Churchill, nazi Germany and gas warfare

When German rockets early summer 1944 started killing people in London and nearby, over 2,000 people, Churchill made a memo on 6 July. On it he demanded that the Staff Commanders prepare their units for using gas weapons against nazi Germany.Two days later in a meeting RAF Commander Charles Portal suggested that gas bombs should be used with explosive ones in the ratio of 1:5.

Als Feuer Vom Himmel Fiel 2003

 

The memo was not about first use, but always in retaliation. There was some worry that during the Normandy invasion, that the Germans would use gas against Allied troops in Normandy or against the civilian population in Britain. Churchill wanted to make sure that Britain was capable of retaliating in kind - albeit with mustard gas instead of more potent gas weapons.

This kind of planning began in 1942-43, when it was thought that the Germans would use gas against the Soviets, Churchill & the British wanted to be ready to retaliate in kind.

 

And even then I think there was a question whether Britain had enough gas weapons? Germany had thousands, but even they treated them mostly as a deterrent against Allied use of gas weapons. But British stocks were IIRC far more limited.

 

I think possible use of chemical weapons on the Eastern Front is a no brainer.

Gas weapons were touted as war winners in the Great War, but their effectiveness was nothing short of local, and even then, countermeasures rendered gas as nothing more than just an alternative, albeit a nasty one at that.

But on the Eastern Front, use of gas by Germany could well have made a difference. I'm not so sure the Red Army was suitably prepared either with protective equipment or with retaliatory measures in sufficient quantity. They were short of most everything else, so why not assume a shortage of chemical weapons as well?

 

When you look up a short history of chemical warfare on Wikipedia, Russia isn't even listed for World War 2.

This leads me to believe that German use against them would have had no answer in kind nor a solution to the problem.

I don't even think Russia was a signatory on the Hague Convention. So a country can hardly be accused of breaking a document they have not signed to begin with.

 

I guess you mean the nerve gases. Tabun etc. Other gases like chloride depended a lot on the wind ..??

One drop on skin killed you. Hitler did not realise this? He could have vanished both Western and Eastern front.

 

Everything I've read claims that his WW1 experience made him (Hitler) very wary of using gas. Nobody wanted to be first to uncork that particular bottle, partly excuse it was tricksy to use safely especially in more fluid warfare, and partly because of reprisals. Sure, the USSR might not have been able to retaliate in kind, but do you want the RAF dropping gas bombs on your cities?

 

Was it gas or Anthrax? I think Winston experiment island in Scotland is still a no go-zone due to Anthrax?

 

I've seen references to Gruinard Island being a no-go zone for a hundred years, but according to this article it was decontaminated in 1990:

Gruinard Island - Wikipedia

 

The entire V-1 and V-2 programs, start to finish, delivered about as much explosive as Bomber Command could drop on German cities in one night. There seems to have been at bit of "we can do it to them, but it's terrible when they do it to us". Of course the Germans had "sown the wind" in 1940-41.

 

I totally agree. It was all propaganda. However, Harris could have bombed better places if I understood correctly he refused to bomb the invasion beach areas to help the troops have easier movemement. Like Monty was meant to conquer Caen invasion +1 day. Not happen.

But did Winston have the kind of gas warfare the Germans had? But Hitler did not use.

 

The night of D-Day, about 1,000+ of Harris' bombers were hitting the coastal batteries at Fontenay, Houlgate, La Pernelle, Longues, Maisy, Merville, Mont Fleury, Ponte-du-Hoc, Quisterham and St. Martin-de-Varreville.

Also, given the Allied airborne troops scattered all over the D-Day area that night, area bombing the invasion beaches probably would not have been a good idea anyway.

 

Kai-Petri:

The July 6th, 1944 memo could have caused a Disater in Europe and the U.K. If it had been acted on by Gen. Ismay and the General Staff. The use of chemical weapons could have triggered a reprisal from NAZI Germany with Sarin. What Churchill and the General Staff did not know at the time of the memo and Ismay's reply three days later was the Germans had developed the V-2 Balistic rocket. The rockets you refer to were the smaller air-plane-like V-1 which could be shot down by the RAF. There was no defence against the V-2. If the Germans loaded Sarin into V-2 rockets in reprisal for UK attacks using mustard gas or phosgene, then UK civilian casualties could have been much higher.

Memo: From Winston Churchill To: General Ismay Date: July 6, 1944. It may be several weeks before I ask you to drench Germany with poison gas, and if we do it, let us do it one hundred per cent

Here is the full text of Churchill's July 6th, 1944 Memo to Ismay.

This was part of a pattern exhibited by Winston Churchill since he start of the 20th Century. He was a proponent and enthusiastic advocate for the use of chemical weapons in WWI, the inter war years and WWII.

America’s National Churchill Museum | Churchill's 1919 War Office Memorandum

Cheers and be well.
Evilroddy.