Sasha today in its history.
Author: Sasha
This article is Sasha's original and will not be reprinted by any media
June 17, 1900: An Eight-Power Coalition of Britain, France and other countries captures the Dagu Fort in Tianjin, China. In 1900, Admiral Luo Rongguang led the defenders and the Boxers to meet the Eight-Nation Alliance at The Tagukou Fort for the Battle of The Tagukou Fort.
In this artillery battle, some people said that the Eight-Power Coalition used poison gas bombs.
So, is this the case?
The suspected use of gas bombs is mainly from some descriptions.
In the Qing Dynasty's "Records of the Beginning and End of the Western Tour", there was a detailed description: "Only the dead are full of people in the city, and there are no houses." And because the foreign soldiers opened the low artillery, most of the corpses fell to the ground without wounds. Geinle's low-altitude artillery is made of poison, and when the shell lands, that is, there is green gas coming out and burrowing into the nose, that is, those who do not know that they are killed, and even after the city is destroyed at 3 o'clock, the foreign soldiers still see that there are a number of Chinese soldiers, leaning on the wall with their guns, standing angrily, if they want to shoot, they will closely look at it, and they will know that they have been killed by the gun gas, and they only lean on the wall with their bodies, so they are not servanted. ”
On July 11, 1900, the Eight-Power Coalition launched a large battalion of the Wuwei Left Army stationed in the area of Chenjiagou and Xiaoshulin. Several poisonous bullets flew in, and the Qing army hid behind the bunker according to the previous method of dodging shells. However, the poison bomb burst and the green smoke filled the air, and no matter whether in front of or behind the house, inside or outside the house, the smeller died.
The "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty, The Biography of Nie Shicheng" has a record of this: "Attacking the purple bamboo forest, bleeding for eight days and nights, the enemy came to benefit the people, and burned poisonous smoke cannons, but our army was a little bit."
The Bulletin of Nations also has "When the low-poison cannon exploded, the green gas scattered, and those who touched it died, so the western country was included in the soldiers' association." This time, the British ironclad ship went to Tianjin to transport 2 cannons, and let them go several times, once in a cannon fort, the Taiwanese people died for a while; another time the suitable army bought 600 horses, and the middle was dead."
The "Diary of the Shipwreck" records that "on the afternoon of July 10, the two cannons were newly transported from Britain, listed as low-level artillery, and this cannon has only been used once in the African war since it was self-made, and it is reported that after the shells were opened, people within a hundred yards of the field fainted when they smelled it." ”
From today's point of view, these descriptions are false or misunderstood.
In fact, the Eight-Power Coalition did not use poison gas bombs in the Battle of Tianjin.
Anyone with a little military knowledge should know.
The first large-scale use of poison gas by mankind was the First World War.
Moreover, the chlorine gas originally used was very primitive and could not be fired with artillery, and needed to be released directly through the chlorine tank. After the chlorine gas is released, it needs to be blown to the enemy position by high winds, causing casualties to the enemy.
Apparently, more than 10 years ago, in 1900, it was basically impossible to say that the British had mastered the technology of firing poison gas bombs with artillery.
The so-called eight-power alliance invaded China at the same time, the British used poison gas bombs in the Boer War in South Africa, and they also lack reliable evidence, but only false rumors.
At present, all the descriptions of gas bombs are not surprising to have been heard, and no one has personally experienced gas bombs.
In the case of chlorine gas, its lethality rate is not high, the transmission rate is slower, and it will leave a large number of living mouths.
In this case, it is impossible for no one to experience a gas bomb.
At the same time, some descriptions such as "standing and dying while maintaining a shooting posture", "dying when smelling", and "dying quickly" are completely inconsistent with the characteristics of chlorine gas bombs.
Chlorine gas is a primitive poison gas, not a modern nerve gas.
Its lethality rate is not high, the rate of death is limited, and it is impossible to smell and die. As long as the soldiers decisively abandoned their positions and fled, or covered their mouths and noses with wet towels, the damage caused by poison gas was limited.
In the first German chlorine warfare, the French Arab cavalry covered their faces with towels soaked in horse urine, and the poison gas was almost ineffective. Urine has a neutralizing effect on poisonous gas.
