The first gas attack in World War I, in short, was carried out by the French. But the German military was the first to use toxic substances.
For various reasons, in particular the use of new types of weapons, the First World War, which was planned to end in a few months, quickly escalated into a trench conflict. Such hostilities could continue for as long as desired. In order to somehow change the situation and lure the enemy out of the trenches and break through the front, all kinds of chemical weapons began to be used.
It was the gases that became one of the reasons for the huge number of casualties in the First World War.
First experience
Already in August 1914, almost in the first days of the war, the French in one of the battles used grenades filled with ethyl bromoacetate (tear gas). They did not cause poisoning, but were capable of disorienting the enemy for some time. In fact, this was the first military gas attack.
After supplies of this gas were depleted, French troops began using chloroacetate.
The Germans, who very quickly adopted advanced experience and what could contribute to the implementation of their plans, adopted this method of fighting the enemy. In October of the same year, they tried to use shells with a chemical irritant against the British military near the village of Neuve Chapelle. But the low concentration of the substance in the shells did not give the expected effect.
From irritating to poisonous
April 22, 1915. This day, in short, went down in history as one of the darkest days of the First World War. It was then that German troops carried out the first massive gas attack using not an irritant, but a poisonous substance. Now their goal was not to disorient and immobilize the enemy, but to destroy him.
It happened on the banks of the Ypres River. 168 tons of chlorine were released by the German military into the air towards the location of the French troops. The poisonous greenish cloud, followed by German soldiers in special gauze bandages, terrified the French-English army. Many rushed to run, giving up their positions without a fight. Others, inhaling the poisoned air, fell dead. As a result, more than 15 thousand people were injured that day, 5 thousand of whom died, and a gap more than 3 km wide was formed in the front. True, the Germans were never able to take advantage of their advantage. Afraid to attack, having no reserves, they allowed the British and French to fill the gap again.
After this, the Germans repeatedly tried to repeat their such a successful first experience. However, none of the subsequent gas attacks brought such an effect and so many casualties, since now all troops were supplied with individual means of protection against gases.
In response to Germany's actions at Ypres, the entire world community immediately expressed its protest, but it was no longer possible to stop the use of gases.
On the Eastern Front, against the Russian army, the Germans also did not fail to use their new weapons. This happened on the Ravka River. As a result of the gas attack, about 8 thousand soldiers of the Russian imperial army were poisoned here, more than a quarter of them died from poisoning in the next 24 hours after the attack.
It is noteworthy that, having first sharply condemned Germany, after some time almost all Entente countries began to use chemical agents.
First British tank Mark I
By the end of 1916, artillery and machine guns dominated the battlefields. The artillery forced the opposing sides to dig in deeper, and machine-gun bursts began to mow down the enemy infantry that had risen to attack. The war turned into a positional war and trench lines stretched for many kilometers along the front. There seemed to be no way out of this situation, but on September 15, 1916, after six months of preparation, the Anglo-French army launched an offensive in northern France. This offensive went down in history as the “Battle of the Somme”. This battle is significant only because it was possible to push back the German troops several kilometers, but also because for the first time British tanks took part in the battle.
NThe Allied offensive on the Somme River began on September 15, 1916, after a massive and lengthy artillery preparation, as a result of which it was planned to destroy the German engineering defenses. British soldiers were even told that all they had to do was walk towards the German defenses and capture their positions. But despite this, the offensive stalled: the German positions were practically not damaged by artillery strikes, and their army in defense still remained combat-ready. The Entente army was bleeding, trying to break through the German positions, but all efforts were wasted completely in vain. Then the newly appointed British commander-in-chief, General Douglas Haig, decided to use new weapons - tanks, which had just been delivered to the front. The old military man had great doubts about the new product, but the situation at the front obliged himthrow your last trump cards into battle.
Haig was convinced that he had chosen the wrong time to attack. The autumn rains have soaked the ground quite a bit, and the tanks need solid ground. Finally, and this is the most important thing, there are still too few tanks, only a few dozen. But there was no other way out.
The first British tank to see its baptism of fire at the Battle of the Somme was the Mark I heavy tank, which was armed with two rifled 57 mm Six Pounder Single Tube guns and two air-cooled 7.7 mm Hotchkiss M1909 machine guns. barrel, located behind the guns in sponsons, as well as one such machine gun was located in the frontal part of the tank and served by the commander, and in some cases another machine gun was installed in the rear of the tank. The crew of this tank consisted of 8 people.
49 Mark I tanks were ordered to move to the forward positions. It was a dark night. The steel masses crawled like turtles in the direction where the flares were constantly lighting up in the sky. After 3 hours of march, only 32 vehicles arrived at the places indicated for concentration: 17 tanks got stuck on the road or stopped due to various problems.
Having turned off the engines, the tankers fiddled around with their steel horses. They poured oil into engines, water into radiators, checked brakes and weapons, and filled tanks with gasoline. An hour and a half before dawn, the crews started the engines again, and the vehicles crawled toward the enemy...
British tank Mark I after the Somme River offensive, 25 September 1916.
At dawn the German trenches appeared. The soldiers sitting in them were amazed at the sight of the strange machines. However, the vaunted German discipline prevailed, and they opened fire with rifles and machine guns. But the bullets did not cause any harm to the tanks, bouncing off the armored walls like peas. Coming closer, the tanks themselves opened fire from their cannons and machine guns. The hail of shells and bullets fired from short distances made the Germans feel hot. But they did not flinch, hoping that the clumsy vehicles would get stuck in the multi-row wire fence installed in front of the trenches. However, the wire did not pose any obstacle to the tanks. They easily crushed it with their steel caterpillars, like grass, or tore it like a cobweb. Here the German soldiers were seized with real horror. Many of them began to jump out of the trenches and rush to run. Others raised their hands in surrender. Following the tanks, hiding behind their armor, came the British infantry.
