Gas in other theatres

[stu]

Hi,

Can anyone tell me to which extent gas was used outside of the Western Front.

Thanks.

Stu.

[Guest stevenbec]

Yes Mate,

The British sent some 4000 gas shell's to Egypt for use during the 2nd Battle of Gaza 17th to 19th April 1917.

These were used against the Turkish troops but were found to be inafective.

There is no record of any use by either the Germans or Turks against the allied armies in Palestine or Egypt.

I beleive there is a record of some funny smelling shell dug up by the AIF on Gallipoli fired by the Turks, but I can find no reference to gas and it could have been something else. I mean either some other chemical or just the type of expolsive used in the shell.

S.B

[stu]

Thanks Steve.

I suspect there must have been a threat though,as I have an MC group to the anti gas officer of the 75th division and then the 60th division,he served in both of these divisions in 1918.

He didn't however win his MC in Egypt,he got that in France in 1917 with the R.E. special company Z(flame throwers).

Stu.

[Robert Dunlop]

Gas, both cloud attacks and artillery shells, were widely (indeed first) employed on the Eastern Front. I know of one instance where gas was used by the British against the Bulgarians in the Balkans. Livens projectors were sent to the Italians, who themselves had been subjected to gas attacks, both cloud and artillery. Foulkes reports that a large artillery attack occurred as early as 1915 in this sector.

One of the problems with gas in the Middle East was the heat, which quickly dissipated phosgene.

I do not know of any recorded use of gas in any of the African campaigns. Mind you, with the Tse-tse fly around who needed anything as benign as gas!

[Guest stevenbec]

Mate,

All my sourse talk about their gas training with the AIF in Egypt/Palestine.

No one liked doing it and it was always avoided if possible.

The mask in 1917 are recorded as the cloth Bag type with the small vision slit.

There were both officers and NCO's at Brigade HQ as Gas officers.

I can not recall off hand if the British repeated the mistakes of the 2nd Battle of Gaza again? I have read no mention of say Allenby using it during the 3rd Battle of Gaza 31st Oct 1917.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help

S.B

[michaeldr]

Stu,

This subject was touched upon at the beginning of January this year

See here

There is a link there to a Jerusalem Post article of 15 June 2000 by Arieh O’Sullivan, based on the work of Dr. Yigal Sheffy regarding gas in the middle-east theatres in WWI

Regards

Michael D.R.

[stu]

Thanks for the info.

The article in the Jerusalem Post was very interesting aswell.

Thanks to you all.

Stu.

[awakefield]

Stu

In Macedonia the first extensive use of gas was that by the Bulgarians between 16-18 March 1917 as part of a large-scale bombardment of British line on the Doiran-Vardar front. Worst hit were 67th Brigade of 22nd Division, with the 7th South Wales Borderers suffering particularly badly from gas. At this time troops of the British Salonika Force (BSF) were issued with PH Helmets, although box respirators were in theatre - being held in a stores depot at Salonika. In the week following the bombardment, box respirators were quickly issued to front line units.

The Bulgarian use of gas pre-empted a plan by BSF commander General George Milne to use gas shells to supplement his preliminary barrage during the 1st Battle of Doiran (24-25 April & 8-9 May 1917). Due to the strength of the enemy defences built into the hills around Doiran, Milne hoped to use gas to neutralize enemy artillery - much of which was located in concrete emplacements which his limited artillery (nothing better that 60 pdrs and 6-in howitzers) could not destroy. He requested 60,000 gas shells well before the planned attack but, due to the low priority placed on the Salonika Campaign by the War Office, only 20,000 were delivered. These arrived too late for the April attack and of the total, 13,000 were found to be defective.

In the 2nd Battle of Doiran (18-19 September 1918) Milne again viewed gas as an integral part of his arsenal. This time a greater quantity of shells were received, although still fewer that the total requested. Infantry of the assault battalions were given extensive training in assault tactics whilst wearing respirators and each brigade was equipped with 200 'Portable Fires' (rag bundles that were to be soaked in paraffin the evening preceeding the attack). On encountering a dugout etc that was thought to contain gas, one or more 'Fires' would be lit and thrown in to the position to disperse the gas. Although during 2nd Doiran gas reduced the efficiency of Bulgarian artillery, it was found that the defending infantry were not similarly affected, allowing them to plug gaps in the defence through the use of machine guns and trench mortars.

Overall, a couple of factors hampered the effectiveness of gas during the Doiran battles. Firstly the terrain, which consists of a tangled mass of ridges and hills separated by deep ravines. With the Bulgarians holding the higher ground it was found that gas had a tendency to disperse when fired onto the hills. The ravines, which the British and Greek infantry had to cross were a different matter. Secondly, enemy anti-gas precautions were underestimated. The 9th (Pleven) Division holding the Doiran sector was the premier formation of the Bulgarian Army. All men were equipped with an efficient respirator and had received full training in its use and care. Additionally, at regular intervals along the front, meteorological stations were established to monitor weather conditions and report whenever these favoured potential British use of gas. Efficient communications ensured that information from the met stations could quickly reach troops in the line. In the wide, flat expanse of the Struma Valley conditions were more suitable for the use of gas and the enemy facing the BSF was of lesser quality. Unfortunately, there was little opportunity to test the weapon in that region as there were too few shells to go round.

ALAN