Hitler: Why didn't they finish Dunkirk? Why not WMD?

[jon_j_rambo]

Just curious, why didn't the Buntas use chemical weapons in WW-2? Why didn't they try to wipe out the British Army at Dunkirk?

[Mr.Dozer]

this may sound stupid but i heard it was because hitler had mustard gas used on him in ww1 and was against using such weapons.

I know it was said churchill wanted to use chemicals but was lied to and said it would take to many bombers to be effective.

[ July 05, 2007, 11:17 PM: Message edited by: Mr.Dozer ]

[Hyazinth von Strachwitz]

Concerning Mr. Hitler and chemical weapons:

It is true that he was severly hurt by chemical weapons in WW1.. some people even say that he lost his mental health during that period. He was blind and in hospital for months. I think this is just a partial explanation.. in WW1 both sides noticed that chemical warfare hurts Attacker and Defender as well.. and the conquered land is toxicated and useless for german colonists.

Concerning Dünkirchen:

There are two main reason why the Wehrmacht didn´t finish off the british Forces:

(1)

Fat Goering promised Hitler he`ll wipe out the whole expeditionary force with the Luftwaffe, but that didn`t work out.

(2)

The Panzer divisions where exhausted and running out of fuel. One of them (equipped with Tank II and 38t) ran into a unit of Mathildas and was severly hurt, so Hitler stopped the attack.

Sepp Dietrich, one old comrade from Hitler (took part in the 1923 coup) and Commander of a Waffen-SS Divison didn`t care about Hitler orders and attacked on one part of the beach head and made good progress.. he claimed afterwards that wiping out the beachhead would have been easy..

Does anyone remember the Panzergeneral Scenario Dunkirchen? It was like kicking ducklings in a pond....

[foko]

the reason i know was that at this stage of war, Hitler still thought peace with england was possible. Crazy as he was, he thought the british people will honour, when he do not take the whole army as prisoners.

Do not forgot the flight of Rudolf Hess.

the german panzers were stop by hitler himselfe

[Canuck_TAR]

Remember also that Hitler served in WWI and saw the use of Chemical weapons............he didn't want a repeat.

[Lars]

For the WMDs, both sides had them, and had even nastier stuff than WWI, and had effective means to deliver them. The Germans would have lost more than they would have gained.

As for Dunkirk, the whole left flank of the Germans advance was hanging open and the French were by no means finished yet. Made a lot of sense to quit pressing on a defeated and seemingly trapped army and deal with the greater threat.

[Desert Dave]

...the german panzers were stop by hitler himselfe

True.

Hitler was NOT so very risk-taking

At the start (... of yet another!

Internecine Euro-Mayhem), anyhow.

Well, he was indeed concerned

That - Guderian, Dietrich & Kleist, et al,

WERE

Out ahead of the curve,

So to speak.

Worried that they would be cut-off

Before the following infantry

Could secure key objectives.

As for chemical warfare,

BOTH sides knew very well

That was a foul & horrendous

Witch's brew,

And neither side wanted to be the FIRST

To introduce them,

Partly,

Due to - not fully knowing

Just what the other guy was capable of.

Hitler's own WW-I experience?

Like Hemingway,

He had a severe and lasting jolt,

And ever - even sub-consciously,

Feared receiving a similar sort

Of body & mind disarrangement.

UNLIKE Hemingway,

He wasn't able to realize,

Internalize, and re-direct

That kind of deranging experience

And make "Art" out of it.

Too bad that he couldn't.

I am supposing - based on partial

Readings, so... an imperfect guess,

But,

Hitler could have gone

The other way, IE,

Become a somewhat "normal" citizen

Had he sold some paintings

Or, O/W "succeeded" in Society.

His eventual "madness" was real, though.

What caused it?

Not the chemicals on the ground, IMO,

But,

The volatile mixture of neuro-chemicals

In his head.

Since birth.

Many "normal" humans DO resort

To "craziness" at a later stage of life,

It happens every day,

At any age,

In every Nation on earth.

As we have recently witnessed,

Ad nauseum, all over the place.

[AZGungHo]

I've always read that the reason Hitler didn't use that was because he and all the leaders of Germany knew it would be returned on them many times over. That plus the fact it would have offended the Swiss and other neutrals that they needed for economic reasons.

[jon_j_rambo]

Always thought it was weird. Germany was killing civilians left & right...then suddenly had a morality check on gas in combat.

[Steve Rogers]

There were several plans the UK had in case Germany successfully invaded the UK.

