Expert of the scientific Department of the Russian military historical society (rvio) Konstantin Pakhalyuk in an interview with RIA Novosti told about the use of chemical weapons during the First world war.
According to the historian, in those years, it was a deadly chemical weapons only if first applications, then he quickly learned to fight, and the outcome of the war it had no influence.
He also noted that the effect of gassing many seemed intimidating because it affects the respiratory tract and mucous membranes, causes terrible burns on the eyes and heavy breathing leads to a painful death from suffocation, which has a powerful impact on the human psyche.
during the First world war it was used 40 different types of toxic substances, which affected 1.2 million people and 100 thousand died.
However, according to experts, by the end of the war, chemical weapons were not given the obvious benefits. Dangerous gas helped to solve tactical problems. “In General, the First world war was a war primarily of artillery”, — he said.
the Historian noted that chemical weapons have shown themselves to be volatile and even unpredictable, which led to its limited use. So, the decision about its use was taken depending on the weather, primarily the wind. Also, after the use of gas was not always possible to immediately carry out the attack because of the advancing troops themselves came under action of gas.
According to experts, the first massive use of chemical weapons against Russian troops occurred during the battle of Bolimov in January 1915.
last year the weekly “Zvezda” has made a rating of the best weapons of the First world war. First edition set a Mosin rifle, which was adopted by the army of the Russian Empire in 1891. In second place was the U.S. M1911 self-loading pistol, adopted by the U.S. army in 1911. Third place went to the Maxim machine gun, developed in 1883.
