On the morning of January 31st, 1915, a German soldier on the Eastern Front might have looked towards the town of Bolimów hoping to see an experimental German weapon in action for the first time. The weapon in question was a number of 15cm artillery shells loaded with tear gas. Once the shells met a charge of TNT, they would be blasted open and the canisters would transform into a large cloud of xylyl bromide tear gas. Russian soldiers would suffer extreme irritation to their eyes, noses and ears. Once blinded and suffering, they would be unable to prevent a German attack breaking through their lines.
That German soldier would have been terribly disappointed - the contents of thousands of gas shells blew back towards German lines instead of towards the Russians. Ultimately, an even greater debacle was only avoided because the gas froze due to the cold temperatures on the battlefield, which minimized German casualties.
Sturmtruppe geht vor unter Gas - etching and aquatint by Otto Dix.
(Stormtroopers Advance Under a Gas Attack)
Although the attempt went poorly (to say the least), the new German innovation in their usage of poison gas did not go unnoticed by the Russians. But the failure did mean that the news was not widely spread to Russia’s allies in the west, which set the stage for a more effective gas attack the following year at the Second Battle of Ypres. Read about that here!
The Poison Prince Campaign Continues
At the time of writing, the Central Powers have suffered around 22,000 more casualties than the Entente, which would be a significant loss compared to previous campaigns, where the differences were often less than 10,000.
The campaign will end on April 30, this Friday.