The Poisonous Gasses Used In World War I and How They Killed

Terrifying innovations in chemical warfare

Grant Piper
4 min readSep 30, 2024
(By Agence Rol — Bibliothèque nationale de France, département Estampes et photographie, EI-13 (531), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17866044)

One of the most horrifying and enduring legacies of World War I was the heavy use of gas during the conflict. Today, gas is rarely used on the battlefield due to international laws banning the practice, but no such laws were observed during the Great War. Gas was often delivered via special artillery shells that were outfitted with glass bottles filled with toxic liquids. When the shell exploded, the canisters would break, and the liquid would evaporate, filling the area with a cloud of gas.

There were a number of different types of gasses used during World War I, and they all had different outcomes. Some gasses were used to kill soldiers outright, others were irritants or designed to create casualties and empty out trenches ahead of an assault.

Here are three of the most common types of gas used during World War I, what they were designed for, and how they killed.

Chlorine Gas

The first gas developed and used on the battlefield in World War I was chlorine gas. Chlorine was developed by the Germans and deployed for the first time in April of 1915. Chlorine gas is much denser than air and thus sinks to the ground in dense clouds when it is deployed. Chlorine gas…

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Grant Piper

Professional writer. Amateur historian. Husband, father, Christian.