WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.319 I want you to picture a spring evening. OK. It's 00:00:03.319 --> 00:00:05.940 April 1915, and we are on the Western Front. 00:00:06.160 --> 00:00:08.679 Right in the thick of it. Exactly. The sun is 00:00:08.679 --> 00:00:11.339 just starting to set over this heavily scarred 00:00:11.339 --> 00:00:14.160 landscape in Western Belgium. And for a brief 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:17.420 moment, there might actually be a lull in the 00:00:17.420 --> 00:00:20.300 fighting. A rare quiet moment. Yeah. But then, 00:00:20.359 --> 00:00:22.320 if you're looking out across the craters, you 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:24.239 see something strange. Something that shouldn't 00:00:24.239 --> 00:00:28.300 be there. Right. a low heavy cloud begins to 00:00:28.300 --> 00:00:32.000 drift across the mud. It's not fog. It is this 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:36.439 sickly yellow green color. Wow. And as it creeps 00:00:36.439 --> 00:00:39.479 silently toward the allied trenches, it is about 00:00:39.479 --> 00:00:41.880 to completely shatter the rules of engagement. 00:00:42.119 --> 00:00:43.820 I mean, it's going to forever change the face 00:00:43.820 --> 00:00:46.460 of modern warfare. It really is a genuinely chilling. 00:00:46.719 --> 00:00:49.320 pivot point in military history. I mean, that 00:00:49.320 --> 00:00:52.679 cloud represented the definitive end of one era 00:00:52.679 --> 00:00:55.079 of combat. And the terrifying dawn of a new one. 00:00:55.619 --> 00:00:57.719 Exactly. A highly mechanized chemical reality. 00:00:57.759 --> 00:00:59.539 And that is exactly what we are getting into 00:00:59.539 --> 00:01:01.820 today. Welcome to this deep dive. Glad to be 00:01:01.820 --> 00:01:05.159 here. Today, we're relying on a single comprehensive 00:01:05.159 --> 00:01:08.739 source. It's a meticulously detailed Wikipedia 00:01:08.739 --> 00:01:11.439 article on the Second Battle of Ypres. A really 00:01:11.439 --> 00:01:14.000 fascinating read. It is. Our mission for this 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:16.379 deep dive is to unpack not just the military 00:01:16.379 --> 00:01:18.859 maneuvers of this historic month -long clash, 00:01:19.340 --> 00:01:21.840 but the horrifying introduction of weapons of 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:24.319 mass destruction to the battlefield. The human 00:01:24.319 --> 00:01:27.920 cost was just, it was unprecedented. Yeah. We're 00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:30.219 going to look at the desperate human ingenuity 00:01:30.219 --> 00:01:32.840 that followed that yellow -green cloud, and really 00:01:32.840 --> 00:01:35.519 what this whole ordeal means for how we understand 00:01:35.519 --> 00:01:38.099 massive technological leaps. Especially when 00:01:38.099 --> 00:01:40.780 they happen in times of absolute crisis. Right. 00:01:40.939 --> 00:01:43.060 To really grasp the impact of this, we need to 00:01:43.060 --> 00:01:45.819 properly set the stage. The Second Battle of 00:01:45.819 --> 00:01:49.219 Ypres took place from April 22nd to May 25th, 00:01:49.379 --> 00:01:52.739 1915. Over a month of fighting. Yeah. Geographically, 00:01:52.840 --> 00:01:54.640 we are looking at the Ypres salient in western 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:57.599 Belgium. At this particular time, the northern 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:00.159 end and the eastern bulge of this salient were 00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:02.299 being defended by a mix of French, Canadian, 00:02:02.439 --> 00:02:04.640 and British divisions. And as we are about to 00:02:04.640 --> 00:02:07.260 explore, this battle marked the first mass use 00:02:07.260 --> 00:02:09.780 of poison gas by Germany on the western front. 00:02:10.180 --> 00:02:12.580 Okay, let's unpack this. Because the origin of 00:02:12.580 --> 00:02:15.939 this attack actually starts far away from the 00:02:15.939 --> 00:02:18.080 mud of the trenches. Right. It starts in the 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:20.840 pristine laboratories of the German Empire. Exactly. 