Editing Chemical weapons in World War I (section)

====British gas attacks====
The British expressed outrage at Germany's use of poison gas at Ypres and responded by developing their own gas warfare capability. The commander of [[II Corps (United Kingdom)|II Corps]], [[Sir Charles Fergusson, 7th Baronet|Lieutenant General Sir Charles Ferguson]], said of gas:

{{Blockquote |It is a cowardly form of warfare which does not commend itself to me or other English soldiers&nbsp;... We cannot win this war unless we kill or incapacitate more of our enemies than they do of us, and if this can only be done by our copying the enemy in his choice of weapons, we must not refuse to do so.<ref>{{Cite book
 | author=Cook, Tim
 | year=1999
 | title=No Place to Run: The Canadian Corps and Gas Warfare in the First World War
 | publisher=UBC Press
 | page=37 | isbn=0-7748-0740-7}}</ref>}}

The first use of gas by the British was at the [[Battle of Loos]], 25 September 1915, but the attempt was a disaster. Chlorine, codenamed ''Red Star'', was the agent to be used (140 tons arrayed in 5,100 cylinders), and the attack was dependent on a favourable wind. On this occasion the wind proved fickle, and the gas either lingered in [[no man's land]] or, in places, blew back on the British trenches.<ref name="heller84" /> This was compounded when the gas could not be released from all the British canisters because the wrong turning keys were sent with them. Subsequent retaliatory German shelling hit some of those unused full cylinders, releasing gas among the British troops.<ref>{{Cite journal | publisher = First World War | journal =  Weaponry | url = http://www.firstworldwar.com/weaponry/gas.htm | title = Gas }}</ref> Exacerbating the situation were the primitive flannel gas masks distributed to the British. The masks got hot, and the small eye-pieces misted over, reducing visibility. Some of the troops lifted the masks to get fresh air, causing them to be gassed.<ref>{{cite book
 | first=Philip | last=Warner | year=2000
 | title=The Battle of Loos | page=37
 | series=Wordsworth Military Library
 | publisher=Wordsworth Editions | isbn=1-84022-229-8
 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OClz6xxwgCUC&pg=PA37 }}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="135px">
File:British infantry advancing at Loos 25 September 1915.jpg|British infantry advancing through gas at [[Battle of Loos|Loos]], 25 September 1915
File:World War I, British soccer team with gas masks, 1916.jpg|Football team of British soldiers with gas masks, Western front, 1916
File:Englische Gasbomben.jpg|A British gas bomb from 1915
</gallery>