The Germans did not have tank-like vehicles, and that is why the effect of the first massive combat use of tanks exceeded all expectations.
The First World War was going on. On the evening of April 22, 1915, opposing German and French troops were near the Belgian city of Ypres. They fought for the city for a long time and to no avail. But that evening the Germans wanted to test a new weapon - poison gas. They brought thousands of cylinders with them, and when the wind blew towards the enemy, they opened the taps, releasing 180 tons of chlorine into the air. The yellowish gas cloud was carried by the wind towards the enemy line.
The panic began. Immersed in the gas cloud, the French soldiers were blind, coughing and suffocating. Three thousand of them died from suffocation, another seven thousand received burns.
"At this point science lost its innocence," says science historian Ernst Peter Fischer. According to him, if before the goal of scientific research was to improve the living conditions of people, now science has created conditions that make it easier to kill a person.
"In war - for the fatherland"
A way to use chlorine for military purposes was developed by the German chemist Fritz Haber. He is considered the first scientist to subordinate scientific knowledge to military needs. Fritz Haber discovered that chlorine is an extremely poisonous gas, which, due to its high density, concentrates low above the ground. He knew: this gas causes severe swelling of the mucous membranes, coughing, suffocation and ultimately leads to death. In addition, the poison was cheap: chlorine is found in waste from the chemical industry.
“Haber’s motto was “In peace for humanity, in war for the fatherland,” Ernst Peter Fischer quotes the then head of the chemical department of the Prussian War Ministry. “Times were different then. Everyone was trying to find a poison gas that they could use in war.” And only the Germans succeeded."
The attack at Ypres was a war crime - already in 1915. After all, the Hague Convention of 1907 prohibited the use of poison and poisoned weapons for military purposes.
Arms race
The "success" of Fritz Haber's military innovation became contagious, and not only for the Germans. Simultaneously with the war of states, the “war of chemists” began. Scientists were given the task of creating chemical weapons that would be ready for use as soon as possible. “People abroad looked at Haber with envy,” says Ernst Peter Fischer. “Many wanted to have such a scientist in their country.” In 1918, Fritz Haber received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. True, not for the discovery of poisonous gas, but for his contribution to the implementation of ammonia synthesis.
The French and British also experimented with poisonous gases. The use of phosgene and mustard gas, often in combination with each other, became widespread in the war. And yet, poisonous gases did not play a decisive role in the outcome of the war: these weapons could only be used in favorable weather.
Scary mechanism
Nevertheless, a terrible mechanism was launched in the First World War, and Germany became its engine.
The chemist Fritz Haber not only laid the foundation for the use of chlorine for military purposes, but also, thanks to his good industrial connections, contributed to the mass production of this chemical weapon. Thus, the German chemical concern BASF produced toxic substances in large quantities during the First World War.
After the war, with the creation of the IG Farben concern in 1925, Haber joined its supervisory board. Later, during National Socialism, a subsidiary of IG Farben produced Zyklon B, which was used in the gas chambers of concentration camps.
Context
Fritz Haber himself could not have foreseen this. "He's a tragic figure," says Fisher. In 1933, Haber, a Jew by birth, emigrated to England, exiled from his country, to the service of which he had put his scientific knowledge.
Red line
In total, more than 90 thousand soldiers died from the use of poisonous gases on the fronts of the First World War. Many died from complications several years after the end of the war. In 1905, members of the League of Nations, which included Germany, pledged under the Geneva Protocol not to use chemical weapons. Meanwhile, scientific research on the use of poisonous gases continued, mainly under the guise of developing means to combat harmful insects.
"Cyclone B" - hydrocyanic acid - insecticidal agent. "Agent Orange" is a substance used to defoliate plants. Americans used defoliant during the Vietnam War to thin out dense vegetation. The consequence is poisoned soil, numerous diseases and genetic mutations in the population. The latest example of the use of chemical weapons is Syria.
“You can do whatever you want with poisonous gases, but they cannot be used as targeted weapons,” emphasizes science historian Fisher. “Everyone who is nearby becomes victims.” The fact that the use of poisonous gas today is “a red line that cannot be crossed,” he considers correct: “Otherwise the war becomes even more inhumane than it already is.”
June 21, 1941, 13:00. German troops receive the code signal "Dortmund", confirming that the invasion will begin the next day.
Commander of the 2nd Tank Group of Army Group Center Heinz Guderian writes in his diary: “Careful observation of the Russians convinced me that they did not suspect anything about our intentions. In the courtyard of the Brest fortress, which was visible from our observation points, they were changing the guards to the sounds of an orchestra. The coastal fortifications along the Western Bug were not occupied by Russian troops."21:00. Soldiers of the 90th border detachment of the Sokal commandant's office detained a German serviceman who crossed the border Bug River by swimming. The defector was sent to the detachment headquarters in the city of Vladimir-Volynsky.
23:00. German minelayers stationed in Finnish ports began to mine the exit from the Gulf of Finland. At the same time, Finnish submarines began laying mines off the coast of Estonia.
June 22, 1941, 0:30. The defector was taken to Vladimir-Volynsky. During interrogation, the soldier identified himself Alfred Liskov, soldiers of the 221st Regiment of the 15th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht. He said that at dawn on June 22, the German army would go on the offensive along the entire length of the Soviet-German border. The information was transferred to higher command.
