Assorted
Gas Shells of
the W.W. I
German Army

Attached are numerous black and white diagrams illustrating five different German gas artillery shells that were manufactured to be fired from a number of different guns of varying calibers.

Many have believed that the German Army was the first of the combatants to use chemical weapons during the First World War, but historians have pointed out that they were second to the French in this matter: in August of 1914, French infantry fired tear-gas grenades and in October, the Germans one-upped them with chemical artillery shells during the battle of Neuve Chapelle. However, the Germans are properly credited for being the first army to use chemical artillery with the most devastating effect. On April 22, 1915, the German Army hurled 520 gas shells at British and Canadian units in Belgium, killing five thousand and incapacitating ten thousand more. Following this historic incident, both sides began producing large amounts of gas shells and, of course, gas masks.

Click here to read more about gas warfare during World War One.