Poison Gas in World War II: British Military Assessment



Figure 1.--There was no doubt among British military and civilian authorities that Hitler not only possessed chemical weapons, but that he was preparing to use the new Luftwaffe to drop those weapons on British cities. As a result, the British during the Munich Crisis (September 1938) began issuing gas masks and training the public, including school children. Here children at the Dorset Hall School [writing industinct], presumably a boarding school, are being trained (December 4, 1938). Thecteacher seems to be reading the instructions. The thought of this is bad enough, but to think this was being done at a time when the boys were thinking about going home for the Christmas holidays. Interestingly, ome of the children at the left is a girl. She is wearing her Brownie uniform. We are guessing that she was the daughter of one of the masters.

There was no doubt among military plnners that the Germans would use chemicl weapons again. British Military planners as Hitler moved toward war assumed that the NAZIs would ignore international conventions and use poison gas when war broke out. The superority of the Luftwaffe in the early stage of the War made this an especially terrifying possibility. And based on the World War I experiences with Zephlins and the Gotha Bombers, there was little dounbt that the Germans bombers would get through again. 'The bombers will always get through' was a well-accepted axiom of modern warfare. As a result, the Czech Crisis (September 1938) caused the Government to begin issuing gas masks and train the public, including school children. There were no militry or civilian figures who believd that Hitler would refrain from using poison gas in an air assault on Britin. And even more terrifying given what we now know avout Hitler is that the Germans at the ime were in the verge of developing a chemical weapon many times more deadly than the agents used in World War I. Not fully realized at the time Hitler and Stalin launched the War and British children were being sent from the cities with their cardboard boxes holding gas masks (September 1939) was that the Luftwaffe did not have have the long-range nombers needed for a sustained strategic bombing campaign. The Fall of France changed this. France gave the Germans the bases and prepared airfields from where they could launch such an attack, The children were sent into the country again, still carrying their little cardboard boxes. As far as we know, the British did not contemplate using poison gas unless as in World War I the Germans began using it first again. There were two exceptions. First, the British high command apparently considered the use of chemical weapons if the German invaded Britain. [Shirer] We do not think that any final decession was reached on this by the time that the Germans dropped their plans to cross the Channel (September 1940. Second, Churchill was so infuriated with the German V-1 attacks on London (June 1944) that he considered employing chemical weapons on German cities in retalistion. The Chiefs of Staff managed to disuade him, arguing that the use was impracticable.

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Created: 6:37 AM 10/4/2014
Last updated: 10:35 AM 10/5/2014