January 31, 1915: The Beginning of Chemical Warfare

January 31, 1915: The Imperial German Army launches 18,000 shells filled with tear gas and chlorine at the Russian 2nd Army at the Battle of Humin-Bolimów in World War I, in what is now Poland. It is the 1st use of chemical warfare, and it is devastating.

In the Spring, the Germans began using poison gas on British and French troops at the Second Battle of Ypres. By the thousands, men found their lungs burned, giving them breathing problems for the rest of their lives even if they did survive; and their eyes burned, often going permanently blind.

The British Army had required its soldiers to grow mustaches, which tended to trap the gas. So, for the first time, they were ordered to shave the 'taches off. (Americans usually abbreviate it as 'stache, the British as 'tache.) Gas masks were developed, with varying levels of success.

Military historian Andrew Robertshaw, a technical advisor for the film version of the World War I story War Horse, wrote about the 1914 "Christmas True," saying that such a truce would have been unthinkable a year later: "This was before the poisoned gas, before aerial bombardment. By the end of 1915, both sides were far too bitter for this to happen again."

When the U.S. Army entered the war, it started the Chemical Warfare Division. Among those serving in it were a pair of baseball legends, Captain Christy Mathewson and Captain Ty Cobb. During a training exercise, Mathewson got a lungful of "mustard gas," weakening his lungs, and leading to his death in 1925, only 45 years old. It made him, at least in America, the most famous victim of poison gas.

Poison gas was banned as an instrument of warfare. Nevertheless, it has been used by tyrants since, including on their own people when rebelling, including Saddam Hussein in Iraq in the 1990s, and Bashar Assad in Syria in the 2010s.

Saddam's general in charge of gassing Kurdish rebels was Ali Hassan Majid al-Tikriti, who became known as "Chemical Ali." During the Iraq War of the 2000s, I joked that President George W. Bush was so dumb, when told about Chemical Ali, he said, "I'll always remember him as Gaseous Clay."

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January 31, 1915 was a Sunday. Sociologist Alan Lomax, game-show host Garry Moore, and monk-author Thomas Merton were born that day.

Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. Professional hockey had its 1st league, the National Hockey Association. However, no games were scheduled for that day. There may have been laws against playing on Sunday. Therefore, there were no scores on this historic day.