00:02:21.259 --> 00:02:23.819 This period is often referred to as the chemists' 00:02:23.979 --> 00:02:27.439 war. And there's a dark historical absurdity 00:02:27.439 --> 00:02:30.219 to it. You essentially had some of the most brilliant 00:02:30.219 --> 00:02:33.539 minds of the 20th century arguing over the optimal 00:02:33.539 --> 00:02:35.919 deployment of chemical agents. Like they were 00:02:35.919 --> 00:02:38.159 trying to design a more efficient household cleaner 00:02:38.159 --> 00:02:41.120 or something? It's so strange. Initially, you 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:43.780 had this German chemist, Walther Nernst. He was 00:02:43.780 --> 00:02:45.939 actually serving as a volunteer driver at the 00:02:45.939 --> 00:02:49.460 time. OK. He pitched the idea of using tear gas 00:02:49.460 --> 00:02:52.219 to a German general staff officer to clear out 00:02:52.219 --> 00:02:54.639 opposing trenches. Right. But then another chemist 00:02:54.639 --> 00:02:57.900 steps in, Fritz Haber. Yes. He observes a field 00:02:57.900 --> 00:03:00.860 test of Nernst's tear gas and essentially says, 00:03:01.020 --> 00:03:03.439 It isn't enough. He pushes for something far 00:03:03.439 --> 00:03:06.680 more lethal. Heavier than air chlorine gas. Which 00:03:06.680 --> 00:03:08.520 completely shifts the scale of what they're trying 00:03:08.520 --> 00:03:11.300 to do. What's fascinating here is the sheer logistical 00:03:11.300 --> 00:03:13.599 nightmare required to turn Haber's scientific 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:16.319 theory into a battlefield reality. Because they 00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:18.860 couldn't just drop it from a plane. Right. We 00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:20.699 aren't just talking about dropping a bomb. The 00:03:20.699 --> 00:03:26.139 German troops had to manually haul 5 ,730 individual 00:03:26.139 --> 00:03:29.889 gas cylinders. into the front lines. That is 00:03:29.889 --> 00:03:32.169 why. And to give you some perspective, the largest 00:03:32.169 --> 00:03:35.189 of these cylinders weight 88 pounds. Almost 90 00:03:35.189 --> 00:03:37.870 pounds of dead weight. Yes. They had to carry 00:03:37.870 --> 00:03:39.930 them through the trenches at night, bury them 00:03:39.930 --> 00:03:42.490 in the parapets, and cover them with sandbags. 00:03:42.689 --> 00:03:44.930 Just to protect them from incoming artillery. 00:03:45.169 --> 00:03:47.550 Exactly. It was a massive physical undertaking. 00:03:47.990 --> 00:03:50.009 And it was supervised on the ground by Haber 00:03:50.009 --> 00:03:52.310 himself. Along with other prominent scientists. 00:03:52.389 --> 00:03:54.909 Right, guys like Otto Hahn, James Frank, and 00:03:54.909 --> 00:03:57.990 Gustav Hertz. Imagine being an infantryman tasked 00:03:57.990 --> 00:04:01.169 with dragging an 88 -pound metal cylinder of 00:04:01.169 --> 00:04:04.169 poison through trench mud. Knowing a single stray 00:04:04.169 --> 00:04:06.409 bullet could rupture it right next to you. It's 00:04:06.409 --> 00:04:08.530 terrible. and it gets even more complicated because 00:04:08.530 --> 00:04:10.229 they couldn't just open the valves and spray 00:04:10.229 --> 00:04:13.650 it. The liquid chlorine inside would cause the 00:04:13.650 --> 00:04:16.949 valves to freeze solid upon release due to the 00:04:16.949 --> 00:04:19.910 rapid temperature drop. Ah, basic chemistry working 00:04:19.910 --> 00:04:22.730 against them. Right. So they had to siphon the 00:04:22.730 --> 00:04:25.790 liquid chlorine, allow it to vaporize, and then 00:04:25.790 --> 00:04:27.910 they literally just had to wait for the breeze. 00:04:28.389 --> 00:04:30.670 Wait for the wind. Yeah, wait for the wind to 00:04:30.670 --> 00:04:33.110 blow in the exact right direction to carry the 00:04:33.110 --> 00:04:35.389 vapor toward the British and French lines. If 00:04:35.389 --> 00:04:38.410 we connect this to the bigger picture, we have 00:04:38.410 --> 00:04:41.410 to look at the strategic motivation of the man 00:04:41.410 --> 00:04:44.029 who approved this deployment. General Erich von 00:04:44.029 --> 00:04:46.029 Falkenhayn. Yes, the professional head of the 00:04:46.029 --> 00:04:49.100 German Army. This wasn't simply a terror tactic 00:04:49.100 --> 00:04:51.779 designed in a vacuum. He had a specific goal. 00:04:52.060 --> 00:04:54.620 Falkenhayn had a very specific strategic objective. 00:04:55.199 --> 00:04:57.800 He wanted to use the profound shock and chaos 00:04:57.800 --> 00:05:00.779 of a massive gas attack to mask the transfer 00:05:00.779 --> 00:05:03.620 of his military units to the Eastern Front. Because 00:05:03.620 --> 00:05:05.920 the Austro -Hungarian Army were struggling. Exactly. 