One of the contingencies devised would involve the use of air-dropped gas bombs against German forces en masse.

The bombs were stockpiled and this remained a secret until a few years ago when secret files were made public in Britain.

Churchill was not against using "any means" to defend Britain.

As an interesting afterthought, there was also a little-known German 'practice run' at sea lion during 1940 using a small amphibious landing party around the Cornish Coast.

The charred remains of the landing boats and German soldiers and equipment were found several years ago.

So far there has not been any official reply to these findings.

[jon_j_rambo]

Elvis knew German:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1EAEnJQ5CY&mode=related&search=

[n0kn0k]

He was stationed in Germany for some time I believe.

[JerseyJohn]

Originally posted by jon_j_rambo:

Just curious, why didn't the Buntas use chemical weapons in WW-2?

He was probably afraid of British retaliation, both sides had large stockpiles and before the war started most people assumed poison gas would be dropped on cities. The British originally expected tens of thousands of civilian gas casualties and issued gas masks to as many civilians as possible.

Churchill came close to ordering gas attacks on German cities when the V-2s began falling on London, but was talked out of it by General Allanbrooke.

Why didn't they try to wipe out the British Army at Dunkirk?

He was talked out of it by the local army group commander, von Rundstedt, who thought sending tanks and motorized infantry up the coast was too risky because his marching infantry wasn't close enough to support them. In hindsight that was a poor decision but, at the time, it was reasonable and Hitler was doing something he rarely did later, following the advice of one of his field commanders.

[Guest Mike]

2 things about chemical weapons - the Germans had invented nerve gas based on research into insecticides done in the USA I believe - they thought the allies would have also invented it, and would have been able to make much more of it.

The allies did have chemicals "in theatre" - IIRC there was an axis air attack on ships in an Italian port in 43 or 44 that hit a ship carrying mustard gas, and a lot of people were injured.

[jon_j_rambo]

I find it interesting how there is morality (or rules) to war in regards to chemical weapons during WW-2. Yet it was a butcherfest. In the Pacific, well, maybe a different conversation.

[JerseyJohn]

Originally posted by Hyazinth von Strachwitz:

Concerning Mr. Hitler and chemical weapons:

It is true that he was severly hurt by chemical weapons in WW1.. some people even say that he lost his mental health during that period. He was blind and in hospital for months. I think this is just a partial explanation.. in WW1 both sides noticed that chemical warfare hurts Attacker and Defender as well.. and the conquered land is toxicated and useless for german colonists.

Concerning Dünkirchen:

There are two main reason why the Wehrmacht didn´t finish off the british Forces:

(1)

Fat Goering promised Hitler he`ll wipe out the whole expeditionary force with the Luftwaffe, but that didn`t work out.

(2)

The Panzer divisions where exhausted and running out of fuel. One of them (equipped with Tank II and 38t) ran into a unit of Mathildas and was severly hurt, so Hitler stopped the attack.

Sepp Dietrich, one old comrade from Hitler (took part in the 1923 coup) and Commander of a Waffen-SS Divison didn`t care about Hitler orders and attacked on one part of the beach head and made good progress.. he claimed afterwards that wiping out the beachhead would have been easy..

Does anyone remember the Panzergeneral Scenario Dunkirchen? It was like kicking ducklings in a pond....

Terrific post.

A lot of German panzer officers who could have struck north and seized Dunkirt initially, said the stop order was wrong because the entire coast was virtually undefended. It also turns out that Rundstedt's infantry would have reached those ports, solidifying the positions, before the BEF could have retreated into them.

Additionally, some of the same generals who said the tanks were good for the push on Dunkirt had earlier been very cautious in their advice, von Kleist more than most, so it's understandable that Hitler was being cautious at this point.

Regarding Goering's claim, that too is reasonable because the RAF hadn't really shown itself in Belgium or Holland and the Luftwaffe had no reason to suspect it's true effectiveness. Goering's reasoning was that his bombers would sink whatever ships came in for the evacuation, weakening the Royal Navy while keeping the B. E. F. caught in a trap. Inevitably the evacuation would have been called off and the B. E. F., along with the French troops also caught in the pocket, would have been forced to surrender.

-- What Goering didn't take into consideration was the advance had taken place so quickly that the Luftwaffed was unable to catch up with the ground troops. It was still operating out of bases in Germany so, at the English Channel, the R. A. F. was much closer to the action than the Luftwaffe. That proved to be the decisive factor.

