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

Medical Aspects of Chemical Warfareand to break up any attempts at concentrating forces.“It is my opinion that of all the superior weaponspossessed by the Italians, mustard gas was the mosteffective,” Meade said. “It caused few deaths that Iobserved, but it temporarily incapacitated very largenumbers and so frightened the rest that the Ethiopianresistance broke completely.” 77(p20)Major General JFC Fuller, also assigned to the Italianarmy, highlighted the Italian use of mustard agent toprotect the flanks of columns by denying ridgelinesand other key areas to the Ethiopians. He said that “inplace of the laborious process of picketing the heights,the heights sprayed with gas were rendered unoccupiableby the enemy, save at the gravest risk. It was anexceedingly cunning use of this chemical.” 74(p143)Still another observer stated:I think [where mustard] had [the] most effect was onanimals; the majority of the Ethiopian armies consistedof a number of individual soldiers, each with hisdonkey or mule on which he carried rations. Thesedonkeys and mules ate the grass and it killed them,and it was that which really broke down morale morethan anything. 75(p81)BH Liddell Hart, another military expert, reconciledthe two schools of thought, concluding that “the factsof the campaign point unmistakably to the conclusionthat mechanization in the broad sense was the foundationon which the Italians’ military superiority wasbuilt, while aircraft, the machine gun, and mustard gasproved the decisive agents.” 76(p330)All observers seemed to agree that the Italian militarysuperiority would eventually have won, whetherchemical agents were used or not. In general, the USArmy learned little from this war. The CWS annualreport for 1937 stated that “situations involving theemployment of chemical agents have been introducedinto a greater number of problems.” 78 The CWS ChemicalWarfare School concluded that “the use of gas inEthiopia did not disclose any new chemical warfaretactics,” 79 but only reconfirmed existing tactical useexpectations. One senior Air Corps officer, perhaps notingItaly’s successful use of spray tanks, commented onthe school’s class for Army Air Corps personnel, “Wewant that course repeated again and again until all ofour people are thoroughly awake to the necessity fortraining and preparation.” 80(p153)Japanese Invasion of ChinaThe next war that drew the interest of chemicalwarfare experts began when the Japanese invadedChina in 1937. In addition to their biological warfareprogram, the Japanese had an extensive chemicalweapons program and produced agent and munitionsin large numbers by the late 1930s. During the war withChina, Japanese forces reportedly began using chemicalshells, tear gas grenades, and lacrimatory candles,often mixed with smoke screens. By 1939 the Japanesehad reportedly escalated to using mustard agent andlewisite. The weapons proved effective against theuntrained and unequipped Chinese troops. The Chinesereported that their troops retreated wheneverthe Japanese used smoke, thinking it was a chemicalattack. 53,81Organophosphorus CompoundsAfter the Italian-Ethiopian War, the possibility ofwar in Europe became the primary concern of the USArmy. The CWS closely studied the chemical warfarecapabilities of Germany and Italy, but it clearlyoverlooked the secret German development of nerveagents. Although largely isolationist in policy, theUnited States began gradually increasing its militaryposture because of the deteriorating political situationin Europe. Official policy, however, remained againstthe employment of chemical warfare, and initially theCWS met with much resistance. Public opinion continuedto be solidly opposed to any chemical weaponuse, and President Franklin D Roosevelt refused topermit the redesignation of the CWS as a “corps” in1937. The US Army chief of staff finally approved twoCWS battalions just before the beginning of WorldWar II. 59While Italy and Japan employed conventionalchemical weapons during their respective invasions,Germany pioneered new chemical warfare technologythrough the development of nerve agents. The historyof nerve agent development had its roots with the Calabarbean, used initially as an ordeal poison in witchcrafttrials by African tribal peoples, 82–84 and later usedmedicinally. 85 By 1864 the active compound, isolatedby Jobst and Hesse, was termed “physostigmine.” 82This is the earliest use of a substance that works like anerve agent through inhibition of the enzyme cholinesterase.Physostigmine, a member of the carbamateclass of reversible cholinesterase inhibitors, was separatelyisolated in 1865 by Vee and Leven and called“eserine.” 82The first organophosphorus (OP) cholinesterase inhibitorwas tetraethyl pyrophosphate, synthesized byWurtz and tested by Clermont in 1854. 86 Later chemistsmade contributions to the science of OP compounds, 87–90but the toxic nature of such compounds was unrealizeduntil the 1930s, when an investigation into both46