MAPS OF HISTORY · ON THIS DAY · APRIL 22 · Chlorine gas attack at Ypres (1915)ON THIS DAY · 22 APRIL 1915
Chlorine gas attack at Ypres
22 Apr 1915 — At Langemarck, a green-yellow cloud of chlorine rolls over French colonial troops in the first mass poison-gas attack. By 1918 gas has killed some 90,000 people and maimed a million more. Remember what industrial chemistry did here.
22 APRIL 1915 · THE GREAT WAR, 1871–1923 These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v 0.2.1 · National Army Museum: Gallipoli campaign · Natural Earth physical geography · Anglo-Russian Convention, 31 August 1907, articles I–II · Maps of History: Great War geographic decisions · National Army Museum: Salonika campaign · US Military Academy World War I atlas, chart 11 · US Military Academy World War I atlas, chart 14 · US Military Academy World War I atlas, chart 31 · US Military Academy World War I atlas, chart 39 · US Military Academy World War I atlas, chart 44
Source details Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. Source polygons retained with original identities; geographic selections and corrections by Maps of History.. CC BY 4.0 National Army Museum: Helles, Anzac and the August Suvla landing remained three beachhead sectors.. Historical evidence citation; no artwork copied Made with Natural Earth; geographic reference and physical land only. No modern political boundary is used as a historical boundary.. Public domain US Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States; convention’s named places define the two concession spheres.. Historical treaty facts, independently reconstructed Maps of History. Campaign-sector connectors and contextual regions are identified separately from imported vector outlines.. Original geographic reconstruction using attributed historical evidence National Army Museum: late 1916 Albanian coast–Monastir–Doiran–Struma line and 1918 liberation campaign.. Historical evidence citation; no artwork copied US Military Academy, Department of History & War Studies, World War I chart 11. Selected geographic front facts reconstructed independently; no claim of blanket public-domain artwork rights.. Geographic evidence citation; source index requests permission for map reprints. Original artwork is not redistributed. US Military Academy, Department of History & War Studies, World War I chart 14. Selected geographic front facts reconstructed independently; no claim of blanket public-domain artwork rights.. Geographic evidence citation; source index requests permission for map reprints. Original artwork is not redistributed. US Military Academy, Department of History & War Studies, World War I chart 31. Selected geographic front facts reconstructed independently; no claim of blanket public-domain artwork rights.. Geographic evidence citation; source index requests permission for map reprints. Original artwork is not redistributed. US Military Academy, Department of History & War Studies, World War I chart 39. Selected geographic front facts reconstructed independently; no claim of blanket public-domain artwork rights.. Geographic evidence citation; source index requests permission for map reprints. Original artwork is not redistributed. US Military Academy, Department of History & War Studies, World War I chart 44. Selected geographic front facts reconstructed independently; no claim of blanket public-domain artwork rights.. Geographic evidence citation; source index requests permission for map reprints. Original artwork is not redistributed. Annual source features can describe claims, legal territory or military control. Occupied extensions are separated from the prewar Central Power homelands, while the original source names and shapes remain available.
The area east/north of the sourced western front is selected within the 1914 historical French, Belgian and Luxembourg footprints. It represents military control, not annexation.
The displayed state is iss 15. Geographic reference dates and reconstruction methods are recorded for each feature.
reconstruction: 1871–1918 · reconstruction: 1915 Helles, Anzac and Suvla beachhead references · reconstruction: 1915.85 · reconstruction: 30 September 1915 · reconstruction: 31 August 1907 · reconstruction: January 1915–December 1916 chart; principal 1915 line · reconstruction: June 1915 first-battle reference · reconstruction: Late 1916 allied line
Layer records and reconstruction methods
The moment in context The deadlock in France encouraged both alliances to look elsewhere in 1915. New partners might add armies or expose an enemy to attack from another direction. Italy entered the Entente after being promised Austro-Hungarian lands, and began its long series of attacks along the Isonzo. On the Western Front itself, Germany released chlorine at Ypres, introducing large-scale poison-gas warfare.
From Gallipoli and the widening of WWI , chapter 6 of The Great War, 1871–1923 (NOV 1915).
The place: Chlorine gas attack at Ypres — map and full story →
Teach this in 5 minutes Why it happened — Seeking a route around the west. British advocates of an eastern strategy looked to the Dardanelles, Salonika and Mesopotamia. Opening the straits might let Russian grain out and…The turn — Gorlice–Tarnów, 2 May 1915. On 2 May a roughly four-hour German and Austro-Hungarian bombardment struck a narrow Russian sector. The attack broke through, and the breach…What it changed — Russia's army and government. The Russian army recovered sufficiently to mount major offensives in 1916. The strain at home remained: refugees crowded cities, inflation reduced…Then ask the room: Was Gallipoli a sound strategy badly executed, or an unattainable plan? The argued answer is on the chapter page →
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