Comments on: Why No Poison Gas? http://www.historynet.com/why-no-poison-gas.htm?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-no-poison-gas From the World's Largest History Magazine Publisher Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:41:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: RAW http://www.historynet.com/why-no-poison-gas.htm#comment-787661 RAW Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:15:51 +0000 http://www.historynet.com/?p=13681721#comment-787661 correction: The SS John Harvey was loaded w/ mustard gas bombs and was destroyed at BARI, Italy:"The Second Pearl Harbor" correction: The SS John Harvey was loaded w/ mustard gas bombs and was destroyed at BARI, Italy:"The Second Pearl Harbor"

]]> By: Brandon http://www.historynet.com/why-no-poison-gas.htm#comment-781629 Brandon Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:57:28 +0000 http://www.historynet.com/?p=13681721#comment-781629 These Germans on this blog kill me. After all these years they still stick up for Hitler. Hitler was a madman and the Germans that tried to kill him that's who you should stick up for. Meanwhile the officers that tried get called traitors. Typical German pride These Germans on this blog kill me. After all these years they still stick up for Hitler. Hitler was a madman and the Germans that tried to kill him that's who you should stick up for. Meanwhile the officers that tried get called traitors. Typical German pride

]]> By: Brandon http://www.historynet.com/why-no-poison-gas.htm#comment-781627 Brandon Fri, 18 Nov 2011 01:45:39 +0000 http://www.historynet.com/?p=13681721#comment-781627 So that proves the point right there the axis didn't use chemical weapons because they would have them used on them. That's the most logical answer. So that proves the point right there the axis didn't use chemical weapons because they would have them used on them. That's the most logical answer.

]]> By: The main reason of why Nazis lost the War??? - Page 4 http://www.historynet.com/why-no-poison-gas.htm#comment-780618 The main reason of why Nazis lost the War??? - Page 4 Sun, 06 Nov 2011 18:00:27 +0000 http://www.historynet.com/?p=13681721#comment-780618 [...] link to a very short article on the subject which was posted online in the WW2 Magazine. Goto: Why No Poison Gas? Happy Trails, Clint. Reply With [...] [...] link to a very short article on the subject which was posted online in the WW2 Magazine. Goto: Why No Poison Gas? Happy Trails, Clint. Reply With [...]

]]> By: sagesource http://www.historynet.com/why-no-poison-gas.htm#comment-454627 sagesource Sun, 06 Feb 2011 09:28:08 +0000 http://www.historynet.com/?p=13681721#comment-454627 That was mustard gas, a vesicant, or blistering agent. It has horrifying effects against unprotected victims (many of whom drown when huge blisters form and burst in their lungs), but is pretty useless against trained troops. My father was in World War I on a machine-gun crew with 3rd Division of the Canadian Army and he thought that gas was no more than a nuisance weapon, even though he went through some very heavy attacks. That was mustard gas, a vesicant, or blistering agent. It has horrifying effects against unprotected victims (many of whom drown when huge blisters form and burst in their lungs), but is pretty useless against trained troops. My father was in World War I on a machine-gun crew with 3rd Division of the Canadian Army and he thought that gas was no more than a nuisance weapon, even though he went through some very heavy attacks.

]]> By: sagesource http://www.historynet.com/why-no-poison-gas.htm#comment-454623 sagesource Sun, 06 Feb 2011 09:18:24 +0000 http://www.historynet.com/?p=13681721#comment-454623 The V-weapons did tie up very considerable amounts of Allied weapons in countering them -- shooting down V1s and attacking V1 and V2 launch sites. But the V-weapons could only be aimed in a very approximate way. They could not have been used to establish a useful concentration of gas in an area, and the V2, which hit at faster than the speed of sound, might not have been usable for gas delivery at all (unless you believe that gassing the English subsoil was a worthy endeavor). The V1, for its part, was a noisy beast that would have taken very few people by surprise and so would have been largely ineffective as a delivery means for gas. There was nothing the Germans could have done for themselves at that point in the war anyway. The failure to take Britain out virtually guaranteed their eventual loss, and the twin insanities of attacking the USSR and declaring war on the United States meant that the inevitable would come quickly rather than slowly. Gas wouldn't have done them any good. The V-weapons did tie up very considerable amounts of Allied weapons in countering them — shooting down V1s and attacking V1 and V2 launch sites. But the V-weapons could only be aimed in a very approximate way. They could not have been used to establish a useful concentration of gas in an area, and the V2, which hit at faster than the speed of sound, might not have been usable for gas delivery at all (unless you believe that gassing the English subsoil was a worthy endeavor). The V1, for its part, was a noisy beast that would have taken very few people by surprise and so would have been largely ineffective as a delivery means for gas.