At the same time, the transmission of Directive No. 1 of the People's Commissariat of Defense for parts of the western military districts began from Moscow. “During June 22-23, 1941, a surprise attack by the Germans is possible on the fronts of LVO, PribOVO, ZAPOVO, KOVO, OdVO. An attack may begin with provocative actions,” the directive said. “The task of our troops is not to succumb to any provocative actions that could cause major complications.”
The units were ordered to be put on combat readiness, to secretly occupy firing points of fortified areas on the state border, and to disperse aircraft to field airfields.
It is not possible to convey the directive to military units before the start of hostilities, as a result of which the measures specified in it are not carried out.
Mobilization. Columns of fighters are moving to the front. Photo: RIA Novosti
“I realized that it was the Germans who opened fire on our territory”
1:00. The commandants of the sections of the 90th border detachment report to the head of the detachment, Major Bychkovsky: “nothing suspicious was noticed on the adjacent side, everything is calm.”
3:05 . A group of 14 German Ju-88 bombers drops 28 magnetic mines near the Kronstadt roadstead.
3:07. The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Oktyabrsky, reports to the Chief of the General Staff, General Zhukov: “The fleet's air surveillance, warning and communications system reports the approach of a large number of unknown aircraft from the sea; The fleet is in full combat readiness."
3:10. The NKGB for the Lviv region transmits by telephone message to the NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR the information obtained during the interrogation of the defector Alfred Liskov.
From the memoirs of the chief of the 90th border detachment, Major Bychkovsky: “Without finishing the interrogation of the soldier, I heard strong artillery fire in the direction of Ustilug (the first commandant’s office). I realized that it was the Germans who opened fire on our territory, which was immediately confirmed by the interrogated soldier. I immediately began to call the commandant by phone, but the connection was broken...”3:30. Chief of Staff of the Western District General Klimovsky reports on enemy air raids on the cities of Belarus: Brest, Grodno, Lida, Kobrin, Slonim, Baranovichi and others.
3:33. The chief of staff of the Kyiv district, General Purkaev, reports on an air raid on the cities of Ukraine, including Kyiv.
3:40. Commander of the Baltic Military District General Kuznetsov reports on enemy air raids on Riga, Siauliai, Vilnius, Kaunas and other cities.
“The enemy raid has been repulsed. An attempt to strike our ships was foiled."
3:42. Chief of the General Staff Zhukov is calling Stalin and reports the start of hostilities by Germany. Stalin orders Tymoshenko and Zhukov arrive at the Kremlin, where an emergency meeting of the Politburo is convened.
3:45. The 1st border outpost of the 86th August border detachment was attacked by an enemy reconnaissance and sabotage group. Outpost personnel under command Alexandra Sivacheva, having entered into battle, destroys the attackers.
4:00. The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Oktyabrsky, reports to Zhukov: “The enemy raid has been repulsed. An attempt to strike our ships was foiled. But there is destruction in Sevastopol.”4:05. The outposts of the 86th August Border Detachment, including the 1st Border Outpost of Senior Lieutenant Sivachev, come under heavy artillery fire, after which the German offensive begins. Border guards, deprived of communication with the command, engage in battle with superior enemy forces.
4:10. The Western and Baltic special military districts report the beginning of hostilities by German troops on the ground.
4:15. The Nazis open massive artillery fire on the Brest Fortress. As a result, warehouses were destroyed, communications were disrupted, and there were a large number of dead and wounded.
4:25. The 45th Wehrmacht Infantry Division begins an attack on the Brest Fortress.
Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Residents of the capital on June 22, 1941, during the radio announcement of a government message about the treacherous attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union. Photo: RIA Novosti
“Protecting not individual countries, but ensuring the security of Europe”
4:30. A meeting of Politburo members begins in the Kremlin. Stalin expresses doubt that what happened is the beginning of a war and does not exclude the possibility of a German provocation. People's Commissar of Defense Timoshenko and Zhukov insist: this is war.
4:55. In the Brest Fortress, the Nazis manage to capture almost half of the territory. Further progress was stopped by a sudden counterattack by the Red Army.
5:00. German Ambassador to the USSR Count von Schulenburg presented to the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Molotov“Note from the German Foreign Office to the Soviet Government,” which states: “The German Government cannot remain indifferent to the serious threat on the eastern border, therefore the Fuehrer has ordered the German Armed Forces to ward off this threat by all means.” An hour after the actual start of hostilities, Germany de jure declares war on the Soviet Union.
5:30. On German radio, the Reich Minister of Propaganda Goebbels reads out the appeal Adolf Hitler to the German people in connection with the start of the war against the Soviet Union: “Now the hour has come when it is necessary to speak out against this conspiracy of the Jewish-Anglo-Saxon warmongers and also the Jewish rulers of the Bolshevik center in Moscow... At the moment, a military action of the greatest extent and volume is taking place, what the world has ever seen... The task of this front is no longer to protect individual countries, but to ensure the security of Europe and thereby save everyone.”7:00. Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs Ribbentrop begins a press conference at which he announces the beginning of hostilities against the USSR: “The German army has invaded the territory of Bolshevik Russia!”
“The city is burning, why aren’t you broadcasting anything on the radio?”
7:15. Stalin approves a directive to repel the attack of Nazi Germany: “The troops with all their might and means attack enemy forces and destroy them in areas where they violated the Soviet border.” Transfer of “directive No. 2” due to saboteurs’ disruption of communication lines in the western districts. Moscow does not have a clear picture of what is happening in the combat zone.
