Neutralization

“ Assuming that means are found to protect satisfactorily the respiratory system, and the eyes, what other vulnerable points can the war chemical find in the human organism? Some more specific vesicant, some modification of mustard gas, might arise, limited in attack to certain portions of the human being. ”

“ By permitting the individual soldier to retain the efficient use of his weapons in gas, the mask, or other form of individual protection, may render a costly counter-attack unnecessary. In this way protective methods in chemical warfare may be the determining factor in some strategic campaign or tactical activity. The distinction between tactics and strategy in chemical warfare cannot be made by grouping substances, or their methods of application to war, any more than one can say that certain infantry or artillery formations or weapons have a purely strategic or tactical function. ”

“ We may refer to the use of smoke, of gas shell for neutralisation, or of cloud gas as preparation for a local infantry advance.
The same classification can be applied to the protective as to the offensive side of chemical warfare. The equipment of an army of millions with a gas mask has a strategic value, if it counters the large-scale use of gas by the enemy. The mere fact of this protection may serve the same purpose as a violent resistance to a huge enemy attack. It may render the attack, and, therefore, the resistance, out of the question. ”

“ In the future we must expect the enemy to be in a measure as well prepared in chemical warfare as we are. Let us consider the special case of our own men advancing to the attack behind a rolling barrage. We will consider also that the wind is blowing toward our own troops. Obviously under those conditions the wind will blow our own gas back onto our troops. Will we use gas in that barrage? We certainly will! Because with the wind blowing toward our own troops we have the exact ideal condition that the enemy wants for his use of gas. ”

“ All of this has direct application to training with chemical warfare materials in peace. We believe that all opposition to chemical warfare today can be divided into two classes—those who do not understand it and those who are afraid of it—ignorance and cowardice. Our chemists at Edgewood Arsenal are every day toying with the most powerful chemical compounds; toying with mixtures they know nothing of, not knowing what instant they may induce an explosion of some fearful poisonous gas. But they have learned how to protect themselves. ”

“ Because of this, it is worth while, and even necessary, to understand the applications of Chemical Warfare, for us to go back and study the work of the masters in war from the dawn of history down to the present. When we do that we find that the underlying fundamental principles of war remain unchanged. They are the same today as they were in the time of Demosthenes, and as they will be 10,000 years from now. It is an axiom that the basis of success in war is the ability to have at the decisive point at the decisive moment a more effective force than that of the enemy. ”

“ I feel sure that the army appreciates the value of chemical warfare, and that it appreciates also the value of the chemists to chemical warfare.
"So long as there is any danger of other nations continuing these methods of warfare, research and experiment in chemical warfare must be pursued. Research must not only be directed towards the gases and apparatus, likely to be employed in the future, but also towards protection against all possible gases. Training in the use of gas will be confined to appropriate branches, but training in defensive measures will include the whole army. ”

“ But with the tension released, and the Allies victorious, the check to the German menace appears crushing and complete. Few realise that one formidable challenge has not been answered. Silently menacing, the chemical threat remains unrecognised. How, asks the reader, can this be? Are we not aware of the poison gas campaign? Indeed, we have not yet grasped the simple technical facts of the case, and these are merely the outward signs of a deep-rooted menace whose nature, activities, and potentialities are doubly important because so utterly unsuspected by those whom they most threaten. ”

“ As to non-combatants, certainly we do not contemplate using poisonous gas against them, no more at least than we propose to use high explosives in long-range guns or aeroplanes against them. The use of the one against non-combatants is just as damnable as the other and it is just as easy to refrain from using one as the other.
Gas Cannot be Abolished. As to the abandonment of poison gas, it must be remembered that no powerful weapon of war has ever been abandoned once it proved its power unless a more powerful weapon was discovered. ”

“ Listen," he said hoarsely, "can't you realize what a menace to men of the past, of your day, these Mentanicals could be? Oh, your weapons, your machine guns and gas, your powerful explosives! I tell you they would be as nothing against the deadly rays and indescribable forces these Mentanicals could bring against them. Can you gas something that doesn't breathe, shoot what is practically impervious to bullets, that can blow up, that can explode your powder magazines, your high explosives, at a distance of miles? ”

“ In summing up then, it is noted that there are several important things in defense against gas. First, the mask which protects the eyes and the lungs. Second, the training that teaches the man how to utilize to best advantage the means of protection at his disposal, whether he be alone or among others. Third, protective clothing that protects hands and feet and the skin in general. Fourth, a knowledge of gases and their tactical use that will enable commanders, whenever possible, to move men out of gas infected areas. ”

“ They hunted for the pinholes in the face masks. They lay in wait for days in the trenches for the soldiers' return as a cat watches at the hole of a mouse. The cannon ball could be seen and heard. The poison gas was invisible and inaudible, and sometimes even the chemical sense which nature has given man for his protection, the sense of smell, failed to give warning of the approach of the foe.
The smaller the matter that man can deal with the more he can get out of it. ”

“ There were elements in this first gas attack which were absent even from the situation created by our first use of tanks. Unfamiliarity amongst the troops, or the staff, for that matter, created an atmosphere of unparalleled confusion. Men attempted to protect themselves by burying their mouths and nostrils in the loose earth. Those chemists, on the spot, not immediately struck down, made frantic efforts to bring up supplies of any suitable and available chemical or material which might assist resistance and movement in the affected zone. ”