00:05:05.939 --> 00:05:08.139 They were taking heavy losses against the Imperial 00:05:08.139 --> 00:05:10.480 Russian Army at the time. So Falkenhayn needed 00:05:10.480 --> 00:05:12.819 a massive distraction on the Western Front. So 00:05:12.819 --> 00:05:15.860 he could quietly move his troops east to reinforce 00:05:15.860 --> 00:05:18.899 them. And that brings us to the reality of April 00:05:18.899 --> 00:05:22.959 22, 1915, the Battle of Gravenstaffel Ridge. 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:25.389 The first day. It's about five in the evening. 00:05:25.810 --> 00:05:28.629 The troops are likely settling in, maybe preparing 00:05:28.629 --> 00:05:31.269 evening rations. The wind is finally cooperating 00:05:31.269 --> 00:05:33.529 for the Germans. Yes, the wind is blowing in 00:05:33.529 --> 00:05:35.850 the right direction. The order is given and the 00:05:35.850 --> 00:05:39.870 German 4th Army releases 168 tons of chlorine 00:05:39.870 --> 00:05:42.870 gas. Across a four -mile front. Between the hamlets 00:05:42.870 --> 00:05:45.709 of Langmark and Grabenstafel and sitting right 00:05:45.709 --> 00:05:48.269 in the path of this rolling cloud are the French 00:05:48.439 --> 00:05:51.819 87th Territorial Division and the 45th Infantry 00:05:51.819 --> 00:05:54.180 Division. These were men entirely unprepared 00:05:54.180 --> 00:05:56.579 for chemical warfare. No warning at all. None. 00:05:56.779 --> 00:05:59.579 The 87th was made up of older reservists, and 00:05:59.579 --> 00:06:02.240 the 45th comprised troops from French North Africa. 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:04.620 When that heavy gas rolled into their trenches, 00:06:05.019 --> 00:06:07.899 displacing the oxygen. The human toll was instantaneous. 00:06:08.480 --> 00:06:11.259 In that initial wave, the French suffered between 00:06:11.259 --> 00:06:14.759 2 ,000 and 3 ,000 casualties. With up to 1 ,400 00:06:14.759 --> 00:06:17.379 fatalities. Reading Colonel Henri Mordach's account 00:06:17.379 --> 00:06:19.480 of the 45th Division really puts you in the boots 00:06:19.480 --> 00:06:21.579 of those soldiers as the gas enveloped them. 00:06:21.819 --> 00:06:24.680 What did he say? He described his men as haggard. 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:28.500 Their overcoats thrown off or opened wide, scarves 00:06:28.500 --> 00:06:30.819 pulled off. Just desperate for air. Running like 00:06:30.819 --> 00:06:33.779 madmen, directionless, shouting for water, spitting 00:06:33.779 --> 00:06:36.699 blood. He noted some were even rolling on the 00:06:36.699 --> 00:06:38.819 ground, making desperate efforts to breathe. 00:06:39.100 --> 00:06:42.100 It is a portrait of absolute panic. Total chaos. 00:06:42.500 --> 00:06:45.240 And structurally, this attack did exactly what 00:06:45.240 --> 00:06:47.959 it was designed to do. It created a massive 3 00:06:47.959 --> 00:06:52.339 .7 mile undefended gap. in the allied line the 00:06:52.339 --> 00:06:54.300 front was completely broken but wait hold on 00:06:54.300 --> 00:06:57.339 i want to pause here okay they just punched a 00:06:57.339 --> 00:07:00.240 nearly four mile wide hole straight through the 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:03.060 allied lines the road teapot is practically wide 00:07:03.060 --> 00:07:05.639 open wide open Why didn't they just keep walking? 00:07:05.939 --> 00:07:08.120 Why wouldn't Falkenhayn have had reserves ready 00:07:08.120 --> 00:07:10.939 to exploit that gap immediately and take the 00:07:10.939 --> 00:07:13.199 city? It is the ultimate tactical irony of this 00:07:13.199 --> 00:07:15.060 battle. Yeah. The Germans had just engineered 00:07:15.060 --> 00:07:17.519 a massive breakthrough, but they were terrified 00:07:17.519 --> 00:07:19.759 of their own weapon. Really? The German infantry 00:07:19.759 --> 00:07:22.899 advancing behind the gas cloud were only equipped 00:07:22.899 --> 00:07:26.040 with rudimentary protection, just basic cotton 00:07:26.040 --> 00:07:28.920 pads soaked in a sodium thiosulfate solution. 00:07:29.019 --> 00:07:31.540 That's not much. No. They didn't trust the masks. 