9:30. It was decided that at noon, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov would address the Soviet people in connection with the outbreak of war.
10:00. From the speaker's memories Yuri Levitan: “They’re calling from Minsk: “Enemy planes are over the city,” they’re calling from Kaunas: “The city is burning, why aren’t you broadcasting anything on the radio?” “Enemy planes are over Kiev.” A woman’s crying, excitement: “Is it really war?..” However, no official messages are transmitted until 12:00 Moscow time on June 22.
10:30. From a report from the headquarters of the 45th German division about the battles on the territory of the Brest Fortress: “The Russians are resisting fiercely, especially behind our attacking companies. In the citadel, the enemy organized a defense with infantry units supported by 35-40 tanks and armored vehicles. Enemy sniper fire resulted in heavy casualties among officers and non-commissioned officers."11:00. The Baltic, Western and Kiev special military districts were transformed into the North-Western, Western and South-Western fronts.
“The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours"
12:00. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov reads out an appeal to the citizens of the Soviet Union: “Today at 4 o’clock in the morning, without making any claims against the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders in many places and bombed us with their planes attacked our cities - Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kaunas and some others, and more than two hundred people were killed and wounded. Raids by enemy planes and artillery shelling were also carried out from Romanian and Finnish territory... Now that the attack on the Soviet Union has already taken place, the Soviet government has given an order to our troops to repel the bandit attack and expel German troops from the territory of our homeland... The government calls on you, citizens and citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally our ranks even more closely around our glorious Bolshevik Party, around our Soviet government, around our great leader, Comrade Stalin.
Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours" .
12:30. Advanced German units break into the Belarusian city of Grodno.
13:00.
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issues a decree “On the mobilization of those liable for military service...”
“Based on Article 49, paragraph “o” of the USSR Constitution, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR announces mobilization on the territory of the military districts - Leningrad, Baltic special, Western special, Kiev special, Odessa, Kharkov, Oryol, Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Ural, Siberian, Volga, North -Caucasian and Transcaucasian.
13:30. Chief of the General Staff General Zhukov flies to Kyiv as a representative of the newly created Headquarters of the Main Command on the Southwestern Front.
Photo: RIA Novosti
14:00. The Brest Fortress is completely surrounded by German troops. Soviet units blocked in the citadel continue to offer fierce resistance.
14:05. Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano states: “In view of the current situation, due to the fact that Germany declared war on the USSR, Italy, as an ally of Germany and as a member of the Tripartite Pact, also declares war on the Soviet Union from the moment German troops entered Soviet territory.”
14:10. The 1st border outpost of Alexander Sivachev has been fighting for more than 10 hours. The border guards, who had only small arms and grenades, destroyed up to 60 Nazis and burned three tanks. The wounded commander of the outpost continued to command the battle.
15:00. From the notes of the commander of Army Group Center, Field Marshal von Bock: “The question of whether the Russians are carrying out a systematic withdrawal remains open. There is now plenty of evidence both for and against this.
What is surprising is that nowhere is any significant work of their artillery visible. Heavy artillery fire is conducted only in the northwest of Grodno, where the VIII Army Corps is advancing. Apparently, our air force has an overwhelming superiority over Russian aviation."Of the 485 border posts attacked, not a single one withdrew without orders.
16:00. After a 12-hour battle, the Nazis took the positions of the 1st border outpost. This became possible only after all the border guards who defended it died. The head of the outpost, Alexander Sivachev, was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
The feat of the outpost of Senior Lieutenant Sivachev was one of hundreds committed by border guards in the first hours and days of the war. On June 22, 1941, the state border of the USSR from the Barents to the Black Sea was guarded by 666 border outposts, 485 of which were attacked on the very first day of the war. Not one of the 485 outposts attacked on June 22 withdrew without orders.
Hitler's command allotted 20 minutes to break the resistance of the border guards. 257 Soviet border posts held their defense from several hours to one day. More than one day - 20, more than two days - 16, more than three days - 20, more than four and five days - 43, from seven to nine days - 4, more than eleven days - 51, more than twelve days - 55, more than 15 days - 51 outpost. Forty-five outposts fought for up to two months.
Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The workers of Leningrad listen to a message about the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union. Photo: RIA Novosti
Of the 19,600 border guards who met the Nazis on June 22 in the direction of the main attack of Army Group Center, more than 16,000 died in the first days of the war.
17:00. Hitler's units manage to occupy the southwestern part of the Brest Fortress, the northeast remained under the control of Soviet troops. Stubborn battles for the fortress will continue for weeks.
“The Church of Christ blesses all Orthodox Christians for the defense of the sacred borders of our Motherland”
18:00. The Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius of Moscow and Kolomna, addresses the believers with a message: “Fascist robbers attacked our homeland. Trampling all kinds of agreements and promises, they suddenly fell upon us, and now the blood of peaceful citizens is already irrigating our native land... Our Orthodox Church has always shared the fate of the people. She endured trials with him and was consoled by his successes. She will not abandon her people even now... The Church of Christ blesses all Orthodox Christians for the defense of the sacred borders of our Motherland.”
