WORLD WAR I

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WORLD WAR I

• THE GREAT WAR

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Total Cost of the War 3,363,322,147,850
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They Paid the Price
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8,556,315 Soldiers Dead
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91,198 Dead From Gas
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Poison Gas Shellshock
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Poison Gas Stats

• Total tonnage used 129,000.
• Non-fatal casualties 1,205,655.
• Reported Fatal Cases 91,198.

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Gas on the Battlefield

• First reported use was a tear gas shell used on
  1-3-1915 on the Eastern Front
• First use on Western Front was at Battle of Ypres
  on April 22, 1915. Germans released a 5 mile
  wide cloud of chlorine gas that consisted of 168
  tons of the chemical.
• Within months all warring nations would accept
  gas as a viable weapon.
• Hitler was once exposed to gas and it terrified
  him so much he would not use it in WWII.

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Chlorine Gas

• Classified as an Asphyxiant.
• Enters lungs or eyes and mixes with moisture to
  create hydrochloric acid.
• Inhalation destroys lungs within seconds.
• Fatal if inhaled in concentration.
• Slow death by suffocating.
• If not killed, lung and eye damage expected.
• Only military drawback was that it made the
  victim cough and not inhale enough gas, not
  efficient enough for generals.

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Protection Against Chlorine

• First measures taken were to give soldiers cotton
  gauze and instruct them to urinate on them and
  hold it against their faces. The ammonia
  neutralized the chlorine.
• Difficult to fight while holding gauze over face,
  so by 1915 the first gas masks were given to
  troops on the frontlines.

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Phosgene Gas

• Carbonyl Chloride, first used in 1916.
• Similar to Chlorine Gas and also an Asphyxiant.
• Killed in the same way as Chlorine but because of
  chemical changes it caused less coughing.
• More efficient and had a delayed effect that
  would kill men up to 48 hours later.
• Twice as toxic as Chlorine gas.
• Protection was much the same as with Chlorine
  gas.

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Mustard Gas

• Dichloroethylsulphide, used by Germans in 1917.
• An almost odorless liquid-gas compound.
• It was a caustic chemical so it took it worst
  toll on the moist areas of the body like the
  eyes, genitals, and armpits.
• Took average of twelve hours to take effect.
• Remained potent in ground for weeks posing a
  danger to all troops.

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Effects of Mustard Gas

• After the body had been exposed serious blisters
  would form externally and internally if inhaled.
  Gas masks and all other forms of protection were
  useless.
• If eyes were exposed they would swell shut, then
  begin to cramp and feel like they are burning.
  Within a while the cornea would become ulcerated
  and decay with blindness very likely.
• Mustard gas would affect the bronchial tubes by
  stripping away the mucous, the gums and throat
  tissue would die and collect. Large amounts of
  lung tissue would die and eventually the throat
  tightens. Blood and tissue would collect.
  Within a couple of weeks suffocation would kill
  them. If they did not die they would be very
  vulnerable to disease.
• Extremely painful and victims would be tied down
  to beds because they writhed so much.

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Shellshock

• Called Shellshock because people thought it was
  caused by enemy artillery and the effects it had
  on the men. Now called Post-Traumatic Stress
  Disorder. Can occur at any age.
• In actuality it was caused by a terrifying or
  traumatic event where a man went over the edge
  and they just broke. It could have been seeing a
  friend or an officer die, or even receiving an
  order contrary to the current one. Even people
  not in battle experienced it. Currently they find
  that child abuse victims and other people who
  have been emotionally damaged suffer greatly from
  it.
• Not recognized by authorities in beginning of
  war, saw it as cowardice and desertion.

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Shellshock in the Beginning

• At first men suffering from shellshock were
  accused of desertion and cowardice. By the end
  of the war 300 would have been executed.
• Generals thought it was a plague of the enlisted
  men but facts soon proved that officers were the
  majority of the cases.
• Shellshock was neither accepted by the military
  or the medical system as a valid illness.
• Eventually they would have so many cases of it
  among officers that they would have to recognize
  it.
• Cases became so prevalent, they had to use
  bathhouses and other local places to house
  patients. They had no room at hospitals.

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Shellshock Treatments

• Treatment for shellshock was typical of turn of
  the centaury psychology cruel and unusual.
• Certain treatments were also punishment for
  falling asleep on duty or drinking on duty. For
  instance, one treatment was to tie the patient to
  a pole and stick him within range of enemy
  artillery for a few hours. This usually lasted a
  few months. It was suppose to rehabilitate them.
• Other measures were equally cruel and unusual.
  Doctors would identify the patients likes and
  dislikes and forbid them from indulging in their
  likes and focus in on their dislikes.

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Treatments Continued

• An example of that would be a man who feared
  being alone would be tossed into isolation. A
  man who liked reading or was a teacher would be
  banned from books and the library.
• Eventually late in the war they came onto the
  idea that these treatments werent working and
  that they had to switch treatments. The only
  effective treatment know today that does not
  leave massive emotional damage is intense
  psychological consoling. Therapy in which they
  relive the experience and learn to come to terms
  with it.

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Gas and Shellshock inflict suffering for a long
time.

• These are two of the worst legacies of WWI. Long
  after exposure to gas men would still be severely
  disabled, most of them with no eyesight. Gas
  would become a weapon dreaded on the battlefield
  and always associated with death and destruction.
• Shellshock stayed with people even after the war.
  They had destroyed minds, some men constantly
  shaking. Others would react to nothing except
  the words, Gas or Incoming, when they heard
  these words they would instantly seek cover.
  Shellshock and the treatments forever changed the
  men who had it and many never recovered and
  stayed just shells of the men they used to be.

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The End
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Made by Stewy