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:34.019 They didn't trust the gas to dissipate quickly 00:07:34.019 --> 00:07:36.439 enough. So they held back. Instead of pushing 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:38.220 their immense advantage and marching straight 00:07:38.220 --> 00:07:41.839 into Ypres, almost unopposed, they advanced very 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:44.980 cautiously. They hesitated. They hesitated and 00:07:44.980 --> 00:07:47.819 ultimately decided to dig in at the small villages 00:07:47.819 --> 00:07:50.339 they had just captured. And that hesitation, 00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:53.279 that fear of their own creation gave the Allies 00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:56.699 a tiny precious window of time. A very brief 00:07:56.699 --> 00:07:59.100 window. The Canadian troops who were defending 00:07:59.100 --> 00:08:01.740 the southern flank of this newly created gap 00:08:01.740 --> 00:08:04.620 had to step up. Interestingly, the Canadians 00:08:04.620 --> 00:08:07.120 actually recognized what the gas was right away. 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:09.360 Because of the smell. Yeah, the chlorine smelled 00:08:09.360 --> 00:08:11.860 exactly like the chemicals they used to purify 00:08:11.860 --> 00:08:14.860 their drinking water. That familiarity, as grim 00:08:14.860 --> 00:08:17.639 as it was, likely helped them process what was 00:08:17.639 --> 00:08:20.339 happening faster than the French units had. But 00:08:20.339 --> 00:08:23.379 the situation was still utterly desperate. Beyond 00:08:23.379 --> 00:08:28.100 desperate. That night, after 11 p .m. The 10th 00:08:28.100 --> 00:08:30.620 and 16th Canadian Battalions were ordered to 00:08:30.620 --> 00:08:33.379 launch a counterattack into the gap at a place 00:08:33.379 --> 00:08:35.519 called Kitchener's Wood. Put yourself in their 00:08:35.519 --> 00:08:38.019 boots for a second. It's pitch black. You have 00:08:38.019 --> 00:08:40.259 absolutely no idea what the terrain looks like. 00:08:40.340 --> 00:08:42.059 Because there hasn't been any reconnaissance. 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:44.360 You just know the enemy is out there in the dark 00:08:44.360 --> 00:08:46.879 and the air still smells like poison. Halfway 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:49.360 to their objective, they hit unexpected obstacles. 00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:52.480 A hedge interwoven with wire. And they take heavy 00:08:52.480 --> 00:08:55.480 small arms fire. So they launch an impromptu 00:08:55.480 --> 00:08:58.289 midnight bayonet charge. They physically ran 00:08:58.289 --> 00:09:01.289 into the dark and fought hand -to -hand. Incredibly, 00:09:01.470 --> 00:09:03.809 they succeeded in clearing the woods of German 00:09:03.809 --> 00:09:07.649 soldiers. But the cost was unfathomable. How 00:09:07.649 --> 00:09:10.269 bad was it? Those battalions suffered a staggering 00:09:10.269 --> 00:09:14.049 75 % casualty rate in that single action. 75 00:09:14.049 --> 00:09:16.610 %? That's devastating. It's a testament to raw 00:09:16.610 --> 00:09:19.450 courage, certainly. But it also heavily underscores 00:09:19.450 --> 00:09:22.450 the brutal reality of throwing human bodies against 00:09:22.450 --> 00:09:25.389 a mechanized chemical advantage. And unfortunately 00:09:25.389 --> 00:09:27.429 for the troops on the ground, the terror was 00:09:27.429 --> 00:09:30.330 only just beginning. Right. Because two days 00:09:30.330 --> 00:09:33.409 later, on April 24th, we moved to the Battle 00:09:33.409 --> 00:09:36.009 of St. Julian. This is the moment the terrifying 00:09:36.009 --> 00:09:38.950 realization truly sets in for the Allies. The 00:09:38.950 --> 00:09:41.389 gas attack wasn't a one off experiment. It was 00:09:41.389 --> 00:09:44.950 their new standard tactic. At St. Julian, another 00:09:44.950 --> 00:09:47.950 massive yellow -green cloud was released. The 00:09:47.950 --> 00:09:50.549 troops there described the gas as having a highly 00:09:50.549 --> 00:09:53.230 distinct odor. Something resembling a mix of 00:09:53.230 --> 00:09:56.149 pineapple and pepper. The initial confusion was 00:09:56.149 --> 00:09:58.850 profound. French officers actually thought the 00:09:58.850 --> 00:10:00.909 advancing cloud was just a conventional smoke 00:10:00.909 --> 00:10:03.889 screen. Meant to hide an infantry advance. Exactly. 00:10:04.370 --> 00:10:06.309 It wasn't until the soldiers started collapsing, 00:10:06.629 --> 00:10:08.690 complaining of severe chest pains and a burning 00:10:08.690 --> 00:10:11.240 sensation in their throats, that the true nature 00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:13.259 of the attack was understood. Here's where it 00:10:13.259 --> 00:10:15.899 gets really interesting, because with no official 00:10:15.899 --> 00:10:19.120 gas masks issued, the troops had to improvise 00:10:19.120 --> 00:10:21.539 instantly. They had to think fast. And they relied 00:10:21.539 --> 00:10:23.759 on some incredibly quick thinking from their 00:10:23.759 --> 00:10:25.840 medical personnel. Canadian medical officers. 