Chemical warfare in ww1

[The Basket]

How about instead of using chemical weapons, Haber invented a weapon of mass destruction.
I would say the Germans thought use of a pump action shotgun was a war crime.
A flammenwerfer must have been used purely to make toast.

 

[Shortround6]

How about instead of using chemical weapons, Haber invented a weapon of mass destruction.
I would say the Germans thought use of a pump action shotgun was a war crime.
A flammenwerfer must have been used purely to make toast.

I believe they objected to the shotgun because of the ammo. Soft lead projectiles that would deform as they hit (flatten out=expand).
at least that would be the "legal" objection under the "rules" of war at the time.
Apparently anything that was not specifically prohibited was OK to use.

I would note that even by WW I most countries were getting a bit cynical about some of the Hague conventions as it is harder to get repeating small arms to feed using lead or lead tipped bullets than when using full metal jackets so nobody ever really pushed back against that provision.

 

[The Basket]

Flame throwers are very feared on the battlefield. Although number of injury and death would probably be minimal but the fear factor was enormous.
Was the ammo deliberate or just stock in shotguns?
The Americans didn't have an auto weapon for trench raids unless you count the Chauchat and the Commonwealth used Lewis guns so a pump action shotgun would be pretty handy.

 

[Shortround6]

lead nose or pure lead bullets give (or gave) feeding problems in semi-automatic pistols and even bolt action rifles. It has to do with the nose of the bullet sliding on the feed ramp. Some guns are more prone to troubles than others. Angle of the ramp, how much the ramp controlled the feed vrs the lips of the magazine and the smoothness of the ramp. The last was a common modification for Military surplus pistols, Polishing the feed ramp to get rid of machine marks (groves) to get non-military bullets to feed reliably. Not a big deal but the more hand work the more expensive a gun is to manufacture.

US Shotguns used, at first, commercial ammunition which in WW I days meant a "paper" shell body with a crimped on sheet brass rim and primer cup. It tended to absorb water and swell in trench (or jungle) conditions and was replaced by a full length brass case.
A standard load for the military was a buckshot load of 9 pellets of 00 size which is .33 caliber and 53.8 grains (just under 3.5 grams).

Nobody was using steel or iron shot in the early part of the last century. Even "plated" shot was rare and expensive.

 

[Robert Porter]

Heck the advent of the machine gun was originally termed a terror weapon and a weapon of mass destruction! It is all relative I suppose.

 

[gumbyk]

I don't know if the Zeppelin crews had parachutes or not. They were so anal about carrying "extra weight " they may have left them behind.

From what I understand, they didn't carry parachutes due to weight issues.

To put the use of incendiary rounds into perspective: Germany was deliberately trying to firebomb London, so using incendiary rounds is hardly surprising.

 

[The Basket]

The use of incendiary rounds was to ignite the hydrogen. Hydrogen was found to be difficult to ignite so needed some persuasive measures.

In early days Zeppelin flew too high and was pretty safe.

Against a ww1 airplane then an incendiary bullet would be good against wood and fabric as well of course in a fuel tank. I suppose if a pilot got in the way it wouldn't be pretty but any high velocity machine gun round is going to painful.

 

[stona]

Heck the advent of the machine gun was originally termed a terror weapon and a weapon of mass destruction! It is all relative I suppose.

So was the crossbow. I believe one Pope wanted to ban them too
Cheers
Steve

Edit: I looked it up. Pope Innocent II banned the use of crossbows, along with other bows and slings, against Christians in 1139. You could still kill non-believers or heretics with these weapons, which would have been handy for those heading off on the 2nd or subsequent Crusades.
As far as I can tell nobody took much notice of the ban, a bit like the Hague Conventions nearly 800 years later

 

[The Basket]

If the crossbow was the only weapon in Ww1 we had to worry about then that would have been an improvement. Unless they were phosphorus tipped.

 

[Robert Porter]

Those flaming crossbow bolts always gave me the heebeegeebees!