# Were chemical/biological weapons used in combat during World War 2? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 6, 2008, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477 "2008-02-06T03:48:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/1 "2008-02-06T03:48:24Z")
If not, why not? ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/2 "2008-02-06T04:05:39Z")
The [Geneva Protocol](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geneva_Protocol) of 1925. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/3 "2008-02-06T04:22:22Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] If not, why not? [/QUOTE] There was also a bit of mutually-assured-destruction idea going on. With the advent of long-range bombing, nobody really wanted to see cities gassed. But it was definitely considered–there were gas-mask drills at least in England. ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/4 "2008-02-06T04:37:06Z")
A 1943 German air raid on American ships in the harbor of [Bari, Italy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Raid_on_Bari) caused the release of mustard gas when one of the freighters was hit. My guess is that the gas was there in case the Axis began using mustard gas. In any case, the only casualties in WWII caused by mustard gas were Americans killed by American gas. ---
**Author:** ![Thrash\_the\_Almighty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90ced4/32.png) [@Thrash\_the\_Almighty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thrash_the_Almighty)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/5 "2008-02-06T05:50:51Z")
Not really a part of World War Two, but worth considering perhaps was Italy’s 1935 campaign against Abyssinia. The Italians used mustard gas in combat in spite of internatinal law. [Link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Italo-Abyssinian_War#Atrocities) ---
**Author:** ![Thrash\_the\_Almighty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/90ced4/32.png) [@Thrash\_the\_Almighty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thrash_the_Almighty)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/6 "2008-02-06T05:58:38Z")
Japan made extensive use of chemical and biological weapons in its war against China. Google “Unit 731” for more information. [Wikepedia on Unit 731](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#Germ_warfare_attacks) ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/7 "2008-02-06T06:04:18Z")
Not used, but both sides were developing and manufacturing them in great quantities throughout the war. > [@](#): > > The Italians, Hungarians, Japanese, French, English, Russians, and Americans, as well as the Germans, all perfected mustard, phosgene, and similar agents during World War II. Although never used in the conflict, these nations amassed such huge quantities of chemical munitions that their disposal presented a practical problem, one that would be virtually insurmountable in today’s more environmentally conscious world. In those more naive times, however, the munitions simply found their way to the bottoms of almost all the world’s oceans in the holds of expendable ships. [Link](http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/intro/cw.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/8 "2008-02-06T06:11:40Z")
Is there any truth to the story that because of the gas attacks he underwent as a soldier the German military in WWI, Hitler refused to allow the use of chemical weapons? ---
**Author:** ![puppygod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@puppygod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puppygod)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/9 "2008-02-06T09:30:11Z")
While usually forgotten when talking about chemical warfare, lachrymators (“tear gas”) were used during World War II. Along with flame throwers they were used by Germans in Warsaw against guerrillas (and civilians) during both Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and Warsaw Uprising. Use of poison gas was also reported, although I don’t know if it was ever confirmed. There were also experiments and at least small-scale use of lachrymatory smoke grenades, including against armored vehicles (the idea being that it would get inside through vents and cause crew to abandon vehicle). Effects were unsatisfactory. Most hilarious example of that idea was using small quantity of lachrymatory agent in Panzerbüchse (anti-tank rifle) bullets. Because of small quantities and all the usual smoke and other effects accompanying penetrating armor of vehicle by anti-tank bullet Allies vehicle crew members never realized that they were supposed to be incapacitated by these. It was only at the end of war, when Allies captured German munition factory when they discovered that there was something inside. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/10 "2008-02-06T10:16:32Z")
[QUOTE=Speaker for the Dead] There was also a bit of mutually-assured-destruction idea going on. With the advent of long-range bombing, nobody really wanted to see cities gassed. But it was definitely considered–there were gas-mask drills at least in England. [/QUOTE] Part of the reason why I asked was that my dad told me that when he was a child in the 1940s in Northern Ireland that he used to play with a baby’s gas mask that was issued in 1939 to his family along with adult gas masks. ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/11 "2008-02-06T10:32:38Z")
I don’t know if this is true or not but apparently if the Germans had gained a foothold on the UK mainland; plans were afoot to gas the invading troops. What I do know is that pipelines were fed into the ocean and again in the event of invasion petrol would be pumped through and set alight ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/12 "2008-02-06T12:32:49Z")
