What was the affect of mustard gas?

Answer 1

Mustard gas used as a weapon had its own set of problems, including the fact that since it was heavier than air and lingered in fox-holes used by opposing troops it remained a blight in those same fox-holes if the frontline advanced and the troops that delivered it in the first place now needed to occupy those same spots to avoid enemy fire.

Answer 2

Mustard gas was first introduced in 1917 by the Germans, during the Third Battle of Ypres.

It's important to keep in mind that Mustard gas is often dramatized in movie and recountings - often the effects were not immediate, the onset of symptoms occurring somewhere over six hours after exposure. In fact, mustard gas had a very low mortality rate - only 1% of affected victims - which is paltry compared to the prior usage of chlorine gas attacks in 1915.

However, the chemical burns (that could be interal if inhaled), were by all means debilitating and extraordinarily painful. All victims may not have died, but by all means they were incapacitated and put out of action as foot soldiers, achieving the same end.

By 1917, most Allied troops were already well equipped with gas masks and drilling procedures, which kept most of the mustard gas out of the troop's lungs. However, skin exposure to mustard gas caused terrible chemical burns that could penetrate clothing - making any soldier within the area of a mustard gas attack vulnerable to sickness, gas mask or not. Mustard gas could also persist and remain in an area for days after its use, depending on weather conditions.

Mustard gas mostly served as an area-denial weapon (a weapon that forces an enemy to abandon a defensive position, because it becomes unusuable or untenable) and a way to soften up troops for upcoming attacks. Mustard gas had never become available to the Allies until 1918 - after they captured a large stockpile of mustard gas artillery shells and began their own production methods.

Answer 3

Mainly by destroying the lungs and eyes of the opposing forces on the battlefield.