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:28.960 Specifically, chemists and bacteriologists, Lieutenant 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:31.879 Colonel George Naismith and Captain Francis Scrimgeour, 00:10:32.179 --> 00:10:34.360 they identified the chemical properties of the 00:10:34.360 --> 00:10:36.669 chlorine. And what did they do? They passed an 00:10:36.669 --> 00:10:38.669 urgent order down the line for the troops to 00:10:38.669 --> 00:10:40.850 urinate on their handkerchiefs or cotton pads. 00:10:41.009 --> 00:10:43.169 And hold them tightly over their mouths and noses. 00:10:43.429 --> 00:10:46.429 It sounds shocking to modern sensibilities. But 00:10:46.429 --> 00:10:48.970 chemically, it was entirely sound advice in a 00:10:48.970 --> 00:10:51.610 life or death scenario. How does that work? The 00:10:51.610 --> 00:10:55.570 urea, naturally present in human urine, actually 00:10:55.570 --> 00:10:58.330 reacts with and neutralizes the chlorine gas. 00:10:58.620 --> 00:11:01.860 It creates a compound called dechlorurea. Wow. 00:11:02.139 --> 00:11:04.559 In the absence of an actual engineered respirator, 00:11:05.059 --> 00:11:09.019 that damp urea -soaked piece of cloth was literally 00:11:09.019 --> 00:11:12.019 the only chemical barrier standing between a 00:11:12.019 --> 00:11:14.620 soldier's respiratory system and a highly caustic 00:11:14.620 --> 00:11:17.340 gas. But even with that improvised defense, the 00:11:17.340 --> 00:11:19.700 reality on the ground was a nightmare. We get 00:11:19.700 --> 00:11:22.259 a sense of this visceral horror from the account 00:11:22.259 --> 00:11:24.659 of Private W. Hay of the Royal Scots. He was 00:11:24.659 --> 00:11:26.500 just a 20 -year -old kid who arrived in Eeper 00:11:26.500 --> 00:11:29.009 right after the first gas attack. He described 00:11:29.009 --> 00:11:31.529 walking along the railway line and seeing the 00:11:31.529 --> 00:11:34.850 road choked with refugees. Moving alongside dead 00:11:34.850 --> 00:11:37.169 and dying civilians and soldiers. He called it 00:11:37.169 --> 00:11:39.990 a horrible sight that he would never, ever forget. 00:11:40.049 --> 00:11:42.389 To truly understand what these men were facing, 00:11:42.909 --> 00:11:45.230 we have to look at the physical effects of chlorine 00:11:45.230 --> 00:11:49.049 exposure. It is agonizing. Lance Sergeant Elmer 00:11:49.049 --> 00:11:52.669 Cotton provided a very clinical, grim description. 00:11:52.870 --> 00:11:55.269 What did he say? He stated that the effects of 00:11:55.269 --> 00:11:57.870 chlorine gas were equivalent death to drowning 00:11:57.870 --> 00:12:00.730 only on dry land. That is a brutally mechanical 00:12:00.730 --> 00:12:02.990 way to describe it. It completely strips away 00:12:02.990 --> 00:12:05.950 any romanticized idea of combat. Drowning on 00:12:05.950 --> 00:12:08.409 dry land. He detailed the splitting headaches, 00:12:08.830 --> 00:12:11.429 the terrific first. He noted that drinking water 00:12:11.429 --> 00:12:14.480 was supposedly instant death. Oh, man. And the 00:12:14.480 --> 00:12:16.419 coughing up of a greenish froth from the stomach 00:12:16.419 --> 00:12:18.840 and the lungs. That's awful. You know, the skin 00:12:18.840 --> 00:12:21.220 turning greenish black and yellow due to oxygen 00:12:21.220 --> 00:12:23.980 deprivation and the glassy stare of the eyes. 00:12:24.100 --> 00:12:26.440 Just completely helpless. As you bluntly put 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:30.000 it, it is a fiendish death to die. Yet amidst 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:33.419 all that unimaginable panic and pain, you still 00:12:33.419 --> 00:12:36.759 had acts of almost unbelievable discipline and 00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:39.519 courage. Lance Corporal Frederick Fisher is a 00:12:39.519 --> 00:12:41.779 prime example. During the fighting at St. Julian, 00:12:42.100 --> 00:12:45.179 he went out not once but twice with just a handful 00:12:45.179 --> 00:12:48.139 of men and a Colt machine gun. He set up his 00:12:48.139 --> 00:12:50.940 position under heavy fire and successfully prevented 00:12:50.940 --> 00:12:53.159 the advancing German troops from passing through 00:12:53.159 --> 00:12:55.340 the village. And flanking the Canadian front 00:12:55.340 --> 00:12:58.059 line. He saved countless lives and held the line 00:12:58.059 --> 00:13:00.179 together. But he was killed in action the very 00:13:00.179 --> 00:13:03.710 next day. His actions were vital. The delay caused 00:13:03.710 --> 00:13:06.450 by localized stands like Fisher's combined with 00:13:06.450 --> 00:13:09.049 the German infantry's ongoing fear of moving 00:13:09.049 --> 00:13:11.549 too quickly into the residual gas. It gave the 00:13:11.549 --> 00:13:13.870 British and Canadian troops just enough time 00:13:13.870 --> 00:13:16.429 to plug that massive gap before the entire line 00:13:16.429 --> 00:13:18.389 collapsed. But plugging the gap didn't mean the 00:13:18.389 --> 00:13:20.610 battle was over. No, it just meant the shock 00:13:20.610 --> 00:13:23.470 value of the initial gas attack faded and the 00:13:23.470 --> 00:13:26.250 relentless industrial grind of conventional warfare 00:13:26.250 --> 00:13:28.269 took over. Which leads us into the subsequent 00:13:28.269 --> 00:13:30.710 massive engagements at Friesenberg and Bellward. 00:13:30.879 --> 00:13:34.220 stretching this nightmare deep into May. Exactly. 00:13:35.320 --> 00:13:38.299 The narrative of Ypres often focuses so heavily 00:13:38.299 --> 00:13:41.980 on the gas that we forget the sheer scale of 00:13:41.980 --> 00:13:44.879 the conventional slaughter that followed. Between 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:47.799 May 8th and 13th at the Battle of Friesenberg, 00:13:48.320 --> 00:13:50.620 the Germans brought their field artillery forward. 00:13:50.940 --> 00:13:54.259 They assembled three entire corps and subjected 00:13:54.259 --> 00:13:58.240 the British 27th and 28th divisions to a massive 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:01.299 punishing bombardment. We are talking about days 00:14:01.299 --> 00:14:04.879 of relentless heavy shelling on static positions. 00:14:05.080 --> 00:14:07.700 The tactical nightmare of holding a trench under 00:14:07.700 --> 00:14:09.559 that weight of fire is hard to wrap your head 00:14:09.559 --> 00:14:11.840 around. You can't retreat, but you also can't 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:13.539 advance. You just have to sit there and take 00:14:13.539 --> 00:14:15.740 it. The decimation of individual units during 00:14:15.740 --> 00:14:18.649 this phase is staggering. Look at Princess Patricia's 00:14:18.649 --> 00:14:20.850 Canadian light infantry. They were ordered to 00:14:20.850 --> 00:14:22.929 counterattack and hold the line at Friesenberg. 00:14:23.090 --> 00:14:25.889 They went in with 700 men. By the time the artillery 00:14:25.889 --> 00:14:27.690 barrage and the fighting were done, they were 00:14:27.690 --> 00:14:30.690 reduced to a mere 150 survivors. Essentially, 00:14:30.690 --> 00:14:32.889 an entire regiment was wiped out in a matter 00:14:32.889 --> 00:14:35.730 of days. They were in no shape to fight. And 00:14:35.730 --> 00:14:38.289 even as this conventional artillery slaughter 00:14:38.289 --> 00:14:41.750 was peaking, the chemical threat remained a constant 00:14:41.750 --> 00:14:45.250 terror. During the Battle of Belward on May 24th, 00:14:45.330 --> 00:14:48.070 the Germans launched yet another major gas attack. 00:14:48.230 --> 00:14:51.090 But by this point, the tactics were rapidly evolving 00:14:51.090 --> 00:14:54.350 on both sides. There's this eerie, almost cinematic 00:14:54.350 --> 00:14:57.049 detail from Belward. The Germans started throwing 00:14:57.049 --> 00:14:59.830 red lights flares up over their own trenches. 00:15:00.029 --> 00:15:02.889 This was a visual signal to their own men that 00:15:02.889 --> 00:15:05.750 a gas release was imminent. And because the Allies 00:15:05.750 --> 00:15:08.250 were watching the sky, It gave commanders like 00:15:08.250 --> 00:15:11.269 Captain Thomas Leahy of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers 00:15:11.269 --> 00:15:14.330 just enough warning. He noted that seeing those 00:15:14.330 --> 00:15:17.409 red lights gave them exactly enough time to get 00:15:17.409 --> 00:15:20.190 their makeshift respirators on before the gas 00:15:20.190 --> 00:15:22.549 washed over them. It became a macabre routine. 00:15:22.769 --> 00:15:24.830 You see the red flare, you grab the chemically 00:15:24.830 --> 00:15:27.250 soaked cloth, you brace for the cloud to pass 00:15:27.250 --> 00:15:29.200 over you. and then you immediately prepare to 00:15:29.200 --> 00:15:31.419 fight off the infantry assault that would inevitably 00:15:31.419 --> 00:15:33.440 follow right behind it. So what does this all 00:15:33.440 --> 00:15:35.840 mean? When the guns finally fell silent on May 00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:38.620 25th, the ledger of war was almost too massive 00:15:38.620 --> 00:15:41.440 to comprehend. The casualty numbers are absolutely 00:15:41.440 --> 00:15:45.379 devastating. The records show over 35 ,000 German 00:15:45.379 --> 00:15:50.659 casualties. The British suffered 59 ,275 casualties. 