19:00. From the notes of the Chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht Ground Forces, Colonel General Franz Halder: “All armies, except the 11th Army of Army Group South in Romania, went on the offensive according to plan. The offensive of our troops, apparently, came as a complete tactical surprise to the enemy along the entire front. Border bridges across the Bug and other rivers were everywhere captured by our troops without a fight and in complete safety. The complete surprise of our offensive for the enemy is evidenced by the fact that the units were taken by surprise in a barracks arrangement, the planes were parked at airfields, covered with tarpaulins, and the advanced units, suddenly attacked by our troops, asked the command about what to do... The Air Force command reported, that today 850 enemy aircraft have been destroyed, including entire squadrons of bombers, which, having taken off without fighter cover, were attacked by our fighters and destroyed.”20:00. Directive No. 3 of the People's Commissariat of Defense was approved, ordering Soviet troops to launch a counteroffensive with the task of defeating Hitler's troops on the territory of the USSR with further advance into enemy territory. The directive ordered the capture of the Polish city of Lublin by the end of June 24.
Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. June 22, 1941 Nurses provide assistance to the first wounded after a Nazi air raid near Chisinau. Photo: RIA Novosti
“We must provide Russia and the Russian people with all the help we can.”
21:00. Summary of the Red Army High Command for June 22: “At dawn on June 22, 1941, regular troops of the German army attacked our border units on the front from the Baltic to the Black Sea and were held back by them during the first half of the day. In the afternoon, German troops met with the advanced units of the field troops of the Red Army. After fierce fighting, the enemy was repulsed with heavy losses. Only in the Grodno and Kristinopol directions did the enemy manage to achieve minor tactical successes and occupy the towns of Kalwaria, Stoyanuv and Tsekhanovets (the first two are 15 km and the last 10 km from the border).
Enemy aircraft attacked a number of our airfields and populated areas, but everywhere they met decisive resistance from our fighters and anti-aircraft artillery, which inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. We shot down 65 enemy aircraft.”
23:00. Message from the Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Churchill to the British people in connection with the German attack on the USSR: “At 4 o'clock this morning Hitler attacked Russia. All his usual formalities of treachery were observed with scrupulous precision... suddenly, without a declaration of war, even without an ultimatum, German bombs fell from the sky on Russian cities, German troops violated Russian borders, and an hour later the German ambassador, who just the day before had generously lavished his assurances on the Russians in friendship and almost an alliance, paid a visit to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs and declared that Russia and Germany were at war...
No one has been more staunchly opposed to communism over the past 25 years than I have been. I will not take back a single word that was said about him. But all this pales in comparison to the spectacle unfolding now.The past, with its crimes, follies and tragedies, recedes. I see Russian soldiers as they stand on the border of their native land and guard the fields that their fathers have plowed since time immemorial. I see them guarding their homes; their mothers and wives pray—oh, yes, because at such a time everyone prays for the safety of their loved ones, for the return of their breadwinner, patron, their protectors...
We must provide Russia and the Russian people with all the help we can. We must call on all our friends and allies in all parts of the world to pursue a similar course and pursue it as steadfastly and steadily as we will, to the very end.”
June 22 came to an end. There were still 1,417 days ahead of the worst war in human history.
One of the forgotten pages of the First World War is the so-called “attack of the dead” on July 24 (August 6, New Style) 1915. This is an amazing story of how 100 years ago, a handful of Russian soldiers who miraculously survived a gas attack put several thousand advancing Germans to flight.
As you know, chemical agents (CA) were used in the First World War. Germany used them for the first time: it is believed that in the area of the city of Ypres on April 22, 1915, the 4th German Army used chemical weapons (chlorine) for the first time in the history of wars and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy.
On the Eastern Front, the Germans carried out a gas attack for the first time on May 18 (31), 1915, against the Russian 55th Infantry Division.
On August 6, 1915, the Germans used toxic substances consisting of chlorine and bromine compounds against the defenders of the Russian fortress of Osovets. And then something unusual happened, which went down in history under the expressive name “attack of the dead”!
A little preliminary history.
Osowiec Fortress is a Russian stronghold fortress built on the Bobry River near the town of Osowiec (now the Polish city of Osowiec-Fortress) 50 km from the city of Bialystok.
The fortress was built to defend the corridor between the Neman and Vistula - Narew - Bug rivers, with the most important strategic directions St. Petersburg - Berlin and St. Petersburg - Vienna. The site for the construction of defensive structures was chosen to block the main highway to the east. It was impossible to bypass the fortress in this area - there was impassable swampy terrain to the north and south.
Osovets fortifications
Osovets was not considered a first-class fortress: the brick vaults of the casemates were reinforced with concrete before the war, some additional fortifications were built, but they were not too impressive, and the Germans fired from 210 mm howitzers and super-heavy guns. Osovets' strength lay in its location: it stood on the high bank of the Bober River, among huge, impassable swamps. The Germans could not surround the fortress, and the valor of the Russian soldier did the rest.
The fortress garrison consisted of 1 infantry regiment, two artillery battalions, an engineer unit and support units.
The garrison was armed with 200 guns of caliber from 57 to 203 mm. The infantry was armed with rifles, light machine guns Madsen model 1902 and 1903, heavy machine guns of the Maxim system of model 1902 and 1910, as well as turret machine guns of the system Gatling.
By the beginning of the First World War, the garrison of the fortress was headed by Lieutenant General A. A. Shulman. In January 1915, he was replaced by Major General N.A. Brzhozovsky, who commanded the fortress until the end of active operations of the garrison in August 1915.
major general
Nikolai Alexandrovich Brzhozovsky
In September 1914, units of the 8th German Army approached the fortress - 40 infantry battalions, which almost immediately launched a massive attack. Already by September 21, 1914, having a multiple numerical superiority, the Germans managed to push back the field defense of the Russian troops to a line that allowed artillery shelling of the fortress.