Also, bombs dropped on the beaches were wasted as the sand negated their effect. The entire effort should have been against the ships, but no one seems to have issued that order, it was all done as targets of opportunity, which was a poor choice.

Ironically most of the dog fights took place east of Dunkirk and both the British troops and sailors felt betrayed by their own airmen as the only aircraft they saw were German.

Brother Rambo,

Regarding the moral distinction of different killing methods, Hitler had some odd guidelines. He ranted about how, when Leningrad was finally taken, he would have the place leveled and all of it's people enslaved. But the Germans had little chance of taking it because too many troops had been diverted to other parts of the line. The Finns came up with a plan to empty Lake Ladoga into the city, probably making it uninhabitable, Hitler went against the operation. It's hard to see him doing that on humitarian grounds. Probably, despite his diatribes, he wanted the city captured and everything inside functional.

[JerseyJohn]

Originally posted by Desert Dave:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr /> ...the german panzers were stop by hitler himselfe

True.

Hitler was NOT so very risk-taking

At the start (... of yet another!

Internecine Euro-Mayhem), anyhow.

Well, he was indeed concerned

That - Guderian, Dietrich & Kleist, et al,

WERE

Out ahead of the curve,

So to speak.

Worried that they would be cut-off

Before the following infantry

Could secure key objectives.

As for chemical warfare,

BOTH sides knew very well

That was a foul & horrendous

Witch's brew,

And neither side wanted to be the FIRST

To introduce them,

Partly,

Due to - not fully knowing

Just what the other guy was capable of.

Hitler's own WW-I experience?

Like Hemingway,

He had a severe and lasting jolt,

And ever - even sub-consciously,

Feared receiving a similar sort

Of body & mind disarrangement.

UNLIKE Hemingway,

He wasn't able to realize,

Internalize, and re-direct

That kind of deranging experience

And make "Art" out of it.

Too bad that he couldn't.

I am supposing - based on partial

Readings, so... an imperfect guess,

But,

Hitler could have gone

The other way, IE,

Become a somewhat "normal" citizen

Had he sold some paintings

Or, O/W "succeeded" in Society.

His eventual "madness" was real, though.

What caused it?

Not the chemicals on the ground, IMO,

But,

The volatile mixture of neuro-chemicals

In his head.

Since birth.

Many "normal" humans DO resort

To "craziness" at a later stage of life,

It happens every day,

At any age,

In every Nation on earth.

As we have recently witnessed,

Ad nauseum, all over the place. </font>

[jon_j_rambo]

@Sir Jersey --- Max was a strange watch, that's for sure!

[JerseyJohn]

Brother Rambo, I think it's a portable sun dial.

[xwormwood]

According to wikipedia.de:

hitler wasn't told about the real effect of TABUN / SOMAN, because the leading officials of the program were affraid about what this kind of escalation would bring for the german side.

An active use of these nerve agent might have had a similar effect just like the manhattan programm. (sorry for the rough and unexact translation)

"Deutschland hatte Ende der dreißiger Jahre als erste Nation die großtechnische (industrielle) Produktion von Nervengasen entwickelt, war also als einzige Kriegspartei zur Herstellung von Kampfgasen im Kilo- und Tonnenbereich in der Lage. Dieser Umstand gekoppelt mit der Verfügbarkeit modernster Trägersysteme (V-2) hätte die politische Führung in die Lage versetzt einen Gaskrieg zu entfesseln, der unter Umständen von der Tragweite her ähnlich gravierend hätte sein können, wie der erste Einsatz von Atomwaffen (Manhattan-Projekt). Die verantwortliche Führung des deutschen Kampfgasentwicklungsprogramms verheimlichte Hitler gegenüber bewusst die tatsächlichen Möglichkeiten, denn man befürchtete eine Eskalation zum Gaskrieg falls Hitler klar werden sollte, welche Wirkung beispielsweise ein mit Tabungefechtsköpfen bestückter V-2-Angriff auf London haben könnte"

Sarin:

Sarin was discovered in 1938 in Wuppertal-Elberfeld in Germany by two German scientists while attempting to create stronger pesticides; it is the most toxic of the four G-agents made by Germany. The compound, which followed the discovery of the nerve agent tabun, was named in honor of its discoverers: Gerhard Schrader, Ambros, Rüdiger and Van der LINde.

In mid-1939, the formula for the agent was passed to the Chemical Warfare section of the German Army Weapons Office, which ordered that it be brought into mass production for wartime use. A number of pilot plants were built, and a high-production facility was under construction (but was not finished) by the end of World War II. Estimates for total sarin production by Nazi Germany range from 500 kg to 10 tons.

