
April 22, 1993 – Clinton’s announcement used by anti-carbon pricing Aussies