At the same time, the German command transferred 60 guns of up to 203 mm caliber from Konigsberg to the fortress. However, the shelling began only on September 26, 1914. Two days later, the Germans launched an attack on the fortress, but it was suppressed by heavy fire from Russian artillery. The next day, Russian troops carried out two flank counterattacks, which forced the Germans to stop shelling and hastily retreat, withdrawing their artillery.
On February 3, 1915, German troops made a second attempt to storm the fortress. A heavy, lengthy battle ensued. Despite fierce attacks, Russian units held the line.
German artillery shelled the forts using heavy siege weapons of 100-420 mm caliber. The fire was carried out in volleys of 360 shells, a volley every four minutes. During the week of shelling, 200-250 thousand heavy shells alone were fired at the fortress.
Also, specifically for shelling the fortress, the Germans deployed 4 Skoda siege mortars of 305 mm caliber to Osovets. German airplanes bombed the fortress from above.
Mortar "Skoda", 1911 (en: Skoda 305 mm Model 1911).
The European press in those days wrote: “The appearance of the fortress was terrible, the entire fortress was shrouded in smoke, through which, in one place or another, huge tongues of fire burst out from the explosion of shells; pillars of earth, water and entire trees flew upward; the earth trembled, and it seemed that nothing could withstand such a hurricane of fire. The impression was that not a single person would emerge unscathed from this hurricane of fire and iron.”
The command of the General Staff, believing that it was demanding the impossible, asked the garrison commander to hold out for at least 48 hours. The fortress survived for another six months...
Moreover, a number of siege weapons were destroyed by the fire of Russian batteries, including two “Big Berthas”. After several mortars of the largest caliber were damaged, the German command withdrew these guns beyond the reach of the fortress defense.
At the beginning of July 1915, under the command of Field Marshal von Hindenburg, German troops launched a large-scale offensive. Part of it was a new assault on the still unconquered Osowiec fortress.
The 18th Regiment of the 70th Brigade of the 11th Landwehr Division took part in the assault on Osovets ( Landwehr-Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 18 . 70. Landwehr-Infanterie-Brigade. 11. Landwehr-Division). The division commander from its formation in February 1915 to November 1916 was Lieutenant General Rudolf von Freudenberg ( Rudolf von Freudenberg)
lieutenant general
Rudolf von Freudenberg
The Germans began setting up gas batteries at the end of July. 30 gas batteries totaling several thousand cylinders were installed. The Germans waited for more than 10 days for a fair wind.
The following infantry forces were prepared to storm the fortress:
The 76th Landwehr Regiment attacks Sosnya and the Central Redoubt and advances along the rear of the Sosnya position to the forester’s house, which is at the beginning of the railway road;
The 18th Landwehr Regiment and the 147th Reserve Battalion advance on both sides of the railway, break through to the forester’s house and attack, together with the 76th Regiment, the Zarechnaya position;
The 5th Landwehr Regiment and the 41st Reserve Battalion attack Bialogrondy and, having broken through the position, storm the Zarechny Fort.
In reserve were the 75th Landwehr Regiment and two reserve battalions, which were supposed to advance along the railway and reinforce the 18th Landwehr Regiment when attacking the Zarechnaya position.
In total, the following forces were assembled to attack the Sosnenskaya and Zarechnaya positions:
13 - 14 infantry battalions,
1 battalion of sappers,
24 - 30 heavy siege weapons,
30 poison gas batteries.
The forward position of the Bialogrondy fortress - Sosnya was occupied by the following Russian forces:
Right flank (positions near Bialogronda):
1st company of the Countryman Regiment,
two companies of militia.
Center (positions from the Rudsky Canal to the central redoubt):
9th company of the Countryman Regiment,
10th company of the Countryman Regiment,
12th company of the Compatriot Regiment,
a company of militia.
Left flank (position near Sosnya) - 11th company of the Zemlyachensky regiment,
The general reserve (at the forester's house) is one company of militia.
Thus, the Sosnenskaya position was occupied by five companies of the 226th Zemlyansky Infantry Regiment and four companies of militia, for a total of nine companies of infantry.
The infantry battalion, sent every night to forward positions, left at 3 o'clock for the Zarechny fort to rest.
At 4 o'clock on August 6, the Germans opened heavy artillery fire on the railway road, the Zarechny position, communications between the Zarechny fort and the fortress, and on the batteries of the bridgehead, after which, at a signal from rockets, the enemy infantry began an offensive.
Gas attack
Having failed to achieve success with artillery fire and numerous attacks, on August 6, 1915 at 4 a.m., after waiting for the desired wind direction, German units used poisonous gases consisting of chlorine and bromine compounds against the defenders of the fortress. The defenders of the fortress did not have gas masks...
The Russian army did not yet imagine how terrible the scientific and technological progress of the 20th century would turn out to be.
As reported by V.S. Khmelkov, the gases released by the Germans on August 6 were dark green in color - it was chlorine mixed with bromine. The gas wave, which had about 3 km along the front when released, began to quickly spread to the sides and, having traveled 10 km, was already about 8 km wide; the height of the gas wave above the bridgehead was about 10 - 15 m.
Every living thing in the open air on the bridgehead of the fortress was poisoned to death; the fortress artillery suffered heavy losses during the shooting; people not participating in the battle saved themselves in barracks, shelters, and residential buildings, tightly locking the doors and windows and pouring water on them generously.
