Nasal and throat warfare agent
Nasal and throat warfare agents are chemical warfare agents that have a very irritating effect on the nasopharynx . This warfare agent class is also known as Blue Cross known because during the First World War munitions with these warfare agents was marked with a blue cross. During the Second World War , the term blue ring class was also used. The term is now out of date, the warfare agents have largely been destroyed.
Examples and history
- Adamsite (phenarsazine chloride)
- Clark I (diphenylarsine chloride)
- Clark II (diphenylarsine cyanide)
- Clark III (diphenylaminarsine cyanide)
In the Lind dynamite factory in the Rhineland , the chemical warfare agents were developed on behalf of the military during the First World War and were first used on July 10, 1917, just two days before the yellow cross was used for the first time. When the French army received large areas of Germany after the end of the war, including the factories established there, they also acquired the dynamite factory. Around 20,000 kilograms of blue cross were produced here and stored in a pit on the site. The new rulers decided to render these warfare agents harmless, for which purpose deep tanks were brought into the ground in the Wahner Heide , into which the blue cross including broken glass, earth and liquid concrete were permanently sunk. What happened to it later has not been recorded.
effect
These warfare agents penetrated the respiratory protection filters of the gas masks of the time and had a strong irritant effect, so that those affected tore off their gas masks ( mask breakers ) and were then unprotected against further attacks with lung warfare agents ( green cross ). A remedy was provided by additional filter disks (blue cross pre-filters called snap-on lids ), but these made breathing very difficult.
Often were shells used to bring Blue Cross also over longer distances accurately used. For this purpose, small bottles filled with the solid warfare agent were inserted into the grenade and filled with molten explosives. During the explosion, the warfare agent was atomized into an aerosol .
In the German Army (Kaiserreich) a distinction was made between the Blue Cross and the Blue Cross 1 grenade. Diphenylarsine chloride was used in the blue cross grenade, while diphenylarsine cyanide and mixtures of this substance with phenylarsine dichloride were used in the blue cross-1 grenade .
“These organic arsenic compounds have the most powerful effects on the mucous membrane of the nose and throat. First there is a violent cough, increased nasal secretion and salivation. After a few minutes, the symptoms of irritation spread to the sinuses and cause a feeling of pressure and pain in the head, jaws, ears and teeth. As the irritants progress into the lungs, pain in the area of the sternum, shortness of breath, feeling of oppression, then at high concentrations due to resorptive effects drowsiness, unconsciousness, severe pain in limbs and joints follow. The ultra-microscopic dust of the Blue Cross group penetrated the inserts of the gas masks used in World War I and forced the soldiers to tear the masks off their faces so that they were exposed to the effects of other warfare agents (hence the name "mask breaker"). "
See also
- Gas war during the First World War
-
Colored shooting
- Green Cross
- Mustard , mustard , mustards
- Yellow cross 3 or red cross, see nettle fabric
- White cross, see eye warfare agent
- List of chemical warfare agents
literature
- Rainer Haas, Blue Cross Combat Materials , Hüthig Jehle Rehm GmbH Publishing Group, overview of publications [1]
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Poison Gas Plague , In. Berliner Volkszeitung , April 8, 1929.
- ↑ Johann Steiner: About the chemical warfare agents . In: Wiener Medical Wochenschrift . November 5, 1938, p. 1173 ( ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online [accessed May 18, 2020]).