Chemicals to disperse gas

[Gabriel]

I am interested to know whether there were any chemicals used to disperse gas after German gas shells had landed. In the great German spring offensives in

1918 German artillery specifically targeted British artillery emplacements with gas shells with gas filling up the sunken emplacements. Obviously the gunners had gas masks but was there any means of using chemicals to disperse the deadly gas, especially in the gun emplacements?

Thanks.

[NigelS]

Hi Gabriel, welcome to the forum. GAS AND FLAME In Modern Warfare by Major S.J.M. Auld, M.C. (1918) gives a contemporaneous account of some of the techniques used for neutralization, dispersion & protection.

NigelS

[nigelfe]

You can't really disperse gas, it happens naturally. However, some chemicals notably Mustard were liquids and the vapour ('gas') was created by natural evaporation (but the liquid could linger in well sheltered places for a very long time). However, the liquid could be neutralised, eg Fullers Earth became the standard treatment for removing liquid from your skin (and was part of military training into the 1970s (for instructors) - it still leaves a small blister (been there, done that)), bleach solution was used to decontaminate equipment and possibly larger areas.

[dman]

Bleaching agents - Chloride of Lime was used to neutralize Mustard Gas . Mustard (US designation H, HS, HD depending on process used to create

it) was a thick slowly evaporating liquid . THe chloride of lime was mixed with dirt and shoveled into shell craters from mustard gas shells

As earlier poster said powdered Fuller Earth (absorbent clay) was used to remove mustard from skin or equipment (rifles)

[Gabriel]

Thanks for all your responses. I shall read Gas and Flame carefully.

[nigelfe]

Some chemical weapons were delivered as gas, under pressure in cylinders, placed on the ground and the tap opened, relying on the wind to disperse it towards the enemy, and I think the first German use of gas was this type. However, I think all artillery delivered types were liquids that relied on the shell's bursting charge to create a spray that would quickly evaporate to vapour. Some chemicals were quite heavy oils and their natural evaporation rate was quite slow. This meant that they created a contact hazard and in some conditions the evaporation rate could be minimal. A real expert assured me that with UK's greatest chemical invention, VX, you could have an open bucket full and as long as it was away from wind or direct sunlight there was no vapour coming of it, ie just like engine oil.

[Simon Jones]

Gabriel

I have described and illustrated the measures used against mustard gas on my blog here.