The First World War: 1915

The first major offensive this year was British attempt to push back Germans at Neuve Chapelle. It started on March 10, 1915 but was called off after the futility of it was realised. 11,200 British soldiers died, of whom 4000 were Indians. Germany lost 10,600 men.

A German shell blasts a British position at Neuve Chapelle

Neuve Chapelle. German soldiers guard wounded British soldiers

German soldiers at Neuve Chapelle

Gurkha soldiers at Neuve Chapelle

Indian soldiers charge a German position

INDIANS AT NEUVE CHAPELLE

The British Indian Army. First, they attempt to seal the breach that the Germans (under General Erich van Falkenhayn) had created in the British Line just south of Neuve-Chapelle. On 28 October 1914, the Indian Corps initially succeeded in entering into the village of Neuve Chapelle but were forced to retreat after a strong German counter attack. Further fighting continued for a week with the additional loss of 25 British and more than 500 Indians killed, with 1,450 wounded. In December 1914, the Indian Corps moved to the Givenchy area south of Neuve-Chapelle. On 16 December 1914, they attempted to capture a German front trench line without success losing 54 men. This raised the total number killed to that date to over 2,000.

The Indian Corps provided half the attacking force at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle which started on 10 March 1915. It was one of the major engagements for the Indian Army on the Western Front. Elements of the Indian Corps participated attempted to break the German lines at Neuve Chapelle and went on to capture Aubers. However, a logistical failure in moving British guns within range to cover the advance saw the Indian troops go in without covering fire. Almost 1,000 were killed. Other equally futile attacks were ordered that day by the British 1st Army commander, General Sir Douglas Haig, with similar tragic results. On 25 April, the Indian Corps had its first full exposure to toxic gas warfare.

Rifleman Gobar Singh Negi of the 2nd / 39th Garhwal Rifles was awarded the Victoria Cross, the United Kingdom’s highest award for valour. From his citation: For most conspicuous bravery on 10 March, 1915, at Neuve-Chapelle. During our attack on the German position he was one of a bayonet party with bombs who entered their main trench, and was the first man to go round each traverse, driving back the enemy until they were eventually forced to surrender. He was killed during this engagement. Gobar Singh Negi was one of 4700 solders of the Indian Army who are commemorated at the Neuve-Chapelle Indian Memorial maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

War graves of Indian Army and the Indian Labour Corps are found at Ayette, Souchez and Neuve-Chapelle.

German prisoners captured at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle

SIGNIFICANCE OF NEUVE CHAPELLE

After the failure of the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, the British Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Sir John French claimed that it failed due to a lack of shells. This led to the Shell Crisis of 1915 which brought down the Liberal British government under the Premiership of H. H. Asquith. He formed a new coalition government dominated by Liberals and appointed Lloyd George as Minister of Munitions. It was a recognition that the whole economy would have to be geared for war if the Allies were to prevail on the Western Front.

The French tried twice to push back the Germans at Champagne in 1915. Little was achieved except big loss of lives. It became clear that cavalry charges were useless. The trench warfare had begun

TRENCH WARFARE

• There was barbed wire on both sides in the no man's land. Getting through was difficult. The only way was massive bombardment but that gave away the element of secrecy. Bombardment meant that the enemy was preparing to attack. Moreover the bombing created a mess of mud that was difficult to walk on.
• The machine gun cut down large number of soldiers trying to rush to the trenches. Loss of men was massive. Frontal attacks were suicidal.
• Even if some movement forward happened it formed a salient, an awkward bulge which the enemy could attack.
  

 VIDEOS: TRENCH WARFARE

At Ypres Germans used poison gas which initially affected many allied soldiers but once the wind direction changed the same gas flowed back to the German positions causing even more casualties.

British troops move through poison gas at Loos

The use of poison gas in World War I was a major military innovation. The gases ranged from disabling chemicals, such as tear gas and the severe mustard gas, to lethal agents like phosgene and chlorine. This chemical warfare was a major component of the first global war and first total war of the 20th century. The killing capacity of gas was limited — only 4% of combat deaths were due to gas — however, the proportion of non-fatal casualties was high, and gas remained one of the soldiers' greatest fears. Because it was possible to develop effective countermeasures against gas attacks, it was unlike most other weapons of the period. In the later stages of the war, as the use of gas increased, its overall effectiveness diminished. This widespread use of these agents of chemical warfare, and wartime advances in the composition of high explosives, gave rise to an occasionally expressed view of World War I as “the chemists' war”.
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A British soldier who suffered from a gas attack




POISON GAS DURING WW1

Poison gas was probably the most feared of all weapons in World War One. Poison gas was indiscriminate and could be used on the trenches even when no attack was going on. Whereas the machine gun killed more soldiers overall during the war, death was frequently instant or not drawn out and soldiers could find some shelter in bomb/shell craters from gunfire. A poison gas attack meant soldiers having to put on crude gas masks and if these were unsuccessful, an attack could leave a victim in agony for days and weeks before he finally succumbed to his injuries.

