Clouds of Chlorine Haunt Ypres

Jivan Johal
Apr 23, 2017
2 min read

It was 1915, and the war had only been fought for one year, and it was on this day that the Germans released Chlorine gas on the French armies at Ypres. Prior to this battle, the French and Belgian armies held the areas near Ypres, and for Germany, it was critical to punch a hole in the front line so that they could continue with their Schlieffen Plan, which demanded that France and Western Europe be neutralized before the Germans turned their armies around and waged war against Russia.

In Northern France, along the French-German and Belgian-German borders, trench warfare was claiming lives. The constant bombardment of artillery meant that soldiers were forced to hide in their trenches, and could not advance without risking death by machine gun fire or sniper fire. Each side was watching the other, waiting for a move to mow down the enemy. Cavalrymen had also been

outdated because weapons had become extremely advanced, allowing for multiple shots and resulting in death. The Germans began to face pressure because the trench warfare was too slow for them, and their Schlieffen plan was not working. At the same time, the Eastern front began to heat up, and the troops were too thinly spread. The Germans began to pump Chlorine gas across the battlefields near Ypres to stop the French resistance. The result was more that they could hope for.

The French, ill-prepared for such a gas attack, were decimated by the deployment of Chemical Weapons. 6,000 French troops were killed, and many choked to death on the gas. This effectiveness allowed the German High Command to move more troops to the Russian front. The Germans suffered too.

Because of the method of deployment, the Germans relied heavily on the wind to carry the gas towards their enemies. In some cases, the gas would fall upon the Germans and kill them. Both sides suffered casualties due to gas, but later on, the Germans used cannons to deliver gas shells, reducing their casualties

The battle of Ypres was a testing ground for new German weapons, and even though brave Canadian men repulsed waves of Germans and their gas, There was no hiding from a gaseous doom.