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Source: http://www.internationalmilitaria.com/lot.cfm?lotID=6535

 

 

Germany did not use biological or chemical weapons on enemy combatants during World War II.  This can be explained by several factors:

 

    • Most of the Allied powers (except the U.S.) signed the Geneva Protocol in 1925.  They agreed not to be the first to use chemical and bacteriological agents in war, but reserved the right to use them if attacked with them.  The ample threat posed by Allied chemical weapons would have been a distinct deterrent.
    • The German military strategy of Blitzkreig did not require the use of chemical weapons for success.  Unlike the trench warfare of WWI, it would not have been so feasible to limit friendly-fire incidents, nor to expose mass numbers of enemy combatants.
    • As a sergeant in the Kaiser's army, Adolf Hitler was gassed by British troops in 1918.  He was temporarily blinded by a British gas attack at Flanders.  The first-hand agony may have caused him to refrain from using it as a tactical weapon himself.

 

 

 

Hitler refrained from using Chemical Weapons, despite a large stockpile

Source: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/sgt_stryker/civ2fasc.htm

 

 

 

Germany did employ chemical, particularly hydrogen cyanide gas, in concentration camp gas chambers, such as the one at Stutthof.  The walls have been stained an iron blue because of continued exposure to hydrogen cyanide.

 

 

 

A Gas Chamber at Sutthof

Source:http://web1.caryacademy.org/chemistry/rushin/StudentProjects/CompoundWebSites/2002/SodiumCyanide/history.htm

 

 

 

Although they never deployed chemical or biological weapons, Nazi Germany did have a very sophisticated Some information about Germany’s chemical and biological programs throughout the Nazi Era:

  • The first nerve agent (called "Tabun" or "GA") for military use was made in Germany in 1936.
  • Another nerve agent, "sarin" or "GB," was made in 1938
  • “Soman" or "GD" was made in 1944.
  •  It has been estimated that the Germans had stockpiles of tons of both Tabun and Sarin.
  • Testing of chemical and biological agents was conducted on inmates at the concentration camps.
  • British intelligence suspected that the Germans were capable of using chemical and biological weapons not only on enemy combatants but also affixed to V1 and V2 rockets for use on a civilian population.

 

 

After the war, much of the remnants of Hitler’s chemical weapons programs were dumped into the ocean.  Six decades after the defeat of Nazi Germany, Hitler's chemical weapons are coming back to haunt Europe as they ooze from rusting and poorly mapped graves on the seabed.

Norway knows the exact locations of just 15 of a probable 36 ships in waters about 600 metres (1,970 feet) deep off the southern town of Arendal, one of the main postwar chemical dumps with 168,000 tonnes of Nazi ammunition.  The disposal of Nazi chemical weapons was far from clean, and is still causing problems today.

 

 

Source:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/weap.html

http://www.usaaf.net/ww2/preemptivedefense/pdpg4.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1562534.stm

http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1065235/posts