Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfare (2008) - The Black Vault

History of the Chemical ThreatIn 1937 Edgewood Arsenal rehabilitated its mustardagent plant and produced 154 tons of mustard agentto increase its stockpile. The same year, the phosgeneplant was renovated for additional production and theCWS changed phosgene from substitute standard tostandard chemical warfare agent. 14The confidence in these selected agents resulted inthe CWS overlooking the development of several keynew agents. In the same article quoted above, Waittwrote:Fig. 4-6. A complete Stokes mortar with ammunition andaccessories for firing.Photograph: Courtesy of Research, Development and EngineeringCommand Historical Research and Response Team,Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.like, will be so fruitful a field for casualties and forwearing down the morale of armies in the future thatit will certainly be done and done on the very firststroke of war. 10(p4–5)In response to this prediction, the CWS standardizedthe M1 30-lb chemical bomb, which held only about10 lb of agent because of its thick shell. 2 To test the useof airplanes in a chemical war, the CWS simulatedchemical attacks against battleships in 1921. 11 In 1928the CWS began stockpiling select chemical agents (seeChapter 2). 12The 1930sNew Chemical AgentsThe CWS continued to maintain stockpiles of thekey World War I chemical agents during the 1930s. In1935 Captain Alden H Waitt, then secretary of the USArmy Chemical Warfare School at Edgewood Arsenaland later chief chemical officer, summed up the CWS’splanning for the next war:Foreign writers agree that at least for the first fewmonths of any war, should one occur within a fewyears, the gases that were known at the end of theWorld War would be used. Of these, the opinion isunanimous that mustard gas would be the principalagent and the most valuable. Opinion in the UnitedStates coincides with this. 13(p285)Occasionally a statement appears in the newspapersthat a new gas has been discovered superior to anypreviously known. Such statements make good copy,but not one of them has ever been verified. Today nogases are known that are superior to those knownduring the World War. It is unlikely that informationabout a new gas will be obtained until it is used inwar. The chemical agent is too well adapted to secrecy.The only insurance against surprise by a newgas is painstaking research to find for ourselves everychemical agent that offers promise for offensiveor defensive uses. It seems fairly safe to say that todaymustard gas is still the king of warfare chemicalsand to base our tactical schemes on that agent as atype. 13(p285)However, the reign of mustard agent was alreadyending. In 1935 Kyle Ward, Jr, published an article describingnitrogen mustard, an odorless vesicant agent.The CWS investigated the substance, but found it lessvesicant than mustard. It was eventually standardizedas HN-1, and while the United States discounted it,Germany took a great interest in the new vesicant. 5Germany also developed tabun and sarin in the late1930s and began production of the new agents by thetime World War II began in 1939 (see chapter 2). 15,16New Chemical WeaponsIn preparation for a future war, the CWS continuedto stockpile chemical agents and weapons, primarilythe Livens projectors, Stokes mortars, and portablecylinders, as well as chemical shells for 75-mm, 105-mm, and 155-mm artillery pieces. The production ofthe new 4.2-in chemical mortar eventually made thatweapon the key ground delivery system for the CWS(Figures 4-7 and 4-8). Between 1928 and 1935 the Armyattempted to make the 4.2-in a mechanized weaponby mounting it on various vehicles. The CWS alsobegan experiments in 1934 to make the mortar a moreversatile weapon by testing high explosive shells as analternative to chemical rounds.The improved M1A1 mortar was standardized in1935. It had an improved barrel, an improved base-119