Matrix Games Forums

Something Ive been wondering about is why Hitler never resorted to using chemical warfare.

Also if Hitlers minions had stumbled across LSD (as Albert Hoffman had discovered it prior to WW2) maybe it would have turned the Eastern Front around.

The common belief is that he was injured in WW1.. and why ask about gas when they discovered the first Nerve agent.. VERY deadly

Well, it´s written that due to his WW1 experiences he condemmend the use of gas in combat, true or not it didn´t stop him to use it on innocent civilians.

Good point Marc, Hitler was crazy not stupid, and we should all be thankful that a wmd that rivaled the atom bomb was not used..

Greg Iles wrote a good novel called Black Cross that discussed why the Nazis did not use chemical weapons... they did develop Sarin and several other very nasy chemicals - but did not use them for fear of retaliation...

The genral belief was that the British and the US has the same level of very deadly agents and to unleash them on the battlefield would only lead to massive deaths for both sides. Additionally, while the Germans had developed Sarin and others, they were still working on methods of keeping the gas stable enough to last on the battlefield - so they were still working out the kinks, so to speak...

Finally, Himmler was a much bigger supporter of these weapons than Hitler. From chemical to the fleldgling nuclear program, most of the effort to support them came from Himmler, and not Hitler.
Hitler was very focused on wonder weapons himself, but he seemed to have his favorites, not the entire range to include the chemicals...

And last - there is some evidence to believe that Hitler didn't want to use them as well due to his personal experiences with the weapons during WWI.

To add to diesel's (correct but short) evaluation, the Germans launched into a big research effort to reestablish their chemical industry in the 1920s, initially working in the Soviet Union because the Versailles treaty forbid them to do research IN GERMANY. In the 1930s, they decided they didn't trust the Sovs and blew off the treaty, developing tabun (1936) and sarin (1938). Soman came in 1944. Because they were so limited in research material and the western allies had unlimited resources and time, the Germans assumed the US/UK militaries already had nerve agents but weren't publicizing it. All sides had extensive research and development into delivery systems and defensive countermeasures. For instance, US invented the 4.2 in mortar for chem, smoke, and HE munitions. The Nebelwerfer was designed to propell chem warfare munitions as well as smoke and HE.

The Brits and Germans both thought seriously about chem warfare, but neither wanted the war to revert to a WW I-trench warfare stalemate (esp. Germany and its reliance on a limited number of sea ports). Germans seriously thought about using chem warfare at the siege of Leningrad but the logistics priority was to conventional ammunition and moving Jews around. Sovs may have used tularemia against the Germans around Stalingrad, but not very effectively. British kept mustard agent around in case the Germans invaded Great Britian (Churchill - BIG proponent for gas warfare). By mid 1944, with the west having total control of the skies, Germans knew that if they used chem on the Normandy beaches, the US/UK retaliatory strike on the cities would be immense and not worth it (and indeed the US/UK retaliatory strike was waiting, with anthrax and mustard and phosgene bombs).

US govt seriously thought about chem when they saw the casualty numbers at Iwo Jima, Guam, etc., and planned to use it on Japan in Opn Olympic - invasion of the Japanese islands. But FDR was too much of a pussy and wouldn't let McArthur gas them back to the Stone Age!! (appologies, Rodney Dangerfield took over my body).[8D]

All this is evidence that Gary's World at War game should include CB warfare options!!![;)]