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Mister D
04-22-2013, 02:40 PM
The Germans launched the first major gas attack of the First World War on April 22, 1915. The Second Battle of Ypres began with a wave of chlorine gas directed against two French colonial divisions (Algerians and Morrocans) who were more than ready for any conventional assault but broke in panic as the clouds of chlorine descended upon them. Thousands fled to the rear before collapsing and coughing up their scotched lungs. Incredibly, the Germans relied on the wind to take the gas toward the French positions and failed to follow up on the initial panic the attack had caused. They had hauled cylinders full of the gas to forward positions and released the gas by hand. As the gas settled on the French positions it created a lethal obstacle for the attackers themselves. Moreover, such success was not expected and resrves were not in place to exploit any breakthroughs. Consequently, the Allied line was stabilized by the end of the day but lessons were learned and industrial warfare and taken a sinister turn.

Greenridgeman
04-22-2013, 03:27 PM
The Germans launched the first major gas attack of the First World War on April 22, 1915. The Second Battle of Ypres began with a wave of chlorine gas directed against two French colonial divisions (Algerians and Morrocans) who were more than ready for any conventional assault but broke in panic as the clouds of chlorine descended upon them. Thousands fled to the rear before collapsing and coughing up their scotched lungs. Incredibly, the Germans relied on the wind to take the gas toward the French positions and failed to follow up on the initial panic the attack had caused. They had hauled cylinders full of the gas to forward positions and released the gas by hand. As the gas settled on the French positions it created a lethal obstacle for the attackers themselves. Moreover, such success was not expected and resrves were not in place to exploit any breakthroughs. Consequently, the Allied line was stabilized by the end of the day but lessons were learned and industrial warfare and taken a sinister turn.


I was thinking of fresh tilled gardens.

And mowed grass, but, you know how Spring is, mower troubles.

oceanloverOH
04-22-2013, 04:46 PM
I was thinking of fresh tilled gardens.

And mowed grass, but, you know how Spring is, mower troubles.

Me too. The crabapple and pear trees are all in bloom, and everybody is planting flowers and mowing their grass for the first time since last fall. The air smells so good outside!

But carry on with the historical anecdotes about chlorine gas (that's horrible!)

Greenridgeman
04-22-2013, 04:52 PM
Me too. The crabapple and pear trees are all in bloom, and everybody is planting flowers and mowing their grass for the first time since last fall. The air smells so good outside!

But carry on with the historical anecdotes about chlorine gas (that's horrible!)


I got little pears, blooms long gone.

oceanloverOH
04-22-2013, 04:55 PM
I got little pears, blooms long gone.

I'm quite a bit further north than you.....we actually had a tiny sprinkling of SNOW a couple of days ago.......

Greenridgeman
04-22-2013, 05:03 PM
I'm quite a bit further north than you.....we actually had a tiny sprinkling of SNOW a couple of days ago.......


I had frost night before last.

Watermelons and cantaloupes go into cups tomorrow.

I never can make them for July 4.

I grew up where the melon was sliced many ways.

In my dotage, I grow them for myself, eat the heart only, and leave the rest for the critters.

I loves me some watermelon.

Mister D
04-22-2013, 06:46 PM
I had frost night before last.

Watermelons and cantaloupes go into cups tomorrow.

I never can make them for July 4.

I grew up where the melon was sliced many ways.

In my dotage, I grow them for myself, eat the heart only, and leave the rest for the critters.

I loves me some watermelon.

I hope you love yourself some chlorine. :angry: :grin:

oceanloverOH
04-22-2013, 06:48 PM
Yeah, we are on the "serious" side of tPF and need to stick to topic. Mister D, do you know if chlorine gas was what the Germans used on the Jews years later? Or was it something else?

Mister D
04-22-2013, 06:50 PM
Yeah, we are on the "serious" side of tPF and need to stick to topic. @Mister D (http://thepoliticalforums.com/member.php?u=4), do you know if chlorine gas was what the Germans used on the Jews years later? Or was it something else?

I was just playing. I'm not bothered by it. Nothing much more to say on that gas attack anyway.

Nah that was a substance containing cyanide called Zyklon B.

Greenridgeman
04-22-2013, 06:54 PM
I was just playing. I'm not bothered by it. Nothing much more to say on that gas attack anyway.

Nah that was a substance containing cyanide called Zyklon B.



Zyklon B, another fine product brought to you by Bayer.

Ever read "The Arms of Krupp"?

Mister D
04-22-2013, 06:55 PM
Zyklon B, another fine product brought to you by Bayer.

Ever read "The Arms of Krupp"?

Really? I didn't know that.

I have not, sir. Interesting family though.

Greenridgeman
04-22-2013, 06:57 PM
I hope you love yourself some chlorine. :angry: :grin:


I had a great uncle that got gassed in WWI.

Ended up out in California in a branch of the family descended from one of my ancestors that left Georgia after the Civil War and went West.

Greenridgeman
04-22-2013, 06:58 PM
Really? I didn't know that.

I have not, sir. Interesting family though.


Krupp actually sued British arms manufacturers for patent infringement when they copied artillery fuses in WWI, and collected.

Mister D
04-22-2013, 06:58 PM
I had a great uncle that got gassed in WWI.

Ended up out in California in a branch of the family descended from one of my ancestors that left Georgia after the Civil War and went West.

Interesting. I've tried to find out if anyone in served that far back but I have nothing to go on in terms family lore.

Mister D
04-22-2013, 06:59 PM
Krupp actually sued British arms manufacturers for patent infringement when they copied artillery fuses in WWI, and collected.

Didn't they go bankrupt at some point?

Greenridgeman
04-22-2013, 07:01 PM
I was just playing. I'm not bothered by it. Nothing much more to say on that gas attack anyway.

Nah that was a substance containing cyanide called Zyklon B.



It was invented by Fritz Haber, a German Jewish chemist and Nobel laureate.

I am not sure if Bayer held the patent, or was just one of the manufacturers.

Mister D
04-22-2013, 07:02 PM
It was invented by Fritz Haber, a German Jewish chemist and Nobel laureate.

I am not sure if Bayer held the patent, or was just one of the manufacturers.

That's ironic. :sad:

It's a great factoid.

Greenridgeman
04-22-2013, 07:21 PM
That's ironic. :sad:

It's a great factoid.


Bayer was a subsidiary of IG Farben.

I am 99.9% sure I saw a photo of a can of zyklon-b with the Bayer label.

By another name, it is still used as an insecticide and rodenticide in parts of Eastern Europe.

Greenridgeman
04-22-2013, 07:28 PM
Didn't they go bankrupt at some point?


I think Krupp, or at least the Krupp fortune, still exists to some extent.

Arms of Krupp is a good read, but, out of date as to corporate history and reorganizations.

oceanloverOH
04-22-2013, 09:04 PM
Zyklon B, another fine product brought to you by Bayer.

Ever read "The Arms of Krupp"?

No. That's been on my wish list for literally years; maybe I need to move it up a few notches. My two historical fascinations are Hitler's rise and fall; and the slavery period in the U.S.

Greenridgeman
04-22-2013, 10:50 PM
No. That's been on my wish list for literally years; maybe I need to move it up a few notches. My two historical fascinations are Hitler's rise and fall; and the slavery period in the U.S.


Slavery existed in the New World for almost 150 years before an Englishman established a colony in the present day US, most slaves went to the Caribean, or

South and Central America, yet 11 Confederate States(but not the Union states that held slaves until after the war and passage of the 13th) and the descendants of
those Confederates bear the onus of slavery like nobody else ever had slaves.


I get rather tired of the subject, myself.