Editing Chemical weapons in World War I (section)

==Casualties==
[[File:Sargent, John Singer (RA) - Gassed - Google Art Project.jpg|right|thumb|upright=1.3|[[John Singer Sargent]]'s 1918 painting ''[[Gassed (painting)|Gassed]]'']]

A range of authors have attempted to estimate the casualties from chemical weapons in WWI. This is hampered by incomplete data. British casualties were best recorded, while estimates of gas casualties amongst Russians on the Eastern front have been described as "pure guesswork", a major issue as it is often claimed that a large proportion of casualties occurred there. A commonly used estimate claims 90,000 fatalities and 1.3 million casualties. Of this, 26,600 deaths and 652,000 casualties come from the UK, France, Germany and the US where more dependable data exists. Of the rest, historian L. F. Haber suggests the usual estimates are likely too high, but concedes "we shall never know".{{sfn|Haber|2002|pp=239-245}}

It is generally agreed that the contribution of gas weapons to the total casualty figures was relatively minor. British figures, which were accurately maintained from 1916, recorded that 3% of gas casualties were fatal, 2% were permanently invalid and 70% were fit for duty again within six weeks.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Medical aspects of biological warfare|last=Dembek|first=Z. F.|publisher=Borden Institute, Walter Reed Army Medical Center|year=2007|isbn=978-0160797316|location=Washington, DC|pages=300–301}}</ref>

{{Blockquote|It was remarked as a joke that if someone yelled 'Gas', everyone in France would put on a mask.&nbsp;... Gas shock was as frequent as [[shell shock]].|H. Allen, ''Towards the Flame'', 1934}}

{{Poem quote|
Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! — An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime&nbsp;...
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
|[[Wilfred Owen]], "[[Dulce et Decorum est]]", 1917}}

[[File:American Red Cross and Medical Research Committee, "An Atlas of Gas Poisoning" plate III.jpg|thumb|upright|Plate III, Pallid type of asphyxia from phosgene poisoning, with [[Circulatory collapse|circulatory failure]], American Red Cross and Medical Research Committee, ''An Atlas of Gas Poisoning'', 1918]]

Death by gas was often slow and painful. According to [[Denis Winter]] (''Death's Men'', 1978), a fatal dose of phosgene eventually led to "shallow breathing and retching, pulse up to 120, an ashen face and the discharge of four pints (2 litres) of yellow liquid from the lungs each hour for the 48 of the drowning spasms."

A common fate of those exposed to gas was blindness, chlorine gas or mustard gas being the main causes. One of the most famous First World War paintings, ''[[Gassed (painting)|Gassed]]'' by [[John Singer Sargent]], captures such a scene of mustard gas casualties which he witnessed at a dressing station at Le Bac-du-Sud near [[Arras, France|Arras]] in July 1918. (The gases used during that battle (tear gas) caused temporary blindness and/or a painful stinging in the eyes. These bandages were normally water-soaked to provide a rudimentary form of pain relief to the eyes of casualties before they reached more organized medical help.)

The proportion of mustard gas fatalities to total casualties was low; 2% of mustard gas casualties died and many of these succumbed to secondary infections rather than the gas itself. Once it was introduced at the [[Third Battle of Ypres|third battle of Ypres]], mustard gas produced 90% of all British gas casualties and 14% of battle casualties of any type.

{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+Estimated gas casualties<ref name="duffy2000" />{{sfn|Haber|2002|pp=239-245}}
|-
! Nation
! Fatal
! Total <br>(Fatal & non-fatal)
|-
| '''More reliable data:'''
|-
| Germany
| align="right" | 9,000
| align="right" | 200,000
|-
| France
| align="right" | 8,000
| align="right" | 190,000
|-
| [[British Empire]] <br>(includes Canada)
| align="right" | 8,109
| align="right" | 188,706
|-
| United States
| align="right" | 1,462
| align="right" | 72,807
|-
| '''Less reliable data:'''
|-
| [[Russian Empire|Russia]]
| align="right" | 56,000
| align="right" | 419,340
|-
| [[Austria-Hungary]]
| align="right" | 3,000
| align="right" | 100,000
|-
| Italy
| align="right" | 4,627
| align="right" | 60,000
|-
| Others
| align="right" | 1,000
| align="right" | 10,000
|}

Mustard gas was a source of extreme dread. In ''The Anatomy of Courage'' (1945), [[Charles McMoran Wilson, 1st Baron Moran|Lord Moran]], who had been a medical officer during the war, wrote:

{{Blockquote|After July 1917 gas partly usurped the role of high explosive in bringing to head a natural unfitness for war. The gassed men were an expression of trench fatigue, a menace when the manhood of the nation had been picked over.<ref>{{Cite book
 | author=Wilson, Charles McMoran (Lord Moran)
 | author-link=Charles Wilson, 1st Baron Moran
 | year=1945 | title=The Anatomy of Courage
 | edition=1st | publisher=Constable
 | location=London }}</ref>}}

Mustard gas did not need to be inhaled to be effective—any contact with skin was sufficient. Exposure to 0.1 [[parts per million|ppm]] was enough to cause massive [[blister]]s. Higher concentrations could burn flesh to the bone. It was particularly effective against the soft skin of the eyes, nose, armpits and groin, since it dissolved in the natural moisture of those areas. Typical exposure would result in swelling of the [[conjunctiva]] and eyelids, forcing them closed and rendering the victim temporarily blind. Where it contacted the skin, moist red patches would immediately appear which after 24 hours would have formed into blisters. Other symptoms included severe headache, elevated pulse and temperature (fever), and [[pneumonia]] (from blistering in the lungs).

