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Title: Aerial photograph at the Battle of Bolimov

Description: An aerial photograph taken by a Russian aviator on January 31, 1915 at the Battle of Bolimov, Poland on the Eastern Front between German and Russian forces, showing the first wide-scale German use of poison gas, and where German artillery fired 18,000 artillery shells against Russian positions at the Rawka River west of Warsaw; the shells contained xylyl bromide tear gas; German troops are seen advancing in lines of attack behind the streaming gas, which proved ineffective in that these vaporous streams subsequently froze in the below zero weather; the use of poison gas was initiated by the Germans and was employed by most combatant nations during World War I, and these included the disabling tear gas, the more severe mustard gas, and the lethal phosgene and chlorine gases; poison gas proved unreliable as to controlling direction, which was dependent upon winds and climate conditions, but nevertheless disabled more than 1,200,000 soldiers of all major combatant nations, taking the lives of more than 88,000, with Russia suffering the highest mortalities, 56,000;

Category: World War I

Keywords: advances, aerial photography, assaults, attacks, aviation, aviators, battlefields, battlegrounds, First World War, German poison gas, German soldiers, German troops, The Great War, War to End All Wars, World War I, WWI.