For Hitler and the Nazis in general using chemical weapons in war against soldiers and using poison gas to exterminate ‘untermensch’ are not even in the same ballpark…
Indeed, Zyklon B, the main agent used for gassing Jews, was originally a pesticide. The Nazis considered it particularly appropriate to use on those they considered vermin.
Like others have said, the potential for retaliation was the main issue for AH and crowd.
On a related note, during the campaign to push the Germans out of France one night there was a “Gas Panic” in the American forces. Someone sounded the gas alarm and it threw the American forces into complete terror and confusion. Later on, it was said that if the Germans had attacked that night, they would have routed a huge section of the allied lines and done god knows how much more damage after breaking through. After the panic was discovered to be a false alarm, SHAEF had all gas warning devices, those ratchet-clacker type things you see in English Football crowds, confiscated. They said the actual damage from a real gas attack would be far less than that caused by the panic.
Thanks, Dissonance. I have wondered about more large-scale flame throwing since the time I first read discussion about chemical warfare in the Pacific.
Would it have been possible to quickly (in the time between Tarawa and Iwo Jima) develop a ship-borne pump with an extended nozzle that could shoot gasoline onto I.J. Something like a directed oil rig fire.
I.J. is 21 square kilometers (8 sq mi) , small enough that I can conceive of being able to set fires on the whole island. The fire does not need to penetrate into deep caves to be effective as long as it consumes oxygen, explodes ordinance, evaporates drinking water, burns food.