Though sarin, tabun and soman were incorporated into artillery shells, Germany ultimately decided not to use nerve agents against Allied targets. German intelligence was unaware that the Allies had not developed similar compounds, but they understood that unleashing these compounds would lead the Allies to develop and use chemical weapons of their own, and they were concerned that the Allies' ability to reach German targets would prove devastating in a chemical war.

Soman:

Soman was discovered by Richard Kuhn in Germany in 1944, and represented the last wartime nerve agent discovery (GF was not found until 1949). Soman was given the identifier GD post-war (GC was already in medical use) when the information relating to soman was recovered by the Soviet Union from its hiding place in a mine.

Tabun:

Tabun, the first known nerve agent, was discovered accidentally in 1936 by the German researcher Dr. Gerhard Schrader. Dr. Schrader was experimenting with a class of compounds called organophosphates, which kill insects by interrupting their nervous systems, in order to create a more effective insecticide for the IG Farben pharmaceutical conglomerate at Elberfield. Instead of a new insecticide, however, he discovered tabun, a chemical which is enormously toxic to humans as well as to insects.

During World War II as part of the Grün 3 program, a plant for the manufacture of tabun was established in Dyhernfurth (now Brzeg Dolny, Poland), producing the nerve agent under the codename Trilon-83. Run by Anorgana GmbH, the plant began production in 1942. Large scale manufacturing of the agent resulted in problems with the product's degradation over time and only around 12,500 tons of material were manufactured before the plant was over-run by the advancing Soviet forces. The plant initially produced shells and aerial bombs using a 95:5 mix of tabun and chlorobenzene, designated "Variant A" before switching in the latter half of the war to "Variant B," an 80:20 mix of tabun and chlorobenzene designed to make the mixture disperse more easily. The Soviet government had the plant dismantled and taken back to Russia.

Nerve Agent:

This first class of nerve agents, the so-called G-Series, was accidentally discovered in Germany on December 23, 1936 by a research team headed by Dr. Gerhard Schrader. Since 1934, Schrader had been in charge of a laboratory in Leverkusen to develop new types of insecticides for IG Farben. While working toward his goal of improved insecticide, Schrader experimented with numerous fluorine-containing compounds, eventually leading to the preparation of tabun.

In experiments, tabun was extremely potent against insects: as little as 5 ppm of tabun killed all the leaf lice he used in his initial experiment. In January 1937, Schrader observed the effects of nerve agents on human beings first-hand when a drop of tabun spilled onto a lab bench. Within minutes he and his laboratory assistant began to experience miosis (constriction of the pupils of the eyes), dizziness, and severe shortness of breath. It took them three weeks to recover fully.

In 1935 the Nazi leadership had passed a decree that required all inventions of possible military significance to be reported to the Ministry of War, so in May of 1937 Schrader sent a sample of tabun to the chemical warfare (CW) section of the Army Weapons Office in Berlin-Spandau. Dr. Schrader was summoned to the Wehrmacht chemical lab in Berlin to give a demonstration, after which Schrader's patent application and all related research was classified. Colonel Rüdiger, head of the CW section, ordered the construction of new laboratories for the further investigation of tabun and other organophosphate compounds, and Schrader soon moved to a new laboratory at Wuppertal-Elberfeld in the Ruhr valley to continue his research in secret throughout World War II.

Three of the most widely known agents, sarin (GB), soman (GD), and tabun (GA) were also developed during this period for use as chemical warfare agents, but were not used in combat. Cyclosarin (GF) was developed somewhat later, in 1949, by the same team. The prefix "G" was used in the names of all the chemicals because they were of German origin[2].

In 1939, a pilot plant for tabun production was set up at Munster-Lager, on Luneberg heath near the German Army proving grounds at Raubkammer. In January 1940, construction began on a secret plant, code named "Hochwerk" (High factory), for the production of tabun at Dyherrnfurth an der Oder (now Brzeg Dolny in Poland), on the Oder River 40 km (24.9 miles) from Breslau (now Wrocław) in Silesia.

The plant was large, covering an area of 2.4 by 0.8 km (1.5 by 0.5 miles), and was completely self-contained, synthesizing all intermediates as well as the final product, tabun. The factory even had an underground plant for filling munitions, which were then stored at Krappitz (now Krapowice) in Upper Silesia. The plant was operated by Anorgana GmbH, a subsidiary of IG Farben, as were all other chemical weapon agent production plants in Germany at the time.