12 km from the gas release site, in the villages of Ovechki, Zhodzi, Malaya Kramkovka, 18 people were seriously poisoned; There are known cases of poisoning of animals - horses and cows. At the Monki station, located 18 km from the gas release site, no cases of poisoning were observed.
The gas stagnated in the forest and near water ditches; a small grove 2 km from the fortress along the highway to Bialystok turned out to be impassable until 16:00. August 6.
All the greenery in the fortress and in the immediate area along the path of the gases was destroyed, the leaves on the trees turned yellow, curled up and fell off, the grass turned black and lay on the ground, the flower petals flew off.
All copper objects on the fortress bridgehead - parts of guns and shells, washbasins, tanks, etc. - were covered with a thick green layer of chlorine oxide; food items stored without hermetically sealed meat, butter, lard, vegetables turned out to be poisoned and unsuitable for consumption.
The half-poisoned ones wandered back and, tormented by thirst, bent down to sources of water, but here the gases lingered in low places, and secondary poisoning led to death...
The gases caused huge losses to the defenders of the Sosnenskaya position - the 9th, 10th and 11th companies of the Compatriot Regiment were killed entirely, about 40 people remained from the 12th company with one machine gun; from the three companies defending Bialogrondy, there were about 60 people left with two machine guns.
The German artillery again opened massive fire, and following the barrage of fire and the gas cloud, believing that the garrison defending the positions of the fortress was dead, the German units went on the offensive. 14 Landwehr battalions went on the attack - and that’s at least seven thousand infantry.
On the front line, after the gas attack, barely more than a hundred defenders remained alive. The doomed fortress, it seemed, was already in German hands...
But when the German infantry approached the forward fortifications of the fortress, the remaining defenders of the first line rose up to counterattack them - the remnants of the 13th company of the 226th Zemlyachensky infantry regiment, a little more than 60 people. The counterattackers had a terrifying appearance - with faces mutilated by chemical burns, wrapped in rags, shaking with a terrible cough, literally spitting out pieces of lungs onto bloody tunics...
The unexpected attack and the sight of the attackers horrified the German units and sent them into a panicked flight. Several dozen half-dead Russian soldiers put units of the 18th Landwehr Regiment to flight!
This attack of the “dead men” plunged the enemy into such horror that the German infantrymen, not accepting the battle, rushed back, trampling each other and hanging on their own barbed wire barriers. And then, from the Russian batteries shrouded in chlorine clouds, the seemingly dead Russian artillery began to hit them...
Professor A.S. Khmelkov described it this way:
The fortress artillery batteries, despite heavy losses in poisoned people, opened fire, and soon the fire of nine heavy and two light batteries slowed the advance of the 18th Landwehr Regiment and cut off the general reserve (75th Landwehr Regiment) from the position. The head of the 2nd defense department sent the 8th, 13th and 14th companies of the 226th Zemlyansky regiment from the Zarechnaya position for a counterattack. The 13th and 8th companies, having lost up to 50% poisoned, turned around on both sides of the railway and began to attack; The 13th company, encountering units of the 18th Landwehr Regiment, rushed with bayonets with a shout of “Hurray”. This attack of the “dead men,” as an eyewitness of the battle reports, amazed the Germans so much that they did not accept the battle and rushed back; many Germans died on the wire nets in front of the second line of trenches from the fire of the fortress artillery. The concentrated fire of the fortress artillery on the trenches of the first line (Leonov's yard) was so strong that the Germans did not accept the attack and hastily retreated.
Several dozen half-dead Russian soldiers put three German infantry regiments to flight! Later, participants in the events on the German side and European journalists dubbed this counterattack as the “attack of the dead.”
In the end, the heroic defense of the fortress came to an end.
The end of the defense of the fortress
At the end of April, the Germans struck another powerful blow in East Prussia and at the beginning of May 1915 they broke through the Russian front in the Memel-Libau region. In May, German-Austrian troops, who concentrated superior forces in the Gorlice area, managed to break through the Russian front (see: Gorlitsky breakthrough) in Galicia. After this, in order to avoid encirclement, a general strategic retreat of the Russian army from Galicia and Poland began. By August 1915, due to changes on the Western Front, the strategic need to defend the fortress lost all meaning. In connection with this, the high command of the Russian army decided to stop defensive battles and evacuate the fortress garrison. On August 18, 1915, the evacuation of the garrison began, which took place without panic, in accordance with plans. Everything that could not be removed, as well as the surviving fortifications, were blown up by sappers. During the retreat, Russian troops, if possible, organized the evacuation of civilians. The withdrawal of troops from the fortress ended on August 22.
Major General Brzozovsky was the last to leave the empty Osovets. He approached a group of sappers located half a kilometer from the fortress and himself turned the handle of the explosive device - an electric current ran through the cable, and a terrible roar was heard. Osovets flew into the air, but before that, absolutely everything was taken out of it.
On August 25, German troops entered the empty, destroyed fortress. The Germans did not get a single cartridge, not a single can of canned food: they received only a pile of ruins.
The defense of Osovets came to an end, but Russia soon forgot it. There were terrible defeats and great upheavals ahead; Osovets turned out to be just an episode on the road to disaster...
There was a revolution ahead: Nikolai Aleksandrovich Brzhozovsky, who commanded the defense of Osovets, fought for the whites, his soldiers and officers were divided by the front line.
Judging by fragmentary information, Lieutenant General Brzhozovsky was a participant in the White movement in the south of Russia and was a member of the reserve ranks of the Volunteer Army. In the 20s lived in Yugoslavia.