It is generally assumed that gas was first used by the Germans in World War One. This is not accurate. The first recorded gas attack was by the French. In August 1914, the French used tear gas grenades containing xylyl bromide on the Germans. This was more an irritant rather than a gas that would kill. It was used by the French to stop the seemingly unstoppable German army advancing throughout Belgium and north-eastern France. In one sense, it was an act of desperation as opposed to a premeditated act that all but went against the 'rules' of war. However, while the French were the first to use a gas against an enemy, the Germans had been giving a great deal of thought to the use of poison gas as a way of inflicting a major defeat on an enemy.

In October 1914, the Germans attacked Neuve Chapelle. Here they fired gas shells at the French that contained a chemical that caused violent sneezing fits. Once again, the gas was not designed to kill rather than to incapacitate an enemy so that they were incapable of defending their positions.

This took place against a background of a war in the west that was still mobile. Once trench warfare had literally dug in, all sides involved in the conflict looked for any way possible to bring movement back into their campaigns. One of the more obvious was to develop a weapon that was so appalling that it would destroy not only an enemy frontline but also the will to maintain troops on that frontline. Poison gas might even provoke a mass mutiny along a frontline thus causing it to collapse. In other words, poison gas was the answer for the war's lack of mobility.

Poison gas (chlorine) was used for the first time at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915. At around 17.00 hours on the 22nd April, French sentries in Ypres noticed a yellow-green cloud moving towards them - a gas delivered from pressurised cylinders dug into the German front line between Steenstraat and Langemarck. They thought that it was a smokescreen to disguise the movement forwards of German troops. As such, all troops in the area were ordered to the firing line of their trench - right in the path of the chlorine. Its impact was immediate and devastating. The French and their Algerian comrades fled in terror. Their understandable reaction created an opportunity for the Germans to advance unhindered into the strategically important Ypres salient. But even the Germans were unprepared and surprised by the impact of chlorine and they failed to follow up the success of the chlorine attack.

What did occur at Ypres was a deliberate use of a poison gas. Now, the gloves were off and other nations with the ability to manufacture poison gas could use it and blame it on the Germans as they had been the first to use it.

The first of the Allied nations to respond to the Ypres gas attack was Britain in September 1915. The newly formed Special Gas Companies attacked German lines at Loos. In the Ypres attack, the German had delivered their chlorine by using pressurised cylinders. For the attack at Loos, the British also used gas cylinders. When the wind was in a favourable direction, chlorine gas was released from the British front line so that it could drift over to the German front line. This was then to be followed by an infantry attack. However, along parts of the British front line, the wind changed direction and the chlorine was blown back onto the British causing over 2,000 casualties with seven fatalities. The Special Gas Companies were not allowed to call their new weapon gas - it was referred to as an "accessory".

However, the risk of the wind blowing gas back onto you also affected the Germans and French in some of their gas attacks during late 1915.

The development in the use of poison gases led to both phosgene and mustard gas being used. Phosgene was especially potent as its impact was frequently felt only 48 hours after it had been inhaled and by then it had already bedded itself in the respiratory organs of the body and little could be done to eradicate it. Also it was much less apparent that someone had inhaled phosgene as it did not cause as much violent coughing. By the time that phosgene had got into a person's bodily system, it was too late. Mustard gas was first used by the Germans against the Russians at Riga in September 1917. This gas caused both internal and external blisters on the victim within hours of being exposed to it. Such damage to the lungs and other internal organs were very painful and occasionally fatal. Many who did survive were blinded by the gas.

By the time the war ended, the main user of poison gas was Germany, followed by France and then Britain. Though poison gas was a terrifying weapon, its actual impact, rather like the tank, is open to debate. The number of fatalities was relatively few - even if the terror impact did not diminish for the duration of the war.

The British army (including the British Empire) had 188,000 gas casualties but only 8,100 fatalities amongst them. It is believed that the nation that suffered the most fatalities was Russia (over 50,000 men) while France had 8,000 fatalities. In total there were about 1,250,000 gas casualties in the war but only 91,000 fatalities (less than 10%) with over 50% of these fatalities being Russian. However, these figures do not take into account the number of men who died from poison gas related injuries years after the end of the war; nor do they take into account the number of men who survived but were so badly incapacitated by poison gas that they could hold down no job once they had been released by the army.

Armies quickly produced gas masks that gave protection as long as sufficient warning was given of a gas attack. Soldiers also used make-shift gas masks if they were caught in the open without a gas mask during a gas attack - cloth soaked in their own urine and placed over the mouth was said to give protection against a chlorine attack. By the end of the war, relatively sophisticated gas masks were available to soldiers in the trenches on the Western Front.

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British soldiers await medical attention

Germans releasing gas towards the allies positions

 German soldiers move through poison gas

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