There was nothing the Germans could have done for themselves at that point in the war anyway. The failure to take Britain out virtually guaranteed their eventual loss, and the twin insanities of attacking the USSR and declaring war on the United States meant that the inevitable would come quickly rather than slowly. Gas wouldn't have done them any good.

]]> By: sagesource http://www.historynet.com/why-no-poison-gas.htm#comment-454621 sagesource Sun, 06 Feb 2011 09:09:48 +0000 http://www.historynet.com/?p=13681721#comment-454621 The idea that Hitler was "eco-friendly" is a bad joke at best. He had a certain glutinous sentimentality about animals common among fascists, but that was about it. His lack of interest in atomic weaponry was driven not by love of the Earth but by his racism -- he thought that nuclear research was "Jewish science." On top of that, Speer sabotaged the German nuclear program by releasing German stocks of uranium to be used in anti-tank ammunition in place of tungsten (much as it is used today). Or perhaps "sabotaged" is a bad word. Speer was merely being realistic. Germany did not have nearly the industrial reserves needed to make an atom bomb -- at that point in time, such reserves could only be found in the United States. There would never have been a German atomic bomb under any circumstances whatsoever, and that fact has nothing to do with Hitler's presumed "greenness." The idea that Hitler was "eco-friendly" is a bad joke at best. He had a certain glutinous sentimentality about animals common among fascists, but that was about it. His lack of interest in atomic weaponry was driven not by love of the Earth but by his racism — he thought that nuclear research was "Jewish science." On top of that, Speer sabotaged the German nuclear program by releasing German stocks of uranium to be used in anti-tank ammunition in place of tungsten (much as it is used today). Or perhaps "sabotaged" is a bad word. Speer was merely being realistic. Germany did not have nearly the industrial reserves needed to make an atom bomb — at that point in time, such reserves could only be found in the United States. There would never have been a German atomic bomb under any circumstances whatsoever, and that fact has nothing to do with Hitler's presumed "greenness."

]]> By: sagesource http://www.historynet.com/why-no-poison-gas.htm#comment-454615 sagesource Sun, 06 Feb 2011 09:00:49 +0000 http://www.historynet.com/?p=13681721#comment-454615 One factor that I don't think has been mentioned is that the Germans had no idea how advanced their best gases were. They assumed that the Allies and Russians had more or less kept up with them and couldn't see what an exchange of nerve gases would do for them in a positive way. Churchill's fairly casual attitude towards gas as a weapon was undoubtedly influenced by his own experience with it. Don't forget that he had commanded troops on the ground in the First World War at a time he was out of the Cabinet. It would have appeared to him as just another weapon. Finally, there was a well-developed plan to use gas and biological warfare against Japan in the Pacific. This, incidentally, would have been perfectly legal since Japan had used both types of weapon against our ally China. One option if the atomic bombings had not been carried out was to starve out the Japanese home islands, gas fortified areas, and use biological agents to destroy food and industrial crops -- they even had viruses picked out to wipe out the Japanese tobacco harvest. The starvation part of the plan was happening anyway, as Allied aircraft destroyed all Japanese coastal shipping and ground communications, disrupting the production of food. At the end of the war, stockpiles of rice and projected harvests were running 14 million tons below even near-starvation levels of rationing. It is odd that blockade is sometimes advocated as a superior alternative to the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, since in all likelihood it would have resulted in millions of Japanese casualties by disease and starvation, and quite possibly the use of chemical and biological agents as well. One factor that I don't think has been mentioned is that the Germans had no idea how advanced their best gases were. They assumed that the Allies and Russians had more or less kept up with them and couldn't see what an exchange of nerve gases would do for them in a positive way.

