EEEEP!
Mustard Gas (Yperite) was first used by the German Army in September 1917. The most lethal of all the poisonous chemicals used during the war, it was almost odourless and took twelve hours to take effect. Yperite was so powerful that only small amounts had to be added to high explosive shells to be effective. Once in the soil, mustard gas remained active for several weeks.
The skin of victims of mustard gas blistered, the eyes became very sore and they began to vomit. Mustard gas caused internal and external bleeding and attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane. This was extremely painful and most soldiers had to be strapped to their beds. It usually took a person four or five weeks to die of mustard gas poisoning. One nurse, Vera Brittain, wrote: "I wish those people who talk about going on with this war whatever it costs could see the soldiers suffering from mustard gas poisoning. Great mustard-coloured blisters, blind eyes, all sticky and stuck together, always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying that their throats are closing and they know they will choke."
More here
More info here: (warning - poorly designed/slow loading site)
http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/chemical/mustardg.htm
Mustard gas was used for the first time by Germans in
1917 at Ypres. More than 14,000 British casualties were
produced in the first three months and by the end of the
first world war more than 120,000 British mustard casualties
had occurred. The most commonly injured areas of the body
were: eyes (86.1%), respiratory tract (75.3%), scrotum
(42.1%), face (26.6%), anus (23.9%), back (12.9%), armpits
(12.5%), neck (12%).
Adolph Hitler was exposed to mustard gas during the first
world war. He described his personal experience in "Mein
Kampf" (Vol. 1, 1924): "During the night of October 13 to
14th (1918) the British opened an attack with gas on the
front south of Ypres. They used the yellow gas whose effect
was unknown to us, at least from personal experience. I was
destined to experience it that very night. On a hill south of
Werwick, in the evening of 13 October, we were subjected to
several hours of heavy bombardment with gas bombs, which
continued through the night with more or less intensity.
About midnight a number of us were put out of action, some
for ever. Towards morning I also began to feel pain. It
increased with every quarter of an hour, and about seven
o'clock my eyes were scorching as I staggered back and
delivered the last dispatch I was destined to carry in this
war. A few hours later my eyes were like glowing coals, and
all was darkness around me."
During the second world war mustard gas was not used but
Lundquist (1983) reports of a large number of Allied soldiers
and sailors who were exposed to mustard gas towards the ends
of second world war as a result of German bombing of the
harbour at Bari in Italy. Of the two dozen ships destroyed,
one was carrying a cargo of about 100 thousand kilograms of
mustard-gas bombs. Much of the mustard gas was released into
the water and some of it dissolved in the floating oil. More
than 1000 people were killed and of these deaths more than
100 were determined to have been specifically caused by
mustard-gas poisoning and many more to have been due to
various indirectly associated reasons, such as disablement
followed by drowning.
Okay. Guess I was thinking of something more along the worse than tear gas but not as bad as has been described here. So much for my NBC training.
Saddam Hussein used this stuff against the Kurds at Hallaba.
Nice picts of kids blinded and asphyxiating from this stuff.
Frankly I'd like to have every member of the Ba'ath party exposed to this agent.
This is the mustard gas that the UN inspectors already knew about and that is OK with them.
My grandfather fought in WWI and had horrible mustard gas scars on his arm 'til the day he died at 96.