Nazi Poison Propaganda: The Great Gas Lie!

Stage by stage the Nazi propagandists built up the fantastic story described here a story which was believed might well be the prelude to the use of poison gas by the Germans on the Western Front. ​

Here is a little story told by the Germans. On September 8th, when the invasion of Poland was at its height, a company of Nazi sappers were removing a barricade at a bridge on the outskirts of Jaslo in Galicia. An explosion occurred, as the result of which four sappers died and ten were injured. On investigation it was discovered that the casualties were due to mustard gas...
More than a month later on October 12th the Germans stated that this gas was part of a consignment which had been supplied by Britain to the Poles, who had used it in battle.

One of the most unpleasant surprisesof the Great War was the Germans use of Poisonous Gasses, preceded by accusations of its use by the Allies. This picture shows Argyle & Sutherland Highlanders wearing improvised gas masks issued on May 3rd 1915.

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So, at least, runs the story-a story which was immediately denied by the British Government. "No gas in any form whatsoever has been supplied at any time to Poland by Great Britain," said a Government statement issued on the evening of October 12th. Following repetitions of the story the British repeated their denial on October 15th. Yet, shortly afterwards, the fabrication was reproduced in a German leaflet widely circulated in neutral countries. The story was, indeed, embellished some¬what. Thus, it was said that on September 23rd, after the capture of Oxhoeft, near Gdynia, an ammunition dump was discovered containing a considerable quantity of mines, each holding 22 lb. of mustard gas. "Furthermore," so the German tale continued, “in an arsenal near Gdynia in which the deliveries of ammunition made by Great Britain shortly before the war were stored several thousand mustard gas mines were found to be among the war material supplied by Britain." In broadcasts, too, the Germans asserted that they had found, in various parts of Poland, depots of mustard gas mines whose markings showed that they came from the store near Oxhoeft.
But the War Office, with full knowledge of the facts, declared that "no gas mines were shipped from Britain to Gdynia at any time." Moreover, they pointed out that there were some strange features of the story which required explanation. Although, for instance, the German wireless announced on September 16 that Nazi sappers had been killed or wounded by poison gas on September 8, and the discovery of the gas dump at Oxhoeft was stated to have been made on September 23rd, it was not until October 12th that Britain was accused of having supplied the gas.

These German Pictures are supposed to substantiate the fantastic German story told in this page.



Above is a notice supposed to have been found near Warsaw: "Gas no Admittance" Such notices, however were stated to have been issued to Polish A.R.P wardens to mark spots where German gas Bombs exploded..

Below is a picture of the crater near the bridge at Jaslo.

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Furthermore, the Swiss doctor whom the leaflet stated had diagnosed nine German wounded at Jaslo, Poland, to be suffering from mustard gas poisoning, had said nothing to substantiate the story of the discovery of a gas dump near Gdynia. When inter¬viewed at Geneva by a representative of the London "Daily Express," the gentleman referred to, Dr. Rudolf Staehelin, of Basle, said that when ho was attending a patient in Berlin, the German Government invited him to make a diagnosis of nine sick men. He immediately got the impression that there was something strange about the request, but he could not refuse to go without appearing to give offence. He was taken by airplane to Jaslo, and from there to a hospital where he diagnosed with certainty that nine soldiers showed symptoms like those produced by Yellow Cross (mustard) gas. "I asked the circumstances in which it happened, and was taken to a bridge where they pointed out a hole produced by a bomb. I smelt lime chlorate, which is the antidote for Yellow Cross gas. That is all I saw there."
Moreover, in a statement to the Geneva correspondent of "The Times," the Professor declared, "I found no evidence indicating in what circumstances the poisoning had occurred. I feared that my statement would be misused for anti British propaganda. The German Press and tracts sent by mail to neutrals pretend that a "Basle Professor of European fame has given evidence of Polish resort to gas warfare at Jaslo, which is untrue."
There the matter might be left to rest, but for the fact that when in 1915 the Germans first used poison gas, they, as it were, prepared the way by accusing the British of having already used it. On April 17, 1915, the German Wolff News Agency stated that: "Yesterday, east of Ypres, the British employed shells and bombs filled with asphyxiating gas." The statement was completely untrue, but as a sequel there came, on April 22, the death-dealing clouds of chlorine.
The British War Office, recollecting the sequence of events in 1915, suggested that something of the same kind might well be in preparation for 1939. Indeed, they asserted that "the persistent repetition of this flimsy and mendacious story, in spite of the British Government's categorical denials, clearly indicates an intention on the part of Germany to use poison gas on the Western Front in contra vent ion of the 1925 Geneva protocol to which they are signatories."

 

Gas

Great find again Jim.

My only comment: "Well they would wouldn't they?"