Feb. 8, 1943

Dear Mother,
          I received your letter today. Was
kinda surprise to hear from you so early
in the week. I also got one from Luella. I guess
she was kinda burned up about not hearing
from me. So I have written to her tonight.
I really have been busy and my last letter
to her must have got lost. I wrote about
two weeks ago.
          This week I am in gas school. We
learn about all kinds of gas attacks and
everything about gas masks. This is all training.
          My shots I received made me sick last
week. I receive two more this Wed. So I
guess I will be healthy after I get all of
them. I feel like a pin cushion all ready.
          Everybod thing is about the same otherwise.


          Eat, work drill and sleep. I met Cliff Pifer
in S.A. yesterday afternoon. Gee he has changed.
He has gained 30 lbs since Oct when he
came in the army. I was surprised to meet
him. Irene had just written that he was in
Texas somewhere near S.A. so I knew it but
he is the first one from down home I have
met. It really seemed good.
          I went to church yesterday had a real
nice service and comunion.
          Well I guess this is about all for this
letter. Please write soon. It makes time go
faster when I receive a lot of letters.
                                     Love Ralph.


The next letter will be posted on Feb. 15th.

Background Information (and comments):

• For more information about gas attacks (or lack of them during WWII), I found the following on these 3 websites: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-two/poison-gas-and-world-war-two/  www.toxipedia.org/display/toxipedia/Chemical+Weapons and rense.com/general83/gas.htm

Poison Gas and World War Two

Citation: C N Trueman "Poison Gas And World War Two"
historylearningsite.co.uk. The History Learning Site, 6 Mar 2015. 16 Dec 2015.

The use of poison gas in World War Two was a very real fear. Poison gas had been used in World War Oneand many expected that it would be used in World War Two. As a result people in Britain were issued withgas masks and gas mask drills became a routine.

The gases used in World War 1 were crude but effective. In fact, technically many of them were not gases but minute solid particles suspended in air like the spray from an aerosol can. Regardless of whether they were a true gas or not, they brought very great fear to the front line. By 1939, these gases had been refined and had the potential for being far more effective – just as fighter planes had markedly changed between 1918 and 1939, so it was believed was a military’s ability to deliver poison gas – and create new and more deadly versions.

The gases used to such effect in World War One were still potential weapons in World War Two. Mustard gas had been used by the Italians in their campaign in Abyssinia from 1935 to 1936. Chlorine was a potential weapon but it had been overtaken in effectiveness by diphosgene and carbonyl chloride. Both of these were choking gases that damaged the respiratory system. Tear gases were also available – a more potent version of it was Adamsite which not only causes the classic symptoms of tear gas but also causes respiratory problems, vomiting and general nausea.

Mustard gas blistered the skin causing extreme pain. It was also capable of soaking through material onto skin beneath a uniform. A more severe version of it was Lewisite which had the same effect on skin but also caused respiratory problems and pneumonia.

Far more deadly than these gases were cyanide, carbon monoxide and cyanogens chloride. All of these impede the ability of blood to absorb oxygen. Unable to gain oxygen, the body quickly shuts down. “Death is rapid, sure and relatively painless.” (Brian Ford)

Nerve gas was also available to governments in World War Two. One of the first to be developed was Tabun by German scientists. Nerve gases attack the body’s nervous system. The symptoms are nausea, vomiting, muscular twitching, convulsions, cessation of breathing and death. Sarin and Soman were also developed as nerve gases. Of the three nerve gases named here, Soman was the most deadly. From inhalation, it is only a matter of seconds before a victim goes into convulsions. The US Army Manual TM 3-215 estimated that a victim of Soman would be dead within two minutes.

There is no doubt that most protagonists in World War Two had stockpiles of poison gas. By 1945, the Germans had 7,000 tons of Sarin alone – enough to kill the occupants of 30 cities the size of Paris. The Americans also had sizeable quantities of poison gases stockpiled. Britain experimented with anthrax on remote Scottish islands to see its impact on the animal population there. All countries that possessed poison gas in any form also had the potential to deliver it on an enemy.

With such potency and the ability to change the course of a battle why wasn’t poison gas used – even as a last resource? It would appear certain that the fear of retaliation was the reason and the fear that the enemy may well have developed a poison gas more virulent that anything the other side had. So in a war whereatomic weapons were used, napalm, phosphorous, unrestricted submarine warfare etc, where civilians were seen by some as legitimate targets, no side was prepared to risk using a weapon that had been so feared inWorld War One.