Because of the plant's deep secrecy and the difficult nature of the production process, it took from January 1940 until June 1942 for the plant to become fully operational. Many of tabun's chemical precursors were so corrosive that reaction chambers not lined with quartz or silver soon became useless. Tabun itself was so hazardous that the final processes had to be performed while enclosed in double glass-lined chambers with a stream of pressurized air circulating between the walls.

3,000 German nationals were employed at Hochwerk, all equipped with respirators and clothing constructed of a poly-layered rubber/cloth/rubber sandwich that was destroyed after the tenth wearing. Despite all precautions, there were over 300 accidents before production even began, and at least 10 workers died during the 2.5 years of operation. Some incidents cited in A Higher Form of Killing: The Secret History of Chemical and Biological Warfare are as follows:

* Four pipe fitters had liquid tabun drain onto them; they died before their rubber suits could be removed.

* A worker had 2 liters of tabun pour down the neck of his rubber suit; he died within 2 minutes.

* Seven workers were hit in the face with a stream of tabun of such force that the liquid was forced behind their respirators; only two survived despite heroic resuscitation measures.

The plant produced between 10,000 and 30,000 tons of tabun before its capture by the Soviet Army .

In mid-1939, sarin was invented, and the formula for the agent was passed to the Chemical Warfare section of the German Army Weapons Office, which ordered that it be brought into mass production for wartime use. A number of pilot plants were built, and a high-production facility was under construction (but was not finished) by the end of World War II. Estimates for total sarin production by Nazi Germany range from 500 kg to 10 tons.

During that time, German intelligence believed that the Allies also knew of these compounds, assuming that because these compounds were not discussed in the Allies' scientific journals information about them was being suppressed. Though sarin, tabun and soman were incorporated into artillery shells, the German government ultimately decided not to use nerve agents against Allied targets. The Allies didn't learn of these agents until shells filled with them were captured towards the end of the war.

This is detailed in Joseph Borkin's book The Crime and Punishment of IG Farben:

Speer, who was strongly opposed to the introduction of tabun, flew Otto Ambros, I.G.'s authority on poison gas as well as synthetic rubber, to the meeting. Hitler asked Ambros, "What is the other side doing about poison gas?" Ambros explained that the enemy, because of its greater access to ethylene, probably had a greater capacity to produce mustard gas than Germany did. Hitler interrupted to explain that he was not referring to traditional poison gases: "I understand that the countries with petroleum are in a position to make more [mustard gas], but Germany has a special gas, tabun. In this we have a monopoly in Germany." He specifically wanted to know whether the enemy had access to such a gas and what it was doing in this area. To Hitler's disappointment Ambros replied, "I have justified reasons to assume that tabun, too, is known abroad. I know that tabun was publicized as early as 1902, that Sarin was patented, and that these substances appeared in patents. (...) Ambros was informing Hitler of an extraordinary fact about one of Germany's most secret weapons. The essential nature of tabun and sarin had already been disclosed in the technical journals as far back as 1902, and I.G. had patented both products in 1937 and 1938. Ambros then warned Hitler that if Germany used tabun, it must face the possibility that the Allies could produce this gas in much larger quantities. Upon receiving this discouraging report, Hitler abruptly left the meeting. The nerve gases would not be used, for the time being at least, although they would continue to be produced and tested.

After World War II, the Allies recovered German artillery shells containing the three German nerve agents of the day, prompting further research into nerve agents by the former Allies. In 1952, researchers in Porton Down, England invented the VX nerve agent, but soon abandoned the project. In 1958 the British government traded their VX technology with the United States of America in exchange for information on thermonuclear weapons; by 1961 the US was producing large amounts of VX, and performed its own nerve agent research. This research produced three more agents; the four agents (VE, VG, VM, VX) are collectively known as the "V-Series" class of nerve agents.

Chemical warfare in World War II

Despite article 171 of the Versailles Peace Treaty and a resolution adopted against Japan by the League of nations on 14 May 1938, the Imperial Japanese Army frequently used chemical weapons. By fear of retaliation however, those weapons were never used against Occidentals but against other Orientals judged "inferior" by the imperial propaganda. According to historians Yoshiaki Yoshimi and Seiya Matsuno, the chemical weapons were authorized by specific orders given by emperor Showa himself, transmitted by the chief of staff of the army. For example, the Emperor authorized the use of toxic gas on 375 separate occasions during the battle of Wuhan from August to October 1938. [5]. They were also profusely used during the invasion of Changde.

