Duke Albrecht of Wurttemberg

Duke Albrecht of Wurttemberg commanded the German Fourth Army when it released chlorine gas at Ypres in April 1915, the first large-scale use of chemical weapons in war. He was heir to the kingdom of Wurttemberg and a professional soldier rather than a ceremonial one, corps commander before 1914 and generally rated competent by colleagues who had reason to be sceptical of royal appointments. His army took Neufchateau in the Ardennes in August 1914 and fought through First Ypres. On 22 April 1915 some 168 tons of chlorine were released from cylinders on a four-mile front against French colonial and Algerian troops, who had no protection of any kind; a gap of several miles opened in the Allied line. It was not exploited, because the German command had treated the release as an experiment rather than as the opening of an offensive and had no reserves positioned to go through. Albrecht is recorded as having had reservations about the weapon and used it under orders from above. The battle continued for a month and the salient was reduced but held. He was made a field marshal in 1916 and commanded an army group in Alsace-Lorraine for the rest of the war. The monarchy fell in 1918 before he inherited it, and he lived quietly in Wurttemberg until 1939, the last commander of a German royal army. His reservations are recorded and did not stop him. The Allies retaliated in kind within months, and by 1918 both sides had used gas on a scale that made the first release look like the experiment it was.

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