Private Robert Finlay, a causality of devastating chemical warfare, 109 years ago
Recently the 110th anniversary of the battle of the Somme was marked that began on the 1st of July, 1916 and we once more thought about the immense suffering in what was the bloodiest battle in the long history of the British Army.
On the first day alone 57,470 British casualties were recorded of these 19,240 men were killed or died of wounds. It was simply warfare and killing on an industrial scale, with the constant shelling and machine gun fire of mass slaughter. Not just destroying the bodies of so many brave soldiers but also their minds in what they saw and experienced from shell shock or PTSD as we now call it.
The Great War 1914 – 1918 also saw the introduction of chemical warfare on the battlefield and its use in an industrial scale that is perhaps not as well remembered and this little article is by way to help address that.
From 1915 to 1918 British and French forces together deployed roughly 60,000 tons of lethal gas, while the USA as a late entrant to the war in 1917 about 1,400 tons. German forces deployed the most at about 70,000 tons from 1915 to 1918.
Tear gas was recorded as being used as a non-lethal incapacitating battlefield weapon from early in the war. Germany first used a lethal chemical weapon on the 22nd April, 1915 by releasing 160 tons of chlorine gas under code name “Blue Cross” at Ypres, Belgium. Chlorine gas caused severe lung damage, chemical burns, and asphyxiation. After being inhaled, severe coughing, vomiting, and fluid build-up in the lungs resulted in slow, agonizing suffocation, often referred to as “dry drowning.”
Late in 1915 on the Western Front phosgene gas was first deployed by French and later other allied forces and then by German forces under code name “Green Cross.” It was the most lethal poison gas of the war and responsible for at least 85,000 fatalities. Being 6 to 10 times more toxic than chlorine gas and because it did not immediately cause coughing or throat irritation, soldiers breathed it in without knowing. Gas masks then in use were completely ineffective and had to be quickly redesigned with charcoal and other chemicals to neutralise the gas. The physical effects were terrifyingly slow, typically taking 24 to 48 hours to fully manifest. Soldiers who felt fine right after an attack would later collapse as the chemical reacted in their lungs, causing them to fill with fluid. The victims slowly suffocated to death, horrifyingly gasping for air.
Germany would first deploy mustard gas code name “Yellow Cross” on the night of the 12th and 13th of July, 1917 near Ypres, Belgium by artillery shells. This was before the battle of Passchendaele that commenced on the 31st July, 1917 and saw both the 36th Ulster Division and 16th Irish Division fight side by side. A trench warfare battle in mud like the Somme failing to obtain its objectives and that by the time it ended on the 6th November, 1917 saw over 275,000 British Empire casualties alone. Mustard gas would also be deployed by the allies at Passchendaele and at later battles.
Unlike the other gases that dissipated quickly, mustard gas contaminated the ground and lingered for days or weeks in the mud. It soaked into soldier’s uniforms, causing painful blisters on the skin. Temporary blindness was also common. Clothes and weapons had to be decontaminated. A weapon more of terror, it was designed to hinder and incapacitate soldiers more than kill. Symptoms often did not appear for several hours, making it highly effective at catching soldiers off guard before they knew they had been poisoned.
While mustard gas caused the highest number of chemical casualties in the war upward of 120,000, it had a relatively low fatality rate compared to other gases, about 2–3% of exposed soldiers dying. However most victims were permanently debilitated, soldiers suffering throughout the rest of their lives with breathing difficulties, increased risks of cancer and other diseases. Those who received fatal exposure to mustard gas took anything between a few days to six weeks to die, such an awful chemical weapon of suffering and eventual death.
My great uncle Private Robert Finlay, service number 3730 serving with the 2nd Bn. Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers from Lisnatunny, Newtownstewart, County Tyrone would sadly be one of them. Having been fighting in France from early in the war and previously being exposed to gas attacks he would be fatally exposed around the twelfth of July, 1917 before the battle of Passchendaele. Evacuated to a field hospital behind allied lines in France, he died very unusually from the effects of gas poisoning together with shell shock on the 24th July, 1917 aged 25, both his body and mind destroyed in the war that was supposed to end all wars.
Robert Finlay was buried at Mont Huon Military Cemetery, Le Treport, France.
Great uncle Robert was not the only Finlay brother serving in the army during the Great War, two others, John Charles Finlay an older brother who had immigrated to Canada before the war and was serving with Canadian forces was a prisoner at Meschede in Germany from 1915 and from where he often sent letters to the family asking for “eatables.” Another brother the youngest Finlay to serve in the Great War, Andrew was in hospital in France also suffering gas poisoning at the time of Robert’s death. Both great uncles, John and Andrew would survive the war.
Lest We Forget
Stevan Patterson, Castlederg, County Tyrone