Seeking Victory on the Western Front: The British Army and Chemical Warfare in World War I

Seeking Victory on the Western Front examines how, in the face of the devastating firepower advantages that modern weapons offered the Germans, the British army developed the means to reclaim the offense and break the stalemate of the western front to defeat their enemy. Within this context, Albert Palazzo demonstrates the importance of gas warfare to Britain's tactical success and argues that it was a much more efficient weapon than past historians have suggested. Despite British notions of tradition, gentlemanly conduct, and fair fighting, the high command realized that the war was to be won by employing new technologies and techniques to counteract the defensive advantages their well-fortified and entrenched opponent enjoyed on the western front. Through his study of the evolution of chemical warfare, Palazzo demonstrates that the British made the necessary transformation by successfully incorporating new weapons and tactics into their existing method of waging war. As a result, they created a new operational system that allowed the attacker to negate the defender's firepower advantage at all levels. Albert Palazzo is a research associate in the School of History at the Australian Defence Force Academy.