In concentration camps, Zyklon B was used to kill millions of people. Some military leaders were eager to deploy their nerve weapons “on a very big scale against the enemy hinterland by air raids” from the start of WWII, according to German Colonel Hermann Ochsner in 1939.
In Germany, what kind of gas was used?
During the Holocaust, the Nazis began utilizing Zyklon B as a favoured killing method in extermination centers as early as 1942. It was used to murder 1.1 million people in gas chambers at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, and other concentration camps. The majority of the victims were Jews, and Auschwitz was the site of the vast majority of these atrocities. Zyklon B was supplied to Mauthausen, Dachau, and Buchenwald by distributor Heli, and Auschwitz and Majdanek by Testa; camps also purchased it directly from the manufacturers on occasion. Concentration camps received 56 tonnes of the 729 tonnes sold in Germany in 194244, accounting for nearly 8% of total domestic sales. 23.8 tonnes were delivered to Auschwitz, with 6 tonnes being utilized for fumigation. The rest was either used in the gas chambers or spoiled (the product had a stated shelf life of only three months). Testa performed fumigations and provided Zyklon B to the Wehrmacht. They also taught the SS how to handle and use the substance safely for fumigation purposes. The SS was designated as an authorized applier of the chemical by the German agriculture and interior ministries in April 1941, which meant they could use it without further training or government inspection.
What is the reason behind the prohibition on mustard gas?
The world’s military powers were concerned that future battles might be determined as much by chemistry as by artillery, so they signed a treaty in 1899 called the Hague Convention prohibiting the employment of poison-laden bullets “whose main purpose is the dissemination of asphyxiating or deleterious gases.”
Despite this, both the Allies and the Central Powers used poisonous gasses to incapacitate the enemy or at least instill terror in their hearts from the commencement of World War I. After several failed attempts by the French and German armies to employ tear gas and other irritants in battle, the Germans launched the first effective gas attack against the British on April 22, 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres.
Why wasn’t poison gas used in World War II?
Millions of Jews, Slavs, and other victims were gassed with carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide during the Holocaust, a genocide conducted by Nazi Germany (including Zyklon B). This is still the deadliest poison gas attack in history. Despite maintaining an active chemical weapons program in which the Nazis used concentration camp prisoners as forced labor to secretly manufacture tabun, a nerve gas, and experimented on concentration camp victims to test the gas’s effects, the Nazis did not use chemical weapons extensively in combat, at least not against the Western Allies. IG Farben’s Otto Ambros served as the Nazis’ leading chemical-weapons expert.
The Nazis’ choice to avoid using chemical weapons on the battlefield has been linked to a lack of technical ability in the German chemical weapons program and fears of Allied retaliation with chemical weapons of their own. It’s also been said that it arose from Adolf Hitler’s personal experiences as a soldier in Kaiser Wilhelm II’s army during World War I, where he was gassed by British troops in 1918. Following the Battle of Stalingrad, Joseph Goebbels, Robert Ley, and Martin Bormann lobbied Hitler to allow the use of tabun and other chemical weapons to stifle the Soviet advance. However, during a meeting in the Wolf’s Lair in May 1943, Ambros informed Hitler that Germany had 45,000 tons of chemical gas on hand, but that the Allies undoubtedly had many more. “Fearing that some rogue officer might use them and provoke Allied reprisal, he ordered that no chemical weapons be carried to the Russian front,” Hitler responded by abruptly departing the meeting and ordering the production of tabun and sarin to be doubled. “For the same reason that Hitler had ordered them pulled from the Russian frontthey feared that local commanders would use them and trigger Allied chemical retaliation,” the Germans moved quickly to remove or destroy both German and Italian chemical-weapon stockpiles after the Allied invasion of Italy.
In his book Of Spies and Stratagems, Stanley P. Lovell, deputy director for Research and Development at the Office of Strategic Services, claims that the Allies were aware that the Germans had large supplies of Gas Blau available for deployment in the defense of the Atlantic Wall. The use of nerve gas on the Normandy beachhead would have hampered the Allies significantly and maybe caused the invasion to fail entirely. He proposed that the question “Why was nerve gas not used in Normandy?” be asked of Hermann Gring during his postwar interrogation. Gring explained that the Wehrmacht relied on horse-drawn transport to deliver supplies to its fighting divisions, and that they had never been able to design a gas mask that horses could bear; the ones they developed would not allow the horses to pull a cart. As a result, under most circumstances, gas was of no service to the German Army.