In Soviet Russia they tried to forget Osovets: there could be no great feats in the “imperialist war”.
Who was the soldier whose machine gun pinned the infantrymen of the 14th Landwehr Division to the ground when they burst into Russian positions? His entire company was killed under artillery fire, but by some miracle he survived, and, stunned by the explosions, barely alive, he fired ribbon after ribbon - until the Germans bombarded him with grenades. The machine gunner saved the position, and possibly the entire fortress. No one will ever know his name...
God knows who the gassed lieutenant of the militia battalion was who wheezed through his cough: “follow me!” - got up from the trench and went towards the Germans. He was killed immediately, but the militia rose up and held out until the riflemen came to their aid...
Osowiec covered Bialystok: from there the road to Warsaw opened, and further into the depths of Russia. In 1941, the Germans made this journey quickly, bypassing and encircling entire armies, capturing hundreds of thousands of prisoners. Located not too far from Osovets, the Brest Fortress held out heroically at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, but its defense had no strategic significance: the front went far to the East, the remnants of the garrison were doomed.
Osovets was a different matter in August 1915: he pinned down large enemy forces, his artillery methodically crushed the German infantry.
Then the Russian army did not scoot in shame to the Volga and to Moscow...
School textbooks talk about “the rottenness of the tsarist regime, the mediocre tsarist generals, the unpreparedness for war,” which was not at all popular, because the soldiers who were forcibly conscripted allegedly did not want to fight...
Now the facts: in 1914-1917, almost 16 million people were drafted into the Russian army - from all classes, almost all nationalities of the empire. Isn't this a people's war?
And these “forced conscripts” fought without commissars and political instructors, without special security officers, without penal battalions. No detachments. About one and a half million people were awarded the St. George Cross, 33 thousand became full holders of the St. George Cross of all four degrees. By November 1916, over one and a half million medals “For Bravery” had been issued at the front. In the army of that time, crosses and medals were not simply hung on anyone and they were not given for guarding rear depots - only for specific military merits.
“Rotten tsarism” carried out the mobilization clearly and without a hint of transport chaos. The Russian army, “unprepared for war,” under the leadership of “mediocre” tsarist generals, not only carried out a timely deployment, but also inflicted a series of powerful blows on the enemy, carrying out a number of successful offensive operations on enemy territory. For three years, the army of the Russian Empire withstood the blow of the military machine of three empires - German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman - on a huge front from the Baltic to the Black Sea. The tsarist generals and their soldiers did not allow the enemy into the depths of the Fatherland.
The generals had to retreat, but the army under their command retreated in a disciplined and organized manner, only on orders. And they tried not to leave the civilian population to be desecrated by the enemy, evacuating them whenever possible. The “anti-people tsarist regime” did not think of repressing the families of those captured, and the “oppressed peoples” were in no hurry to go over to the side of the enemy with entire armies. Prisoners did not enroll in the legions to fight against their own country with arms in hand, just as hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers did a quarter of a century later.
And a million Russian volunteers did not fight on the side of the Kaiser, there were no Vlasovites.
In 1914, no one, even in their wildest dreams, could have dreamed that Cossacks would fight in the German ranks...
In the “imperialist” war, the Russian army did not leave its own on the battlefield, carrying out the wounded and burying the dead. That’s why the bones of our soldiers and officers of the First World War are not lying around on the battlefields. It is known about the Patriotic War: it is the 70th year since its end, and the number of people who are humanly still not buried is estimated in the millions...
During the German War, there was a cemetery near the Church of All Saints in All Saints, where soldiers who died of wounds in hospitals were buried. The Soviet government destroyed the cemetery, like many others, when it methodically began to uproot the memory of the Great War. She was ordered to be considered unfair, lost, shameful.
In addition, deserters and saboteurs who carried out subversive work with enemy money took the helm of the country in October 1917. It was inconvenient for the comrades from the sealed carriage, who advocated the defeat of the fatherland, to conduct military-patriotic education using the examples of the imperialist war, which they turned into a civil war.
And in the 1920s, Germany became a tender friend and military-economic partner - why irritate it with a reminder of the past discord?
True, some literature about the First World War was published, but it was utilitarian and for the mass consciousness. The other line is educational and applied: the materials of the campaigns of Hannibal and the First Cavalry should not be used to teach students of military academies. And in the early 1930s, scientific interest in the war began to appear, voluminous collections of documents and studies appeared. But their subject matter is indicative: offensive operations. The last collection of documents was published in 1941; no more collections were published. True, even in these publications there were no names or people - only numbers of units and formations. Even after June 22, 1941, when the “great leader” decided to turn to historical analogies, remembering the names of Alexander Nevsky, Suvorov and Kutuzov, he did not say a word about those who stood in the way of the Germans in 1914...
After the Second World War, a strict ban was imposed not only on the study of the First World War, but in general on any memory of it. And for mentioning the heroes of the “imperialist” one could be sent to camps as for anti-Soviet agitation and praise of the White Guard...
The history of the First World War knows two examples when fortresses and their garrisons completed their assigned tasks to the end: the famous French fortress of Verdun and the small Russian fortress of Osovets.
The garrison of the fortress heroically withstood the siege of many times superior enemy troops for six months, and retreated only by order of the command after the strategic feasibility of further defense disappeared.
The defense of the Osovets fortress during the First World War was a striking example of the courage, perseverance and valor of Russian soldiers.
Eternal memory to the fallen heroes!
Osovets. Fortress church. Parade on the occasion of the presentation of the St. George Crosses.