World War II
Hitler's aversion to chemical weapons continued throughout the second World War. Against the wishes of many of his high commanders, Hitler wanted to use chemical weapons only in retaliation against a similar attack. However, he continued to push the German military to produce and stockpile weapons to ensure German superiority should the Allies commence chemical warfare (#Tucker, 2006).

• The Germans had a large head start on production, though they were not entirely convinced of this.Otto Ambros, a leading German chemist who had been instrumental in synthesizing Sarin, believed that the Allies had independently discovered some sort of nerve agent because of similar insecticidal research they were conducting prior to the war. Even if the Allies did not have it, Ambros felt that "in the event that Germany were to use this special gas, other countries would not only be able to imitate it quickly but could produce it in considerably larger quantities" (#Tucker, 2006). The immense production capabilities of the Allies and the fact that they had immense stockpiles of artillery and bombs with mustard and Phosgene in which to retaliate with provided a sufficient deterrent to the German use of chemical weapons.
  The Allies did not in fact have anything near the lethality of Tabun or Sarin. The closest compound the Allies could produce was DFP which could, at high doses, produce unconsciousness. The US Office of Scientific Research and Development and universities throughout the States synthesized over 200 Organophosphates including many with flourine yet none approached the toxicity of Tabunor Sarin (#Tucker, 2006). The British scientists at Porton Down discovered Tabun in 1944 after the army raided a building holding German munitions. They extracted the liquid, analyzed it, and tested it on laboratory rabbits amazed at its lethality.
  The only deliberate use of gas in World War II was extensive Mustard Gas use by the Japanese during their 1937 invasion of Manchuria. Some studies have claimed that more than 2,000 separate incidences of poison gas use in that campaign, though that number very well could be inflated (#Hutchinson, 2006). Numerous instances are recorded that either side in the European theater, the Allies or the Axis, were on the verge of using gas at some point but retreated.
  Chemical weapons were however used ubiquitously by the Nazis in concentration camps to kill Jews that were interned. Zyklon-B was developed by Haber as an insecticide to kill vermin but would later be used to kill Haber's own family members. It was first used at Auschwitz in the summer of 1941 where SS officers conducted experiments testing its lethality. In the upcoming years Zyklon-B would become the primary agent used in gas chambers at Auschwitz (#Tucker, 2006).

• Both the USA and Great Britain planned and meant to use gas during WWII. Germany as a consequence of the Versailles dictate of 1919, was forbidden to produce and import any kind of gas or liquids that could be used to produce such gasses, Article 171. The Reich kept strictly to the requirement of the Versailles dictate regarding chemical warfare equipment. Even the Weimar Republic kept to the dictate. During the Sea Disarmament Conference, 1921/22, in Washington, the following nations did not agree to gas or any chemical weapons being dangerous weapons: USA, England, France, Japan and Italy. The use of chemical weapons were discussed, but without an agreement being signed. At the start of WWII both sides had poisonous shells. Bombs with poison was not at hand in Germany. (2) "The use of gas was strictly forbidden in the Wehrmacht! Even the use of gas as answer to such bombs used against Germany needed Hitler's clearing. ... No use of chemical weapons could be used without Hitler's approval. Such weapons should only be stored inside Germany." (3) During the war Hitler refused many proposals by the General Staff to use poisonous gas against partisans on the Eastern Front (4). Hitler said "No!" He did not want such weapons used by the German Army at any front. Churchill's plans of using poison gas   In 1940 England had plans to use poisonous gas should Germany start an invasion of England. Sir john Dill, Chief of the British Empire General Staff, tried hard in a memorandum of June 18, 1940 to influence Churchill, even though neither Germany nor Italy had chemical weapons,, to start using such weapons.(8) On June 30, 1940 Prime Minister Churchill ordered General Ismay to prepare for use of chemical weapons. He said: "It is my intention not to wait too long before England shall use chemical weapons." (9) In his book on the war and esspecially regarding chemical warfare Günther W Gellermann writes: "Churchill has ready to use chemical weapons should Germany start an invation of England, even though such weapons could harm the British(10)." According to Gellermann this shows how callous Churchill was towards the people of England.   In April 1942, Churchill offered Stalin 1,000 tons of mustard gas. Stalin however did not want the gas, he wanted 5,000 tons of Chlorine (11), which he would use to produce his own chemical weapons.   On May 10, 1942 Churchill declared in a radio-speech that the reason for Germany's advances in Russia was because they used chemical weapons. Furthermore, he said: "We know the Huns, which is the reason why we are keeping up our afford and why we are building up our storage of chemical weapons. I would say that should Germany again attack our ally, Soviet, with more chemical weapons, then we will start using such gas in our attacks on German cities and towns." (12)