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http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/chemical/mustardg.htm
Mustard gas was used for the first time by Germans in
1917 at Ypres. More than 14,000 British casualties were
produced in the first three months and by the end of the
first world war more than 120,000 British mustard casualties
had occurred. The most commonly injured areas of the body
were: eyes (86.1%), respiratory tract (75.3%), scrotum
(42.1%), face (26.6%), anus (23.9%), back (12.9%), armpits
(12.5%), neck (12%).
Adolph Hitler was exposed to mustard gas during the first
world war. He described his personal experience in "Mein
Kampf" (Vol. 1, 1924): "During the night of October 13 to
14th (1918) the British opened an attack with gas on the
front south of Ypres. They used the yellow gas whose effect
was unknown to us, at least from personal experience. I was
destined to experience it that very night. On a hill south of
Werwick, in the evening of 13 October, we were subjected to
several hours of heavy bombardment with gas bombs, which
continued through the night with more or less intensity.
About midnight a number of us were put out of action, some
for ever. Towards morning I also began to feel pain. It
increased with every quarter of an hour, and about seven
o'clock my eyes were scorching as I staggered back and
delivered the last dispatch I was destined to carry in this
war. A few hours later my eyes were like glowing coals, and
all was darkness around me."
During the second world war mustard gas was not used but
Lundquist (1983) reports of a large number of Allied soldiers
and sailors who were exposed to mustard gas towards the ends
of second world war as a result of German bombing of the
harbour at Bari in Italy. Of the two dozen ships destroyed,
one was carrying a cargo of about 100 thousand kilograms of
mustard-gas bombs. Much of the mustard gas was released into
the water and some of it dissolved in the floating oil. More
than 1000 people were killed and of these deaths more than
100 were determined to have been specifically caused by
mustard-gas poisoning and many more to have been due to
various indirectly associated reasons, such as disablement
followed by drowning.
Pretty horrific stuff. I had a great uncle who was gassed, bayonneted, and left for dead in a trench during WWI. He survived, returned home, fathered a child, then died at the age of 23 as a result of his wounds....