# Use of White Phosphorous in Korean War? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 30, 2022, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-white-phosphorous-in-korean-war/975815 "2022-11-30T18:45:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-white-phosphorous-in-korean-war/975815/1 "2022-11-30T18:45:57Z")
Factual Question: Watching MASH for the 100th time, the question hit me: If white phosphorous was really used in the Korean War, wasn’t this considered chemical warfare? And, wouldn’t its use be against the Geneva Convention? Was this ever brought up in political, diplomatic, or UN arenas? (My Dad was a young man from that era, but he and his contemporaries have passed on. I have no one close to ask.) ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-white-phosphorous-in-korean-war/975815/2 "2022-11-30T18:57:01Z")
> [@Jinx](#): > > wasn’t this considered chemical warfare? AIUI, white phosphorous wasn’t used as a weapon per se. It was primarily used to light up the battlefield at night and to create a smokescreen during the day. Yes, it is toxic to humans, but it wasn’t used like mustard gas in WWI. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-white-phosphorous-in-korean-war/975815/3 "2022-11-30T19:20:40Z")
WP is valued as a battlefield weapon for two reasons: rapid and mass-efficient creation of very effective smoke screens, and powerful incendiary effect against materiel and personnel. The latter use is the most controversial, but no current law of war or treaty prohibits incendiary weapons, only strives to restrict their use to legitimate military need. It’s not classed as a chemical weapon because the primary effect is optical (as smoke) or thermal, not chemical. The fact that a chemical reaction is involved doesn’t make it a chemical weapon; otherwise, conventional explosives would also qualify. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-white-phosphorous-in-korean-war/975815/4 "2022-11-30T19:24:37Z")
From what I understand, it’s used as a smoke producing compound and as an incendiary weapon. But in the second case, it’s because it burns very hot, and will continue to burn until totally starved of oxygen, or consumed entirely. And it’s pyrophoric, so it’ll reignite when oxygen is present. The fact that the smoke is irritating is kind of a ‘bonus’ effect, but not the primary reason it’s used. ---
**Author:** ![sb1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a87d85/32.png) [@sb1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sb1953)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-white-phosphorous-in-korean-war/975815/5 "2022-11-30T19:27:40Z")
I have read several books about aerial warfare in the Pacific. I have always been interested in our war in the Pacific as I lost and uncle on a B-24 over there in 1944, and my father served (and survived) in the army air corps as a mechanic in the 58th fighter group. In the last months of the war the Japanese used W-P anti-aircraft rounds and also ( I think) some sort of bomb dropped into bomber formations that detonated a white phosphorus round in the hopes of bringing down B-29 bomber. I know I have seen photos of that. ---
**Author:** ![Sooner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sooner/32/7875_2.png) [@Sooner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sooner)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-white-phosphorous-in-korean-war/975815/6 "2022-11-30T19:28:14Z")
My father flew Forward Air Control missions during the Korean War. His main job was to fly low and slow over the front lines; until spotting an enemy position, then to mark it with white phosphorous rockets for the fighters to then attack. I suspect the WP was nasty in its own right, but that was not the stated purpose. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-white-phosphorous-in-korean-war/975815/7 "2022-11-30T20:58:34Z")
Here is a thread from 2005 on the same topic > [@White Phosphorous Question (a bit morbid)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-phosphorous-question-a-bit-morbid/330490): > > In [this](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4417024.stm) BBC article concerning an Italian documentary which alleges U.S. troops used white phosphorous as a chemical weapon against insurgents in Fallujah, the author reports that: My question is simply ‘How is this possible?’. How can a chemical inflict a burn on human skin without damaging clothes? The answer seems obvious. After all, boiling water will burn human skin without damaging clothes. However, white phosphorous is very different from boiling water. [This](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Phosphorous) Wikipedia article stat… Like @Sooner’s Dad, I was a Forward Air Controller, though post-Viet Nam. Post 15 of that thread contains my 2 cents. ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-white-phosphorous-in-korean-war/975815/8 "2022-11-30T21:55:42Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > AIUI, white phosphorous wasn’t used as a weapon per se. It was primarily used to light up the battlefield at night and to create a smokescreen during the day. Yes, it is toxic to humans, but it wasn’t used like mustard gas in WWI. It was considered an incendiary and used as such as a weapon in WW1, WW2, Korea and Vietnam amongst other wars. It was also used for generating smoke and to mark targets; but this being it’s ‘primary’ or exclusive intended use is a modern convention. [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_munitions#World_War_I,_the_inter-war_period_and_World_War_II): > The [British Army](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Army) introduced the first factory-built white phosphorus grenades in late 1916 during the [First World War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I). During the war, white phosphorus mortar bombs, shells, rockets, and grenades were used extensively by [American](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States), [Commonwealth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_of_Nations), and, to a lesser extent, [Japanese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Japan) forces, in both smoke-generating and antipersonnel roles. The [Royal Air Force](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Air_Force) based [in Iraq](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Iraq_Command) also used white phosphorus bombs in [Anbar Province](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Anbar_Governorate) during the [Iraqi revolt of 1920](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_revolt_of_1920). > > At the start of the Normandy campaign, 20% of American 81 mm mortar ammunition consisted of M57 point-detonating bursting smoke rounds using WP filler. At least five American [Medal of Honor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medal_of_Honor) citations mention their recipients using M15 white phosphorus [hand grenades](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hand_grenade) to clear enemy positions, and in the 1944 [liberation of Cherbourg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Overlord) alone, a single US mortar battalion, the 87th, fired 11,899 white phosphorus rounds into the city. The US Army and [Marines](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Marines) used M2 and M328 WP shells in 107 millimetres (4.2 in) mortars. White phosphorus was widely used by Allied soldiers for breaking up German attacks and creating havoc among enemy troop concentrations during the latter part of the war. > White phosphorus munitions were used extensively by US forces in [Vietnam](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War) and by Russian forces in the [First Chechen War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Chechen_War) and [Second Chechen War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chechen_War). White phosphorus grenades were used by the US in Vietnam to destroy [Viet Cong](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viet_Cong) tunnel complexes as they would burn up all oxygen and suffocate the enemy soldiers sheltering inside.[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_munitions#cite_note-8)[[9]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_munitions#cite_note-9) British soldiers also made extensive use of white phosphorus grenades during the [Falklands War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War) to clear out [Argentine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argentina) positions as the peaty soil they were constructed on tended to lessen the impact of fragmentation grenades.[[10]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_munitions#cite_note-10)[[11]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_munitions#cite_note-11) According to [GlobalSecurity.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlobalSecurity.org), during the [Battle of Grozny](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grozny_(1994%E2%80%9395)) during the [First Chechen War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Chechen_War) in [Chechnya](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chechnya), every fourth or fifth Russian artillery or mortar shell fired was a smoke or white phosphorus shell.[[12]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_munitions#cite_note-12) ---
**Author:** ![Dissonance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Dissonance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dissonance)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2022, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-white-phosphorous-in-korean-war/975815/9 "2022-11-30T22:17:00Z")
It occurred to me after posting that one of the most famous pieces of video footage from the Vietnam War is rear camera footage of a plane dropping WP and napalm on a village. The spidery white smoke is the WP, the ‘Hollywood/gasoline’ looking explosions are napalm. The WP is clearly being used as an incendiary along with the napalm, not to either mark anything or provide obscurement with smoke. [1960s Vietnam War rear plane point of view US plane dropping white… Stock Footage Video - Getty Images](https://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/video/news-footage/861-82) ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2022, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/use-of-white-phosphorous-in-korean-war/975815/10 "2022-12-01T11:19:22Z")
My uncle was in artillery in WWII in Europe, and while he didn’t talk much about the war, I remember he told about using WP. He said that they would fire WP rounds at the Germans, and the burns would be so bad that the enemy would jump out of their foxholes and then they would hit them with HE rounds. War isn’t pretty.