chemical warfare essays

chemical warfare essays The use of chemical warfare did not take a toll till the mid or the first world War. Chemical warfare was to be considered the most deadly weapon that you can use against your enemies. Because the death rate was so high there were many meetings held on the discussion of rather or not countries could use chemical viruses in war. It was stated in Hague convention of 1899 that there the use of gas was a barbaric way to kill someone. The convention ended with the signing of most of the countries from Europe. There were three countries that did not sign however; one was Italy, U.S and Turkey. During the year of 1914 trench warfare became a very common way of battling one another. The Germans attacked against Belgium was stalled in August 1914 because of the trenches. Germany was in a deadlock with Belgium due to this and the Germans wanted to break this by using poisonous gases. Even though they had got that in mind they did not break the signing of Hague. In that same month the French used 26-mm gas grenades during their battle. Although they had no proofs that they were using gases the Germans had to go and retrieve a document to prove their facts. Thats exactly what they did in February 21, 1915. Now that there was proof of the use of poisonous gas the Germans felt that they had the freedom to use gas in their efforts. Because allied chemist also had did research on chemical warfare, the Germans knew that they had to work hard to stay ahead of them. Due to not enough people who were educated enough Germany only employed 2,000 chemist by the end of the war. The rest of the people who worked in the research centers were students, laboratory technicians, and men from the medical, engineering, or ordnance branches of the armed services. Even with the small amount of trained chemist Germany was st ...