By 1917, the use of chemical weapons by both the Allied and Central Powers had become commonplace along the Western, Eastern and Italian Fronts, occurring daily in some regions.
Nevertheless, troops were neither supplied with masks nor trained for offensive gas warfare until the U.S. In that year, the United States War Department first became interested in providing individual soldiers with personal protection against chemical warfare and they tasked the Medical Department with developing the technology. By 1915, the combatants were using poison gases and chemical irritants on the battlefield. The earliest predecessors to the United States Army Chemical Corps owe their existence to changes of military technology early in World War I. Shepherd was a well-known geologist at the time and his proposal was in the form of a letter directly to the White House. Shepherd's proposal involved hydrogen chloride, an attack that would have likely been non-lethal but may have succeeded in driving enemy soldiers from their positions. Another American, Forrest Shepherd, also proposed a chemical weapon attack against the Confederates. It is unknown how the military reacted to Doughty's proposal but the letter was unnoticed in a pile of old official documents until modern times. Doughty included a detailed drawing of the shell with his letter. A letter to the War Department dated 5 April 1862 from New York City resident John Doughty proposed the use of chlorine shells to drive the Confederate Army from its positions. 1.6.1 Chemical Corps Intelligence Agencyĭiscussion of the topic dates back to the American Civil War.1.6 Post World War II and Korean War, 1945–53.1.4 Roosevelt on renaming Service to Corps, 1937.1.3 Chemical Warfare Service foundation, 1918.
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