Even if there is no urine, using ordinary water and cloth has a good effect.
In addition, if killed by poisonous gas, the deceased will also suffer a lot before dying.
Chlorine gas can cause inflammatory edema, hyperemia and necrosis of the mucous membranes of the upper respiratory tract, which is a very terrible process, and the deceased suffers from frightening pain and suffocation.
Before death, the deceased will roll and cry, bleeding, and hideous, and it is absolutely impossible to stand and die.
Some people who say that the Eight-Power Coalition fired poison gas bombs often deliberately avoid some historical data. For example, Savage Randall, a Member of the British Army, wrote in China and the Coalition: "The enemy turned his gun to us... The cannon was fired, and the shots were fired extremely accurately. ...... The amazing shooting skills of their gunners really deserve the greatest honor. The soldiers of the 'Terrible' from Low Smith said that the fire from Low Smith was nothing more than a child's play compared to the fierce and accurate Chinese artillery fire."
"On the morning of July 11, from 3:30 to 7:30, the shelling of Chinese was terrible. The four-inch guns of the Aljirin ships, mounted on earth fences, were pouring bitter explosives into the city of Tianjin, and at this time, Chinese were doing everything in their power to suppress the fire of the British cannons with their best Krupp cannons. ”
This document is very clear that the gas bomb is actually a bitter acid shell. At that time, bitter sour shells were a new thing, with strong explosive and incendiary properties, stronger than ordinary black powder shells. Later, the great victory of the Japanese army in the Russo-Japanese War was due to the bitter sour shells.
After the explosion of the bitter acid shell, it will form a yellow-green smoke, which is slightly toxic and has a destructive effect on the eyes and respiratory tract, but it will definitely not cause death.
At that time, ordinary shells exploded, and the smoke could not be yellow-green, so the bitter acid shells were easy to identify.
In fact, in the Boer War in which the British participated, the 3-inch rapid-fire gun they used was a bitter acid shell.
This kind of shell was originally a naval gun, with a long range and great power, which was unloaded and used by the army and was specially used for offensive operations, with brilliant results.
During the Eight-Power Alliance's invasion of China, British Naval Officer Percy Scott led the LinkedIn Navy cruiser "Terrible" directly from the South African battlefield to China, and the 3-inch (76 mm) rapid-fire gun carried on the ship was transported to land, and participated in the coalition attack on Tianjin and Beijing. Percy Scott's memoir, Fifty Years in the Royal Navy, details the use of these 4 bitter acid cannons.
At the same time, the two 4-inch (102 mm) rapid-fire guns on the British ship "Aljirin" were also transported from Tagu to Tianjin, also using picric acid guns, the so-called column low artillery.
It can be said that the so-called poison gas cannon is a bitter acid cannon, divided into 76 and 102 mm calibers, which should be nothing suspicious.
There is a lot of relevant information, and I will not cite it here, after all, it is not a paper.
These artillery pieces played a great role, suppressing the Qing artillery and causing great casualties to the Qing army. Four of the lighter 3-inch guns followed the Eight-Power Coalition all the way to the Embassy district in Beijing.
After the war, 4 guns were transported back to Tianjin and reinstalled on the ship HMS Terrible.
Why did the Qing army mistake this for poison gas artillery?
Here's why:
First, the power of the bitter sour artillery was greater, exceeding that of ordinary artillery shells, causing great casualties to the Qing army. The Qing army could not understand that this was a new type of explosive, so it suspected that it was a gas bomb;
Second, when the bitter acid shell explodes, there will indeed be yellow-green smoke and irritating taste, resulting in eye and respiratory discomfort, and many people mistakenly think that this is a gas bomb.
Third, the Qing army covered up its own incompetence. From the beginning of the Tianjin Campaign to the fall of Beijing, the Qing army fought very poorly. Under such circumstances, in order to alleviate their own criminal responsibility, the grass-roots officers and men of the Qing Army fabricated that the enemy used poison gas bombs and artillery, which was also a natural thing.
No matter how bad the Eight-Power Coalition was, they did not use gas bombs.
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