Changes

Chemists invented 18 new gases that were more deadly effective than chlorine, and also masks to neutralize them. [[Phosgene]] ("Green Cross", the Germans called it) like chlorine, attacked the lungs, only more quickly--without a mask a victim had one minute to live--but it evaporated in 30 minutes.  

Chemists invented 18 new gases that were more deadly effective than chlorine, and also masks to neutralize them. [[Phosgene]] ("Green Cross", the Germans called it) like chlorine, attacked the lungs, only more quickly--without a mask a victim had one minute to live--but it evaporated in 30 minutes.  

[[Image:Phosgene.jpg|thumb|300px|leftWW2 US Army poster]]

[[Image:Phosgene.jpg|thumb|300px|left|WW2 US Army poster]]

The Germans introduced [[mustard gas]] ("Yellow Cross") in July, 1917. While not a killer, it caused severe blisters in the lungs and on exposed skin that could temporarily blind or incapacitate for weeks or months. Mustard gas (actually a liquid) did not evaporate, so elaborate [[Decontamination|decontamination]] routines were necessary to wash off humans, equipment and terrain. Late in the war, Berlin invented arsenic compounds ("Blue Cross") which, while not lethal, caused uncontrollable sneezing or nausea that forced victims to remove their masks, thus exposing them to lethal gases. (Nerve gases were not invented until the 1930s.)

The Germans introduced [[mustard gas]] ("Yellow Cross") in July, 1917. While not a killer, it caused severe blisters in the lungs and on exposed skin that could temporarily blind or incapacitate for weeks or months. Mustard gas (actually a liquid) did not evaporate, so elaborate [[Decontamination|decontamination]] routines were necessary to wash off humans, equipment and terrain. Late in the war, Berlin invented arsenic compounds ("Blue Cross") which, while not lethal, caused uncontrollable sneezing or nausea that forced victims to remove their masks, thus exposing them to lethal gases. (Nerve gases were not invented until the 1930s.)