In violation of the 1925 Geneva Protocol, the Nazis employed chemical weapons in warfare on multiple occasions around the Black Sea, most notably in Sevastopol, where they deployed toxic fog to force Russian resistance fighters out of caverns beneath the city. In November 1941, after capturing Odessa, the Nazis used asphyxiating gas in the catacombs of the city, and in late May 1942, during the Battle of the Kerch Peninsula in eastern Crimea. The latter incident, according to Victor Israelyan, a Soviet envoy, was carried out by the Wehrmacht’s Chemical Forces and arranged by a special detail of SS men with the assistance of a field engineer unit. In June 1942, General Ochsner of the Chemical Forces reported to German leadership that a chemical unit had participated in the combat. Approximately 3,000 Red Army soldiers and Soviet civilians were besieged in a system of caverns and tunnels in the neighboring Adzhimushkay quarry after the conflict in mid-May 1942. “Poison gas was pumped into the tunnels, killing all but a few score of the Soviet defenders after they had held out for around three months.” Thousands of people were killed by asphyxiation from gas in the Adzhimushkay area, according to reports.
“Russians may have to be wiped out of the mountain range using gas,” German troops in Kuban received a telegram in February 1943. Two wagons of poison antidotes were also sent to the troops.
What is the odor of nerve gas?
- Sarin, a nerve agent, is a chemical warfare agent created by humans. Nerve agents are the most poisonous and fast-acting of the chemical warfare weapons currently in use. They act similarly to some types of insecticides (insect killers) known as organophosphates in terms of how they work and the harm they inflict. Nerve agents, on the other hand, are far more powerful than organophosphate pesticides.
- Sarin was first created as a pesticide in Germany in 1938.
- In its purest form, sarin is a clear, colorless, and tasteless liquid with no odor. Sarin, on the other hand, can evaporate into a vapor (gas) and then disseminate across the environment.
- GB is another name for sarin.
Who invented Zyklon?
It has been suggested that the discoveries of one bright German chemist are responsible for the existence of two out of every five persons on the world today. This is the same chemist who is now being called a “murderer” by young German students.
Is it lawful to use flamethrowers in battle?
A flamethrower is a long-range incendiary device that shoots a programmable jet of fire. Flamethrowers were first used by the Byzantine Empire in the 7th century AD, and were later used in World War I and World War II as a tactical siege weapon against fortifications.
Most military flamethrowers use liquid fuel, usually gasoline or diesel, but commercial flamethrowers are usually blowtorches that use gaseous fuels like propane; gases are safer in peacetime applications because their flames have a lower mass flow rate, dissipate faster, and are often easier to extinguish when needed.
The Protocol on Incendiary Weapons prohibits the military from using flamethrowers.
Aside from military applications, flamethrowers have civilian uses when controlled burning is required, such as sugarcane harvesting and other land-management chores. Some forms are designed to be carried by an operator, while others are mounted on vehicles.
Do you think you’ll be able to withstand mustard gas?
Mustard gas exposure is rarely fatal, and most patients recover from their symptoms within a few weeks. Some, on the other hand, are permanently disfigured or blinded as a result of chemical burns. Others get life-threatening respiratory illnesses or infections. In addition, because mustard gas destroys the DNA in human cells, survivors are more likely to develop certain malignancies. Pregnant women who are exposed to the gas have a higher chance of giving birth to a child with birth abnormalities or cancer.
Is napalm prohibited?
Although the United Nations outlawed the use of napalm against civilian targets in 1980, it is still used in various wars throughout the world.
While original napalm is no longer widely used, contemporary variations are, allowing certain countries to claim that they do not use “napalm.”
Online instructions for making homemade napalm exist, which entice some people to attempt to make their own napalm for both mundane and nefarious purposes; this generally involves heating a flammable substance such as gasoline or kerosene and then slowly mixing in various gelatinizing agents such as soap. When doing this over an open flame, the entire concoction may accidently ignite, resulting in severe burns.
