During the second year of the first World War, the German Empire was making their way through Osowiec Fortress,  located in Osowiec-Twierdza (North East Poland). The fortress is occupied by the Russian Empire with only five hundred soldiers of the 226th Infantry Regiment Zemlyansky and four hundred militia defending the fortress. 

The German Empire began their frontal assault on the fortress with fourteen battalions of infantry, one battalion of sappers, twenty four – thirty five heavy artillery, four “Big Berthas” (42 centimeter siege artillery) , and thirty batteries of artillery, all under the command of Field Marshal Paul Von Hindenburg. The German Empire already made previous attempts to take the base; however, the Russian Empire repelled every attack, even destroying two of the four “Big Berthas.”  

The German Empire began waiting for favorable wind conditions to begin a chlorine gas attack on the fortress. For such an attack, wind conditions have to be blowing in the direction towards the enemy. However, gas attacks are very dangerous for the attacker because wind conditions can change. On August 6, 1915 at 4:00 am wind conditions were in the Germans’ favor, thus the attack commenced. 

The gas slowly made its way towards the fortress followed by heavy artillery bombardment. As described by historians, “The gas caused the grass to turn black and leaves to turn yellow, and the dead birds, frogs and other animals and insects were lying everywhere. Terrain looked like Hell.” The Russian soldiers panicked as the gas approached them, because gas masks were not yet available to The Russian Empire. The gas quickly brought down eight hundred of the soldiers defending the base. The remaining soldiers quickly used their undershirts as makeshift masks to resist the gas. 

As the German Infantry began to advance towards the fortress, a Russian Lieutenant, Vladimir Karpovich, elected that the remaining soldiers should give it their all and commence a counter attack. The remaining Russian soldiers ran out of the fortress, screaming and firing at the German soldiers. At the same time, Russian soldiers are coughing up blood or pieces of their lungs because of the hydrochloric acid mix in the gas. This gave them a “zombie like” appearance. In fear, the advancing Germans retreated with heavy casualties. Vladimir Karpovich later died from lung damage after the counter attack. Local newspapers would give a popular name for the battle “The Attack of the Dead Men”. Truly a scary moment in history.