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:55.080 And the French suffered an estimated 21 ,973 00:15:55.080 --> 00:15:58.460 casualties. Strategically, After all that blood 00:15:58.460 --> 00:16:01.200 and poison, the British forces were ultimately 00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:04.960 forced to withdraw to a new defensive line three 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:07.919 miles closer to Ypres. The salient was compressed 00:16:07.919 --> 00:16:10.759 and the city of Ypres itself was completely demolished 00:16:10.759 --> 00:16:12.960 by the relentless artillery fire. It was a shattered 00:16:12.960 --> 00:16:15.830 landscape. But the Allies did survive the onslaught. 00:16:15.950 --> 00:16:18.450 They held the line. And that survival forced 00:16:18.450 --> 00:16:21.090 an incredibly steep learning curve. The Canadian 00:16:21.090 --> 00:16:24.049 Division alone suffered nearly 6 ,000 casualties 00:16:24.049 --> 00:16:26.350 in just the first couple of weeks. They paid 00:16:26.350 --> 00:16:29.049 in blood to learn that 19th century tactics had 00:16:29.049 --> 00:16:31.889 absolutely no place in a 20th century war. Up 00:16:31.889 --> 00:16:34.549 until in Prey, military doctrines still heavily 00:16:34.549 --> 00:16:37.190 favored large linear formations. But commanders 00:16:37.190 --> 00:16:39.450 quickly realized that moving a full company of 00:16:39.450 --> 00:16:42.570 men as a single bloc was completely suicidal 00:16:42.570 --> 00:16:46.490 against guns and poison gas. One gas cloud or 00:16:46.490 --> 00:16:48.990 one well -placed machine gun nest could wipe 00:16:48.990 --> 00:16:52.009 out a hundred men in seconds. This battle triggered 00:16:52.009 --> 00:16:54.809 a massive shift in how armies organized themselves. 00:16:55.289 --> 00:16:58.129 Because of the lessons learned here, by 1917 00:16:58.600 --> 00:17:01.080 The primary tactical maneuvering unit would be 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:04.119 reduced from a large company down to a much smaller, 00:17:04.420 --> 00:17:07.220 far more agile section level unit. Allowing for 00:17:07.220 --> 00:17:09.339 squad level autonomy and dispersed movement. 00:17:09.460 --> 00:17:11.599 They also learned hard lessons about the reality 00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:13.880 of their equipment. It wasn't just about tactics. 00:17:14.160 --> 00:17:16.880 It was about the lethal disconnect between procurement 00:17:16.880 --> 00:17:20.259 politics and trench reality. Take the Canadian 00:17:20.259 --> 00:17:23.200 Ross rifle. It was a finely made weapon, highly 00:17:23.200 --> 00:17:25.799 accurate on a pristine target practice range. 00:17:25.940 --> 00:17:28.539 But in the mud, grit and rapid fire. conditions 00:17:28.539 --> 00:17:31.099 of the Belgian trenches, it jammed constantly. 00:17:31.259 --> 00:17:33.519 A rifle that jams the second it touches mud is 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:35.880 worse than useless. It actively costs lives. 00:17:36.220 --> 00:17:38.619 It forced soldiers to throw them away and scavenge 00:17:38.619 --> 00:17:40.920 Lee -Enfield rifles from fallen British troops. 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:43.640 We also see a rapid, almost frantic technological 00:17:43.640 --> 00:17:46.319 race to counter the chemical threat. The evolution 00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:48.940 of protection moved at an incredible pace. They 00:17:48.940 --> 00:17:51.859 went from those desperate, urine -soaked cotton 00:17:51.859 --> 00:17:55.170 pads in April. to mass producing the P helmet, 00:17:55.410 --> 00:17:57.269 also known as the tube helmet, by the end of 00:17:57.269 --> 00:18:00.589 1915. These were flannel bags soaked in sodium 00:18:00.589 --> 00:18:03.470 phenate and sodium phiosulfate. And just to clarify 00:18:03.470 --> 00:18:06.130 the chemistry there, sodium phiosulfate basically 00:18:06.130 --> 00:18:08.569 acts as a chemical sponge. When the chlorine 00:18:08.569 --> 00:18:11.690 gas hits the soaked fabric, the phiosulfate reacts 00:18:11.690 --> 00:18:14.190 with it. Converting the highly toxic chlorine 00:18:14.190 --> 00:18:17.710 into benign, water -soluble compounds like sodium 