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No discussion of WWI can take place without a mention of the bane of the soldier's existence (And No, I'm not talking about Supply Sergeants!), Gas.

Surprisingly, the threat of poison gas being used in war was appreciated in the late 19th Century. The 1899 Hague Convention committed its signatories not "to deploy projecticles the sole use of which is the diffusion of asphyxiating or harmful gases." While well-intentioned, the convention did not outlaw all gas, or its development. The result was that all of the major nations continued with the development of tear gases and after the outbreak of the war, research into other substances was intensified.

Gas warfare started on April 22nd of 1915 when the Germans employed the brutally practical expedient of opening large cylinders of chlorine gas at their front line and allowing the billowing yellowish green contents to drift towards the enemy. In spite of the capture of a German prisoner equipped with a respirator and who had mentioned gas cylinders during his interrogation, the French colonial and territorial troops were caught completely off guard with some 4,000 men killed or injured during this first attack.

The Germans quickly discovered that tthe use of cylinders was very unpredictable, Wind blowing in the wrong direction would blow the gas back into the faces of the assembled assault troops.

The first protective masks ranged from oxygen rebreather sets designed for U-Boat crews to such desperate techniques such as balling up a handerkerchief, placing it on your mouth and then breathing through it. Such crude uses were quickly overrun by such tricks as breathing through a cloth dipped in urine, and cotton bandoliers dipped in a water/alkaline solution.

Replacing cylinders were artilley shells loaded with gas, and while initial surprising, troops quickly learned to recognize the softer "plop" of a gas shell, far quieter than high explosive.

By mid 1915, the Germans developed K-Stoff, phosgene was in wide spread use by the end of the year. Such lung irritnats were used throughout the war, but the worst of them all as known simply as "H.S." or Hun Stuff, but owing to its distinctive smell was soon known as "Mustard Gas". The key effect of mustard gas was not only that it affected the respiratory system and the eyes, but any part of the body it came into contact with. Soon, it was causing more casualties than all of the other German gas munitions combined. Mustard would also linger of a week or more, depending on weather conditions.

Gas, for of its terrors, was surprisingly non-lethal. According to the British, in 1915, of 12,792 personnel treated for gas symptoms, only 307 died and almost all of the others were returned to duty. By mid-war, of 23,626 treated for gas poisoning, 93% were returned to duty and just over 3% died.

A French survey of 120 gas casualties in 1917 is of intrest. Of these men, 39 blamed their incapacitation at being surprised or through their own carelessness; 15 to the removal of their masks too soon; 62 to ill-fitting or displaced masks and 4 to having an obsolete mask.. In short, most gas casualtues were aviodable if up-to-date, masks were supplied to men who had received warning of the attack and put on their masks promptly and properly.

Source is "Trench, A History of Trench Warfare on the Western Front"