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The Great War (1914-1918) Forum

Remembered Today:

Salonika/Macedonia


MelPack

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Hello

I am trying to help out on another thread:

 

Does anybody know if mustard gas was deployed by the Bulgarian Army in 1917/18 against British forces?

Regards

Mel

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Mel,

re gas in eastern-Med, see http://wih.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/12/3/278

and in particular pages 316/317

quote: "In mid-March 1917, a month before the EEF’s gunners subjected the Gaza defenders to poison gas, the Germans conducted a chemical bombardment on British trenches at the Salonica front.... ... ... In the course of three nights the Germans fired about 15 000 asphyxiating shells on a small sector of British trenches, inflicting about 113 casualties, of whom only one died. Apparently, the advanced gas masks that replaced an older model only a month earlier had done their job. German and Bulgarian chemical harassment fire, with deadly poison and tear gas, directed mainly against artillery batteries, continued to the end of the war, causing their temporary neutralization.... ... ... on 14 September 1918, with the decisive Anglo-French offensive (several days prior to the final EEF offensive in Palestine). On that night British artillery fired no fewer than 37 000 chemical shells, most of them of a deadly asphyxiating kind. This was an impressive amount, even by Western Front standards, and it achieved significant results by silencing Bulgarian artillery and neutralizing enemy troops in their trenches (the hundreds of prisoners taken suffering from chemical symptoms testified to the bombardment’s efficiency). The offensive, much assisted by the poison gases, ended successfully with a truce after two weeks, followed by Bulgaria’s retirement from the war"

regards

Michael

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The Official History records the Bulgarians using gas ("for the first time") in a bombardment on 17-18 March 1917 on British lines between Doiran and the Vardar, and French lines across the river. (There were Germans in that part of the line too, but they are not mentioned.)

The troops were not equipped with box-respirators, for, though a consignment of these had recently arrived, indents for them had been received only the previous night. The older type, known as the "P.H. respirator," proved not completely impermeable. Casualties were, however, not high, except in the 67th Brigade, which had a loss of 164, whereof 103 were from gas-poisoning. They would doubtless have been more serious had not the enemy's gunners apparently failed to make the corrections to their fuzes necessary owing to the drop in the temperature at night. Box-respirators were rushed up by train and lorry and issued as speedily as possible.

Adrian

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Michael & Adrian

Thanks for the information.

I will link this thread with the query one.

Regards

Mel

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