00:18:17.710 --> 00:18:19.930 chloride. Just basic salt. Right before it can 00:18:19.930 --> 00:18:22.410 reach the lungs. It was a chemical shield. And 00:18:22.410 --> 00:18:25.609 the arms race didn't stop there. By early 1916, 00:18:25.869 --> 00:18:27.930 as the Germans introduced new chemical agents, 00:18:28.410 --> 00:18:31.970 the Allies developed the pH helmet. Adding hexamethylenetramine 00:18:31.970 --> 00:18:34.609 to make it effective against phosgene. An even 00:18:34.609 --> 00:18:37.410 stealthier and deadlier gas that both sides eventually 00:18:37.410 --> 00:18:40.200 deployed. Out of all this horror, all this industrial 00:18:40.200 --> 00:18:42.680 scale death and frantic adaptation, there is 00:18:42.680 --> 00:18:45.099 also a profound cultural legacy that I think 00:18:45.099 --> 00:18:47.259 many of you listening will immediately recognize. 00:18:47.700 --> 00:18:50.119 It was during this exact battle, surrounded by 00:18:50.119 --> 00:18:52.019 the devastation we've just spent the last 20 00:18:52.019 --> 00:18:55.059 minutes describing, that a Canadian medical officer 00:18:55.059 --> 00:18:58.039 named Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae sat down 00:18:58.039 --> 00:19:01.519 and wrote a poem. That poem is In Flanders Fields. 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:04.779 It's an incredible juxtaposition. Such a poignant, 00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:08.200 enduring piece of literature was born born directly 00:19:08.200 --> 00:19:10.980 out of the chaos of the first mass chemical attack 00:19:10.980 --> 00:19:13.640 in history. It gave a voice to the dead that 00:19:13.640 --> 00:19:16.140 is still recited on Remembrance Day and Memorial 00:19:16.140 --> 00:19:18.680 Day over a century later. It really makes you 00:19:18.680 --> 00:19:22.420 pause. I want you, the listener, to try and imagine 00:19:22.420 --> 00:19:24.440 what it would be like to stand in those trenches 00:19:24.440 --> 00:19:28.859 in April 1915. You are facing an entirely unprecedented 00:19:28.859 --> 00:19:31.480 form of technological terror. A creeping cloud 00:19:31.480 --> 00:19:34.240 that turns the very air you breathe into a weapon. 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:37.339 And yet amidst all that panic, People found the 00:19:37.339 --> 00:19:40.019 resolve to hold the line with literally nothing 00:19:40.019 --> 00:19:42.460 but a chemically soaked piece of cloth over their 00:19:42.460 --> 00:19:45.180 mouths. This raises an important question, especially 00:19:45.180 --> 00:19:47.900 for us today. When we look at rapid disruptive 00:19:47.900 --> 00:19:50.259 technological change, whether it's in modern 00:19:50.259 --> 00:19:52.740 warfare, artificial intelligence, or bioengineering, 00:19:53.160 --> 00:19:55.680 we often feel entirely overwhelmed by the pace 00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:58.579 of it. But EPRI shows us the extreme edge of 00:19:58.579 --> 00:20:01.480 human adaptability. It demonstrates how incredibly 00:20:01.480 --> 00:20:05.220 quickly we can analyze a completely novel existential 00:20:05.220 --> 00:20:09.160 threat, adapt our defenses, and endure. Endure, 00:20:09.359 --> 00:20:12.019 but at a terrible, terrible cost. Always a cost. 00:20:12.299 --> 00:20:13.960 And that brings me to a final thought I want 00:20:13.960 --> 00:20:16.140 to leave you with today. Something to mull over 00:20:16.140 --> 00:20:18.680 on your own after this deep dive is done. We 00:20:18.680 --> 00:20:20.440 spent a lot of time talking about the brilliant 00:20:20.440 --> 00:20:24.299 German chemist, Fritz Haber. The man who forcefully 00:20:24.299 --> 00:20:28.000 advocated for and directly supervised this deadly 00:20:28.000 --> 00:20:30.700 chlorine gas attack. Well, consider this. Fritz 00:20:30.700 --> 00:20:33.220 Eber is the exact same scientist whose work on 00:20:33.220 --> 00:20:35.940 synthesizing ammonia for fertilizer currently 00:20:35.940 --> 00:20:38.460 sustains the global food supply. Without his 00:20:38.460 --> 00:20:41.000 chemical discoveries regarding nitrogen fixation, 00:20:41.299 --> 00:20:43.299 billions of people alive today simply could not 00:20:43.299 --> 00:20:45.759 be fed. So how do we reconcile the legacy of 00:20:45.759 --> 00:20:48.160 brilliant minds that possess the dual capacity 00:20:48.160 --> 00:20:51.359 to both feed the world and engineer its most 00:20:51.359 --> 00:20:53.890 horrific Something to think about. Thanks for 00:20:53.890 --> 00:20:55.150 joining us on this deep dive.