Many of those who survived a gas attack were scarred for life. Respiratory disease and failing eyesight were common post-war afflictions. Of the Canadians who, without any effective protection, had withstood the first chlorine attacks during Second Ypres, 60% of the casualties had to be repatriated and half of these were still unfit by the end of the war, over three years later.

Many of those who were fairly soon recorded as fit for service were left with scar tissue in their lungs. This tissue was susceptible to [[tuberculosis]] attack. It was from this that many of the 1918 casualties died, around the time of the Second World War, shortly before [[Sulfonamide (medicine)|sulfa drugs]] became widely available for its treatment.

===British testimony===
{| class="wikitable floatright"
|+ British forces gas casualties on the [[Western Front (WWI)|Western Front]]{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}}
|-
! rowspan="2" | Date
! rowspan="2" | Agent
! colspan="2" | Casualties (official)
|-
! Fatal
! Non-fatal
|-
| April–May 1915
| [[Chlorine]]
| align="right" | 350
| align="right" | 7,000
|-
| May 1915 – June 1916
| [[Tear gas|Lachrymants]]
| align="right" | 0
| align="right" | 0
|-
| December 1915 – August 1916
| Chlorine
| align="right" | 1,013
| align="right" | 4,207
|-
| July 1916 – July 1917
| Various
| align="right" | 532
| align="right" | 8,806
|-
| July 1917 – November 1918
| [[Mustard gas]]
| align="right" | 4,086
| align="right" | 160,526
|-
| April 1915 – November 1918
| Total
| align="right" | 5,981
| align="right" | 180,539
|}

A British nurse treating mustard gas cases recorded:

{{Blockquote|They cannot be bandaged or touched. We cover them with a tent of propped-up sheets. Gas burns must be agonizing because usually the other cases do not complain even with the worst wounds but gas cases are invariably beyond endurance and they cannot help crying out.<ref>{{Cite book
 | first=Tim | last=Cook | year=1999
 | title=No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in the First World War
 | publisher=UBC Press | isbn=0-7748-0740-7 }}</ref>}}

A [[postmortem]] account from the British official medical history records one of the British casualties:

<blockquote>Case four. Aged 39 years. Gassed 29 July 1917. Admitted to casualty clearing station the same day. Died about ten days later. Brownish pigmentation present over large surfaces of the body. A white ring of skin where the wrist watch was. Marked superficial burning of the face and [[scrotum]]. The [[larynx]] much congested. The whole of the [[vertebrate trachea|trachea]] was covered by a yellow membrane. The [[bronchi]] contained abundant gas. The lungs fairly voluminous. The right lung showing extensive collapse at the base. Liver congested and fatty. Stomach showed numerous submucous haemorrhages. The brain substance was unduly wet and very congested.<ref>{{Cite book |first1=T |last1=Harris |first2=J. |last2=Paxman |year=2002 |title=A higher form of killing: the secret history of chemical and biological warfare |publisher=Random House, Inc |isbn=0-8129-6653-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780812966534 }}</ref></blockquote>

===Civilian casualties===
The belligerents avoided deliberate attacks on civilians, but the distribution of gas cloud casualties was not only limited to the front. Nearby towns were at risk from winds blowing the poison gases through, with only the French taking special precautions in planning gas attacks. Later in the war, the British provided warnings and issued civilians working near the front with gas masks, leading to improved preparedness. Eventually, everyone within 8 kilometers of the front was to carry a respirator at all times. Regardless, a significant number would be exposed, with the most serious case in [[Armentières]] where lingering mustard gas residue from heavy German bombardment in July 1917 led to 675 civilian casualties (including 86 killed). Hundreds of shells rained down per minute, and while civilians had shelters and gas masks, the particular dangers of mustard gas was not yet known.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk/story/109511|title=Gas Attack|website=Lives of the First World War|author=James Atkinson}}</ref> British and French records list a total of around 1325 civilian casualties, including over a hundred deaths from German gas weapons. This is an underestimate as smaller incidents of exposure have not been recorded, and there is no German record of civilian casualties from Allied weapons. In addition, around 4000 civilians working in chemical weapons production and [[Filling factories in the United Kingdom|shell filling]] in France, Britain and the United States were injured due to accidental exposure. Similar figures for Germany are not available, though it is known that there were a number of deaths. The British did not publicise incidents of civilians being gassed by Germans due to fears about the effect on morale at home.<ref name="Fitzgerald2008"/><ref>{{cite book|title=The Poisonous Cloud: Chemical warfare in the First World War|pages = 248–253|last1 = Haber|first1 = L. F.|year = 2002|isbn=9780191512315 }}</ref>