chemical weapon

Images & Videos

American soldiers in World War I uniforms, some wearing gas masks, advance with rifles during a simulated gas attack exercise on a rocky battlefield.

The horrifying history of gas warfare

Gas masks at the Second Battle of Ypres

Two German soldiers wearing helmets and gas masks operate a machine gun during World War I.

Mustard gas in World War I

A protester stands in the street with arms raised, facing a cloud of tear gas and a line of police during nighttime unrest in Baltimore, with orange smoke filling the scene.

U.S. wartime use of defoliant in Vietnam

Two American soldiers in World War I uniforms use large paddles called gas flappers to fan poison gas inside a dirt trench.

Person in chemical protective gear and mask attends to a mock patient on a stretcher inside a yellow portable decontamination chamber during a hazardous material team drill.

At a Glance

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chemical warfare summary

chemical weapon: Media

military technology

Videos

The horrifying history of gas warfare

The horrifying history of gas warfare

Learn about the development of chemical warfare during World War I.

Video: © American Chemical Society (A Britannica Publishing Partner)

Observe English schoolchildren practicing using gas masks in case of a chemical attack amid World War II

Observe English schoolchildren practicing using gas masks in case of a chemical attack amid World War II

The gas mask became a part of modern warfare with the introduction of chemical weapons...

Video: Public Domain

Images

American soldiers in World War I uniforms, some wearing gas masks, advance with rifles during a simulated gas attack exercise on a rocky battlefield.

Chemical weapons in World War I

American soldiers participating in a simulated gas attack exercise, World War I.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Gas masks at the Second Battle of Ypres

Gas masks at the Second Battle of Ypres

Australian soldiers wearing gas masks during the Second Battle of Ypres, 1915.

© Photo12—Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Two German soldiers wearing helmets and gas masks operate a machine gun during World War I.

World War I machine gun crew

A German machine gun crew wearing gas masks in World War I.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Trench warfare

Trench warfare

French troops wearing gas masks await attack in a trench on the Western Front during...

© Roger-Viollet

Mustard gas in World War I

Mustard gas in World War I

A medical attendant giving water to soldiers injured by mustard gas in Royaumeix,...

Otis Historical Archives, National Museum of Health and Medicine

A protester stands in the street with arms raised, facing a cloud of tear gas and a line of police during nighttime unrest in Baltimore, with orange smoke filling the scene.

Baltimore riots

A protester walking through tear gas as police enforce a mandatory city-wide curfew...

© Andrew Burton/Getty Images

U.S. wartime use of defoliant in Vietnam

U.S. wartime use of defoliant in Vietnam

A U.S. helicopter spraying defoliant over a dense jungle during the Vietnam War,...

Brian K. Grigsby, Department of Defense/The National Archives

Two American soldiers in World War I uniforms use large paddles called gas flappers to fan poison gas inside a dirt trench.

Chemical weapons in World War I

American soldiers training with anti-gas fans. The fans were intended to disperse...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Person in chemical protective gear and mask attends to a mock patient on a stretcher inside a yellow portable decontamination chamber during a hazardous material team drill.

Chemical weapons casualties

Essential to survival after exposure to chemical weapons on the battlefield are portable...

© Larry St. Pierre/Shutterstock.com

French soldiers in uniform show a group of women how to put on gas masks outside a wooden shelter in a village near the front in Alsace during World War I.

Chemical weapons in World War I

Soldiers demonstrating the proper wearing of a gas mask to civilians near the front...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

An Israeli woman helps her young son put on a gas mask while her daughter watches, inside a crowded distribution center in Tel Aviv.

Civilian protection against chemical weapons

An Israeli woman showing her child how to put on a gas mask, Tel Aviv, August 26,...

Uriel Sinai/Getty Images

Portable chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons shelter

Portable chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons shelter

Woman in a gas mask demonstrating a portable shelter developed by the U.S. Army to...

U.S. Army photograph

Medieval illustration showing a Byzantine dromon crew spraying Greek fire at an enemy ship, with Greek text above and below the scene.

Greek fire

The crew of a Byzantine dromon, a type of light galley, spraying an enemy ship with...

© Fine Art Images/Heritage Images—Hulton Archive/Getty Images

World War I; chemical weapon

World War I; chemical weapon

U.S. soldiers using gas equipment and receiving telephone instructions during the...

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

A grieving mother and father sit on the floor, weeping over the body of their child wrapped in a shroud among other covered bodies in a large room in Syria.

Chemical weapons in the Syrian Civil War

A mother and father grieving over the body of their child, who was killed in a chemical...

Erbin News—NurPhoto/Corbis/Getty Images

ʿAlī Ḥasan al-Majīd

ʿAlī Ḥasan al-Majīd

ʿAlī Ḥasan al-Majīd at an investigative hearing held by the Iraqi Special Tribunal,...

U.S. Air Force (041218-F-8946M-008)

Workers in camouflage uniforms and gas masks scrub the floor of a Tokyo subway car, cleaning after the 1995 sarin gas attack.

Tokyo subway attack of 1995

Workers cleaning a train car after members of AUM Shinrikyo released sarin in the...

© Noboru Hashimoto—Corbis News/Getty Images

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