The Imperial Japanese Army used mustard gas and the recently-developed blister agent Lewisite against Chinese troops and guerillas. During these attacks, the Japanese also employed biological warfare by intentionally spreading cholera, dysentery, typhoid, bubonic plague, and anthrax produced by Unit 731. Experiments involving chemical weapons were conducted on live prisoners (Unit 731 and Unit 516). As of 2005, 60 years after the end of the war, canisters that were abandoned by Japan in their hasty retreat are still being dug up in construction sites, causing injuries and allegedly even deaths[citation needed].

During World War II, chemical warfare was revolutionized by Nazi Germany's accidental discovery of the nerve agents tabun and sarin by Gerhard Schrader, a chemist of IG Farben. The nerve agent soman was discovered by Nobel Prize laureate Richard Kuhn and his collaborator Konrad Henkel at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg in spring of 1944 (see Schmaltz 2005; Schmaltz 2006). The Nazis developed and manufactured large quantities of several agents, but chemical warfare was not extensively used by either side though chemical troops were set up (in Germany since 1934) and delivery technology was actively developed. Recovered Nazi documents suggest that German intelligence incorrectly thought that the Allies also knew of these compounds, interpreting their lack of mention in the Allies' scientific journals as evidence that information about them was being suppressed. Germany ultimately decided not to use the new nerve agents, fearing a potentially devastating Allied retaliatory nerve agent deployment.

William L. Shirer, in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, writes that the British high command considered the use of chemical weapons as a last-ditch defensive measure in the event of a Nazi invasion of Britain.

On the night of December 2, 1943, German Ju 88 bombers attacked the port of Bari in Southern Italy, sinking several American ships - among them John Harvey, which was carrying mustard gas intended for use in retaliation by the Allies if German forces initiated gas warfare. The presence of the gas was highly classified, and authorities ashore had no knowledge of it - which increased the number of fatalities, since physicians, who had no idea that they were dealing with the effects of mustard gas, prescribed treatment improper for those suffering from exposure and immersion.

The whole affair was kept secret at the time and for many years after the war (in the opinion of some, there was a deliberate and systematic cover-up). According to the U.S. military account, "Sixty-nine deaths were attributed in whole or in part to the mustard gas, most of them American merchant seamen" out of 628 mustard gas military casualties. The large number of civilian casualties among the Italian population were not recorded. Part of the confusion and controversy derives from the fact that the German attack was highly destructive and lethal in itself, also apart from the accidental additional effects of the gas (it was nicknamed "The Little Pearl Harbor"), and attribution of the causes of death between the gas and other causes is far from easy. The affair is the subject of two books: Disaster at Bari by Glenn B. Infield and Nightmare in Bari: The World War II Liberty Ship Poison Gas Disaster and Coverup by Gerald Reminick.

Although chemical weapons were not intentionally deployed on a large scale during on the front lines of the European Theatre of World War II, there were some recorded uses of them by the Axis Powers, when retaliation was not feared:

* In 1944, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husayni, the senior Islamic religious authority of the Palestinian Arabs and close ally of Adolf Hitler, sponsored an unsuccessful chemical warfare assault on the Jewish community in Palestine. Five parachutists were supplied with maps of Tel Aviv, canisters of a German–manufactured "fine white powder," and instructions from the Mufti to dump chemicals into the Tel Aviv water system. District police commander Fayiz Bey Idrissi later recalled, "The laboratory report stated that each container held enough poison to kill 25,000 people, and there were at least ten containers."

* During the Holocaust, the Nazis used the insecticide Zyklon B, which contains hydrogen cyanide, to kill several million people in extermination camps such as Auschwitz and Majdanek. Tear and reportedly poison gasses were used by against civilian and guerilla shelters during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943, and again against sewer lines of communication during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. In the concentration camp Struthof-Natzweiler in occupied Alsace the German physicians August Hirt and Otto Bickenbach conducted human experiments with mustard gas and phosgene on inmates to test possible prophylactic and therapeutic treatments causing injuries and death of many prisoners.

Sources: all wikipedia

[Retributar]

WOW!!!... 'Major-Heavy-Danger-Research -"xwormwood"!!!'

[arado234]

I guess we all forgot about those lttle pellets the nazis used on the jews called zyklon b.Is that not a chemical weapon used in mass destruction of human life?

[Blashy]

Yes it is.

But I think the topic starter meant in combat.

[jon_j_rambo]

The Germans didn't win, because they didn't have YODL.

[arado234]

My mistake.