[QUOTE=Rysto] Is there any truth to the story that because of the gas attacks he underwent as a soldier the German military in WWI, Hitler refused to allow the use of chemical weapons? [/QUOTE] Given that Germany is said to have stockpiled enough sarin gas to wipe out a large city, I’d say that’s probably true. Hitler spent something like a month recuperating from the gas attack, and it was while he was in the hospital that Germany surrendered, so certainly poison gas used in warfare would have been seen as something traumatic to him. No doubt he also saw other victims of poison gas attacks who were in worse shape than him. WWI was pretty horrific, not only in terms of how many people died (60K in _one_ battle, IIRC), but also in how people were wounded and killed. There was a great anti-war effort afterwards (which is one of the reasons why Hitler was able to run roughshod over Europe for so long before anyone decided to do something about it), and it produced numerous anti-war books, one of which was illustrated with graphic photographs and called \*[War Against War\*](http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/waw.htm) ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/13 "2008-02-06T12:38:33Z")
Despite those horrific photos in **Tuckerfans** link mankind still goes to war. FFS, will we ever learn? ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/14 "2008-02-06T13:23:08Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] If not, why not? [/QUOTE] [Professor Barton J. Bernstein](http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1985/5/1985_5_40.shtml) of Stanford University gives a comprehensive account of the reasons such tactics were not used. It’s worth noting that an awful lot of people wanted to deploy chemical weapons and that both the US and Britain were prepared for the eventuality: > [@](#): > > Even so, the budget and total personnel of the Army’s Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) soared. Held to an average annual appropriation of $1.5 million and to about five hundred Army personnel through the mid-thirties, in 1942 the CWS received one billion dollars and had more than sixty thousand employees. Its tasks included preparing for gas and bacteriological warfare, as well as producing incendiaries for bombing, flamethrowers, and other devices. That said, there seems to be a grey area concerning the use of white phosphorus by US troops during the invasion of Normandy in 1944: > [@](#): > > Shortly before the D-day invasion the British military chiefs began worrying that the decision by Gen. Dwight D. Elsenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, to use white phosphorus would violate the 1925 Geneva Protocol—which Britain, unlike the United States, was bound by—and might unleash German retaliatory gas attacks. “It is difficult,” the Ministry of Defense warned, “to draw a firm line between the use of white phosphorus for smoke and as an incendiary (which is legal) and its use primarily against personnel (which may be illegal).” Elsenhower refused to back down. By the time the issue percolated up to Churchill on June 21, the early assault on Normandy was over, and apparently the prime minister decided against appealing the matter to Roosevelt. Wikipedia opines as follows on the subject of [white phosphorus](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus): > [@](#): > > White phosphorus weapons are controversial today because of their potential use against civilians. While the Chemical Weapons Convention does not designate WP as a chemical weapon, various unofficial groups consider it to be one. Since the MOD, via Bernstein, was unsure of the legality of using white phosphorus and since Wikipedia also implies equivocation on the matter I would appreciate an informed view from a chemical weapons expert. Or, failing that, from anyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/15 "2008-02-06T14:39:05Z")
The Nazis used poison gas to kill several million people. I’d say that counts. ---
**Author:** ![puppygod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@puppygod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puppygod)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/16 "2008-02-06T14:40:14Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] The Nazis used poison gas to kill several million people. I’d say that counts. [/QUOTE] You missed that “in combat” part of OP. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/17 "2008-02-06T17:28:52Z")
[QUOTE=chowder] I don’t know if this is true or not but apparently if the Germans had gained a foothold on the UK mainland; plans were afoot to gas the invading troops… [/QUOTE] I’ve read that in several reputable sources, too. If the British really had their backs to the wall during Operation Sea Lion, I’m sure Churchill would have authorized it. I believe the Japanese were also planning to use various poison gases if the Allies invaded the Japanese home islands. German infantry routinely trained for gas attacks; you can often see the gas-mask cannisters on the belts of Nazi troops in WW2 photos. On the other hand, one of Bill Mauldin’s cartoons showed his two world-weary GIs walking down a muddy road littered with discarded equipment. Willie says idly, “I see Third Platoon just got issued gas masks.” Most American troops regarded them as needless weight. ---
**Author:** ![Spiny\_Norman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/18 "2008-02-06T20:25:31Z")
[QUOTE=puppygod] Most hilarious example of that idea was using small quantity of lachrymatory agent in Panzerbüchse (anti-tank rifle) bullets. [/QUOTE] Wasn’t the Panzerbüchse pretty ineffective under the best of circumstances? I seem to recall it being nicknamed “Heeresanklopfgeraet” (“Army doorknocking device”) by the unfortunates who were issued one. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/19 "2008-02-07T00:13:12Z")
The Japanese used it, both on the Chinese Military & on civilians. Both Chem & Bio. The Japanese Balloon Bombs were originally intended to carry bioweapons, as I recall. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2008, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477/20 "2008-02-07T09:38:13Z")
I have no cite, just something I remember from a documentary. A German officer recounted that the advance and retreat happened too quickly for the German’s to make sufficient quantities of the weapons and put them into use. It always seemed strange that they didn’t use them on the Russian cities they intended to besiege. Another uncited memory, Churchill asked for sufficient mustard gas to be made available in the case that Germany used something similar on a British city, he was told that it would be extremely difficult to make that much and deliver it successfully during war time. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-chemical-biological-weapons-used-in-combat-during-world-war-2/436477.md?page=2)