Churchill's fairly casual attitude towards gas as a weapon was undoubtedly influenced by his own experience with it. Don't forget that he had commanded troops on the ground in the First World War at a time he was out of the Cabinet. It would have appeared to him as just another weapon.

Finally, there was a well-developed plan to use gas and biological warfare against Japan in the Pacific. This, incidentally, would have been perfectly legal since Japan had used both types of weapon against our ally China. One option if the atomic bombings had not been carried out was to starve out the Japanese home islands, gas fortified areas, and use biological agents to destroy food and industrial crops — they even had viruses picked out to wipe out the Japanese tobacco harvest. The starvation part of the plan was happening anyway, as Allied aircraft destroyed all Japanese coastal shipping and ground communications, disrupting the production of food. At the end of the war, stockpiles of rice and projected harvests were running 14 million tons below even near-starvation levels of rationing. It is odd that blockade is sometimes advocated as a superior alternative to the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, since in all likelihood it would have resulted in millions of Japanese casualties by disease and starvation, and quite possibly the use of chemical and biological agents as well.

]]> By: martin braun http://www.historynet.com/why-no-poison-gas.htm#comment-324733 martin braun Fri, 27 Aug 2010 03:20:16 +0000 http://www.historynet.com/?p=13681721#comment-324733 I am always surprised that so few people have read the most basic data about Hitler and what we now refer to as "weapons of mass destruction": poison gas, nerve agents and toxins, biological disease agents and nuclear weapons. The fact is that for all his aggressive faults; Adolf Hitler was a "green dictator" He had been exposed to a dose of poison gas during the great war and, though he recovered from it, it's horror and his feeling of total helplessneess induced by the very air he breathed turning traitor and trying to kill him, caused him to become temporarily blind. Upon his recovery and the war's end; hitler had become a vocal opponant of such horrible weapons. He considered them beneath the dignity of the German Volk and never wanted to be one who ordered the agony death of the gas attack on German soldiers. IOf this meant that Germans must deny themselves the use of these weapons to prevent their adoption by Germany's enemies; Gernans had better be tough enough to win their wars without the reliance on such unclean and unworthy tools of war. Similarly, he felt this way about the use of Bio weapons such as Anthrax and other disease weapons which were still in their infancy and were (and still are), difficult to control. As for why the Fuhrer refussed permission to create or seriously experiment with nuclear weapons, his eco-friendly side triumphed again. When told that the weapon might set the nitrogen in the Atmosphere on fire and destroy the entire planet, Hitler was flabbergasted and ,(I believe), outraged that anyone, German or English or American, could be so insane as to put the whole planet and all life at risk, just to see if a new weapon could be made! Hitler and all German policy then ceased to allow German scientists to study atomic power except at a low level, the Reich post office was in charge of the project by wars end. He,(Hitler), was so sure that no sane government among the allies would do similar research that it never seems to have entered his mind. Nevertheless, if there is one person who can be said to be responsible for ensuring that Germany and hence, the world, would not resort to use of poison gas , Biological weapons or nuclear arms, that person was Adolf Hitler. No other Allied leaders felt this way and the US supplied England with hundreds of thousands of doses of Anthrax to be dropped from bombers over Germany in the event that the Germans did so to England. Allied and German soldiers were all able to throw away their heavy Gas masks only because Adolf Hitler had decided before the war that Germany would not obtain a tainted victory by taking advantage of these inhuman and ultimately self defeating weapons.(The Japs used them in limited and experimental ways on the CHinese but not against the Allied troops , as a weapon of war. The nips did torture Allied POW's horribly and killed many using the most barbaric and infantile tortures. While Germans who were found to have tortured or systematically abused POW's were given trials and , if found guilty, were hanged. In Japan, however, the japs cut a deal with the USA and the red-scare in America made our new government willing to forget the horrors and cruelties which occurred during the war as a result of general Japanese racist sentiments and racialist propaganda that allowed that since Japanese,(not Germans) were the Master Race, that it was a legitimate way to punish the inferior Allied prisoners who, according to Japanese military practice, ought to have already killed themselves before they surrendered, and were thus already "dead". In Japanese "Bushido" or warrior's code, the soldier and all Japanese placed in the position of being near surrender to kill themselves first, preferably killing some enemy soldiers while dying as well. I am always surprised that so few people have read the most basic data about Hitler and what we now refer to as "weapons of mass destruction": poison gas, nerve agents and toxins, biological disease agents and nuclear weapons.
