War Diaries Talk

Blue Cross Gas Shells

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    On this page, in the entry dated Oct. 6,1918, there is mention of this battery firing Blue Cross gas shells from a gun they "captured" but which appears to have actually been left behind by the withdrawing Germans.

    I've looked up Blue Cross gas shells online, and it seems that these were a German weapon. So would these shells they are firing have most likely been captured along with the gun? Does anybody know?

    I also learned that these shells contained not an actual gas, but a powdery substance that was designed to penetrate the gas masks and irritate the nose and throat, so that the soldier would take off his gas mask. Then, the Germans fired mustard gas shells as a followup.

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    @davidunderdown might know more about me on this, but as I understand it, the Brits had developed their own version of the Blue Cross shells, but never actually used them in anger.

    I don't think these types of shell actually caused as many problems as they were supposed to. There were respirators and respirator-extensions designed to deal with them, but in any case I'm not sure that the powder used was that successful at infiltrating the standard respirators.

    Nonetheless, pretty horrible, isn't it? The ingenuity we humans display when it comes to killing one another.

    I think it's a safe bet to assume these shells were captured along with the gun.

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  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    Google links for Blue Cross shells:- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Cross_(chemical_warfare)
    Also (List of gases used in ww1) article – blue cross etc. Link:- http://www.worldwar1.com/arm006.htm

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Thanks, Marie. Useful links there.

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  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    Marie, Those are the links I looked at! You and I seem to think alike in research matters.

    In the diaries, I was struck by the fact that for both of the batteries, this was the first mention of a specific type of shell or bomb that they fired, but neither diary said anything about having captured ammunition or shells along with the three guns.

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  • David_Underdown by David_Underdown moderator

    I'd be very surprised if any British shell fitted a German gun. German guns had metric calibres, while British were obviously still Imperial at this point, so it must be captured ammo.

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  • ral104 by ral104 moderator, scientist

    Good point, David. Thanks.

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