American Experience
American Chemical Warfare Experience in WW1


On April 6th 1917 the U.S. declared war on Germany. Yet the Army was totally unprepared for the war in a theatre of chemical warfare. The Army had no plans and had no defensive measures, the gas masks were not even there for the men and the worst problem was the men were not trained enough to use them even if they had them. No one in America was prepared for the warfare they were about to face. The United States realized that there had to be a Gas Service created to defend the troops and to be used as an offensive against the Germans. The army new the need for the new service but they were unable to organize it. In August 17th 1917 General Pershing telegraphed Washington requesting the organization and wanted to appoint Lt. Col. Amos A. Fres, as the chief. General Order 31 was the order that organized the defensive and offensive operations for gas warfare. Below is the general organization of the new gas service and its branches.

Organization of gas service in 1917 (Leavenworth)

Further organization of the gas service into the individual company is shown below

AEF gas company layout (Leavenworth)

Lt. Col. Fres and other leaders realized the need for a medical branch to be formed. Major Church was the first director of the Gas Service in France, he had assisted in the initial planning for the AEF Gas Service. Maj. Church was primarily in charge of organizational matters, he was replaced by Lt. Col. Gilchrist, M.D. Lt. Col. Gilchrist prepared by going to the British Gas School at Rouen, France.


American Gas Casualties

	Deaths	Casualties
USA	1,500	71,500

The United States was facing a great deal of casualties from gas and one of the first things to dedicate one of the four division field hospital to specifically gas cases. A specific position was formed as a Gas Medical officer. The medical officer had many duties which were instructing medical personnel in gas defense, treatment of all types of gas casualties, and field hospitals.

American gas casualties (Leavenwroth)	Hospital gas casualties (Leavenworth)

Many U.S. Army officials were completely oblivious to the actual potential of chemical artillery and the use of gas troops in offense. When the AEF launched its first offensive at St. Mihiel and the Meuse-Argonne, gas was not crucial in the battle and played a very little role. the U.S. First Army HQ had learned from Germany when they used massive amounts of gas to cover their advance. After learning this information the U.S. Army gave orders down to subordinates to use gas from that point on. Yet many of these commanders resisted the employment of the special gas troops, so for many of the officers in the actual Gas Regiment they had trouble from many of the commanders in implementing gas warfare. During the fall of 1918 the infantry officers took great advantage of the gas regiment using the mortars to take out machine gun posts and the smoke to screen the advancing troops.


Aftermath
General Pershing in his final report about the war he had made reference to three weapons introduced in World War I. He spoke about the tank, aircraft and poison gas, only the poison gas had caused him to reflect on its use in further wars. "Whether or not gas will be employed in future wars is a matter of conjecture, but the effect is so deadly to the unprepared that we can never afford to neglect the question." (Leavenworth)

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