The fact is that for all his aggressive faults; Adolf Hitler was a "green dictator"
He had been exposed to a dose of poison gas during the great war and, though he recovered from it, it's horror and his feeling of total helplessneess induced by the very air he breathed turning traitor and trying to kill him, caused him to become temporarily blind. Upon his recovery and the war's end; hitler had become a vocal opponant of such horrible weapons. He considered them beneath the dignity of the German Volk and never wanted to be one who ordered the agony death of the gas attack on German soldiers. IOf this meant that Germans must deny themselves the use of these weapons to prevent their adoption by Germany's enemies; Gernans had better be tough enough to win their wars without the reliance on such unclean and unworthy tools of war. Similarly, he felt this way about the use of Bio weapons such as Anthrax and other disease weapons which were still in their infancy and were (and still are), difficult to control.
As for why the Fuhrer refussed permission to create or seriously experiment with nuclear weapons, his eco-friendly side triumphed again. When told that the weapon might set the nitrogen in the Atmosphere on fire and destroy the entire planet, Hitler was flabbergasted and ,(I believe), outraged that anyone, German or English or American, could be so insane as to put the whole planet and all life at risk, just to see if a new weapon could be made!
Hitler and all German policy then ceased to allow German scientists to study atomic power except at a low level, the Reich post office was in charge of the project by wars end.
He,(Hitler), was so sure that no sane government among the allies would do similar research that it never seems to have entered his mind.
Nevertheless, if there is one person who can be said to be responsible for ensuring that Germany and hence, the world, would not resort to use of poison gas , Biological weapons or nuclear arms, that person was Adolf Hitler.
No other Allied leaders felt this way and the US supplied England with hundreds of thousands of doses of Anthrax to be dropped from bombers over Germany in the event that the Germans did so to England.
Allied and German soldiers were all able to throw away their heavy Gas masks only because Adolf Hitler had decided before the war that Germany would not obtain a tainted victory by taking advantage of these inhuman and ultimately self defeating weapons.(The Japs used them in limited and experimental ways on the CHinese but not against the Allied troops , as a weapon of war.
The nips did torture Allied POW's horribly and killed many using the most barbaric and infantile tortures. While Germans who were found to have tortured or systematically abused POW's were given trials and , if found guilty, were hanged. In Japan, however, the japs cut a deal with the USA and the red-scare in America made our new government willing to forget the horrors and cruelties which occurred during the war as a result of general Japanese racist sentiments and racialist propaganda that allowed that since Japanese,(not Germans) were the Master Race, that it was a legitimate way to punish the inferior Allied prisoners who, according to Japanese military practice, ought to have already killed themselves before they surrendered, and were thus already "dead".
In Japanese "Bushido" or warrior's code, the soldier and all Japanese placed in the position of being near surrender to kill themselves first, preferably killing some enemy soldiers while dying as well.

]]> By: Rob http://www.historynet.com/why-no-poison-gas.htm#comment-289431 Rob Mon, 31 May 2010 21:53:25 +0000 http://www.historynet.com/?p=13681721#comment-289431 "And the greatest mass murder of all time, the "Judeocide" that most people refer to as the Holocaust." -- Umm, 13 million people died in the Holocaust including homosexuals, Romas, Poles, the handicapped, and dissidents. 6 million of the victims were Jews. Next time you speak on a topic, you should really know what you're talking about first. "And the greatest mass murder of all time, the "Judeocide" that most people refer to as the Holocaust." — Umm, 13 million people died in the Holocaust including homosexuals, Romas, Poles, the handicapped, and dissidents. 6 million of the victims were Jews. Next time you speak on a topic, you should really know what you're talking about first.

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