For a breath of fresh air.

IN THE LATE AFTERNOON OF April 22, 1915, members of a special unit of the German Army opened the valves on more than 6000 steel cylinders arrayed in trenches along their defensive perimeter at Ypres, Belgium. Within 10 minutes, 160 tons of chlorine gas drifted over the opposing French trenches, engulfing all those downwind. Filled with pressurized liquid chlorine, the cylinders had been clandestinely installed by the Germans more than 3 weeks earlier. The order to release the gas was entrusted to German military meteorologists, who had carefully studied the area’s prevailing wind patterns. Disregarding intelligence reports about the strange cylinders prior to the attack, the French troops were totally unprepared for this new and horrifying weapon.

So writes Dr. Gerald J. Fitzgerald in "Chemical Warfare and Medical Response During World War I" (American Journal of Public Health, April 2008). This was the first known use of a chemical weapon, and it blasted through the French lines with terrible effect. But, as typical for World War I, the Germans were not prepared to follow this advantage, so everyone wound up back in the same positions within days. Not that such weapons were not effective. "By the time of the armistice on November 11, 1918, the use of chemical weapons such as chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas had resulted in more than 1.3 million casualties and approximately 90,000 deaths," writes Fitzgerald.

All this going around and wearing masks to fight the Chinese Death Virus has made me think a bit about mask-wearing in the twentieth century. They say gas masks used in the Great War killed the beard for men for fifty years. Blake Stilwell in We Are the Mighty writes, "Just twenty years prior, beards were a common sight in the Spanish-American War. Troops and their officers thought nothing of a well-grown face of whiskers.... When the Germans started using poison gas on World War I battlefields, the Army started issuing gas masks — and these new safety razors. Suddenly, shaving was a requirement as well as a lifesaving tactic. In order for these early gas masks to fit properly, the men needed to be clean-shaven."

"May I borrow your safety razor, old chap?"

One of the things my high school class had been taught by a history teacher was that troops had been told to use damp cloths over their faces to protect themselves from mustard gas, but that tactic actually made mustard gas more effective. This was greeted with a typical Har har stoopid past people fighting wars so stoopid from the class, which seemed to be the attitude of the teacher. However, I am unable to find any evidence now to back up that assertion. I did find that in the early days of chemical warfare, according to The Canadian Encyclopedia, a damp cloth did offer protection against chlorine gas: "Some of the Canadian soldiers who had been trained in chemistry had recognized chlorine gas from two days earlier and had instructed men to wet cloths with water or urine to offer minimal protection."

I guess instead of N95 masks they had P95 masks (yukk yukk). It would seem to make sense to use a dampened cloth, as water droplets would close more gaps in the fabric, but I have found little on this either way. If any of you out there in Blogland know anything about it, I'd love to hear it.

This leads me to today's thoughts:

1) I'm glad we are currently battling a virus and not huge rolling clouds of chlorine gas.

2) It's unlikely that the Chinese Death Virus will cause a change in men's facial hair.

3) World War I was hell.

4) People I see around who don't know how to wear masks and always leave the nose exposed would not have lasted long in the trenches.

5) No matter how bad things may be from COVID-19, we are not losing 1,300 men every single day, as was the average daily death toll for the entire length of that war.

Maybe it's not a cheerful Friday thought to know that things could be worse -- but hey, they could be.