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Steinlen
image: two veteran French infantrymen stand in a front line trench looking out at the barbed wire and a cloud of smoke
over No Man's Land. The smoky cloud is poison gas, which the two men are expecting to be used against them by German forces in the spring
in the right wind conditions. The image provides an impression of looming threat.
Chemical warfare was used regularly during the First World War. Despite the implication of this print, that the German
Army used poison gas most readily, such methods were used by both sides. The first full scale deployment of chemical warfare during the
conflict was by German forces at the Second Battle of Ypres on 22 April 1915, when chlorine gas was used. Chlorine, phosgene and mustard
gases were the most commonly used. Whilst such substances were sometimes fatal and the physical effects on soldiers were deeply unpleasant,
they were generally deployed to neutralise and disable defenders during an attack. | Publisher: | http://www.iwm.org.uk | Subjects: | French Army Weapons Military Personnel Landscape Western Front trench / defences First World War | Source: | Imperial War Museum | Creator: | Steinlen, Théophile Alexandre | Identifier: | http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/o... | Go to resource |
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