“ Since we can choose gases that are either liquid or solid, that are irritating only or highly poisonous, that are visible or invisible, that persist for days or that pass with the wind, we have a weapon applicable to every act of war and for that matter, to every act of peace. ”

“ Before taking up in some detail the methods of projecting gas upon the enemy, it is very desirable to understand the fundamentals of chemical warfare, in so far as they pertain to poisonous gases. Following the first use of pure chlorine all the principal nations engaged in the war began investigations into a wide range of substances in the hope of finding others more poisonous, more easily produced, and more readily projected upon the enemy. ”

“ As a feint to draw the enemy’s attention to a front on which no attack is being made, so as to hold his troops to their trenches, or to induce him to expend ammunition needlessly and to put down a barrage in the wrong place.
(3) To simulate gas and force the enemy to wear his mask. Gas should occasionally be mixed with smoke, to impress upon him the belief that it is never safe to remain in a smoke cloud without wearing his mask. ”

“ Mustard gas kills one man for every forty it puts out of action; shells kill one for every three; but their god who compromised with high explosives has not yet found time to adapt himself to chemical warfare. ”

“ Report of the Hartley Mission.—Chemical warfare is the point faible in world disarmament. Judging from the above clause of the Treaty, it is clear that this is not fully recognised. Once again our trust is invited in mere prohibition. The lesson of the war is not learnt. The chemical menace is not countered. Why should this be? There are two main reasons. In the first place, very few had any conception of the tremendous growth in this branch of warfare, for facts had rarely been disclosed, and those with no direct contact with chemical warfare were relying on impressions. ”

“ As gas warfare developed not only were all kinds of gas shells sent over in a bunch but they were accompanied by high explosive, shrapnel and anything else in the way of trouble that the enemy possessed. A man near the front line, under those conditions, had all he could do and frequently more than he could do, to get his mask on and keep it on while doing his bit. ”

“ Throughout the history of warfare the art of defense has kept pace with the art of offense and the courage of man has never failed, no matter to what new danger he was exposed. As each new gas employed by the enemy was detected it became the business of our chemists to discover some method of absorbing or neutralizing it. Porous charcoal, best made from such dense wood as coconut shells, was packed in the respirator box together with layers of such chemicals as will catch the gases to be expected. ”

“ It is a struggle for the initiative.
More than this, as the use of chemical warfare becomes an organic part of operations, as it did during the war, these operations become correspondingly dependent upon conditions imposed by the chemical campaign. One can imagine the case of an army unprotected against a new gas, aware that the enemy is ready to employ the latter, compelled to postpone some huge offensive until its protective methods were equal to countering the new chemical. ”

“ In the future Gas Troops will put off the majority of all cloud gas attacks even with toxic smoke candles.
Necessity for Training in Peace. This is an outline of the subject of chemical warfare. As stated in the beginning, the fundamental underlying principles for the successful use of poisonous gas is necessarily the same as for any other war materials. The necessity for continuous training in peace is just the same with chemical warfare as with the rifle, the machine gun, with field artillery or any other weapon of war. ”

“ Every student of war realizes that casualties cannot be avoided in battle and yet one American Staff Officer went so far as to refuse to use gas offensively unless the Chemical Warfare Service could absolutely guarantee that not a single American casualty could occur under any circumstances. ”

“ The tactical type of chemical warfare method involves the use of some new or old war chemical device in achieving a tactical objective which may, itself, form part of a larger scheme with strategic significance. ”

“ Following up this idea, we can forecast the use of a chemical which will not only permit the formation of defensive flanks, or pockets, in the enemy front, or in our own defensive positions, through their influence on Staff considerations with regard to casualties, but, by replacing the relatively mild casualty effect of mustard gas by a highly and rapidly lethal effect, will render these areas not only strategically, but physically, impassable. ”

“ In fact, one can hardly conceive of a situation where gas or smoke will not be employed, for these materials may be liquids or solids that either automatically, upon exposure to the air, turn into gas, or which are pulverized by high explosive, or driven off by heat. This varied character of the materials enables them to be used in every sort of artillery shell, bomb or other container carried to the field of battle. ”

“ Such are the facts about chemical warfare. They will not be believed because a belief in them would do violence to the sentiments of most people. They will not be promulgated, as there is no money to be made out of them. (Chemical manufacturers make both high explosive and mustard gas, and the former more easily.) ”

“ Chemical warfare troops, in making gas attacks, use cylinders for the cloud or wave attack, and the Livens’ projector and the 4-inch Stokes’ mortar for attacks with heavy concentrations of gas projected by bombs with ranges up to a mile. ”

“ Grave questions are pending in which the chemical aspect of national defence is a prominent factor. However willing the individual concerned, he cannot make a sound judgment on the brief technical or popular garbled versions which have appeared. ”

“ There is not a military man in this room who has not, from the beginning of his experience with the enemy, found that when their own methods were turned back they were the quickest to say “Enough.” When we turned their own infernal gas inventions against them they appealed to the laws of war. ”

“ Indeed it is more so because the use of gas is so perfectly adaptable to night work. Men must be taught to take precautionary measures when so sleepy, tired and worn out that they will sleep through the roar of artillery.
How Chemical Warfare Should be Considered. We ask you only to look at the use of chemical warfare materials as you look at the use of the artillery, infantry, cavalry, tanks or aeroplanes. ”