Spraying from the air

The "Powers that Be" in WW2 never forgot the use made of poison gas in WW1, so were determined to retain a retaliatory capacity in case Hitler started to use chemical weapons. At the Lakenheath Bombing range there were certainly two test occasions. The one in Jun 1941 involved Wellingtons from Feltwell - 3 each from 57 and 75 Squadron. The substance sprayed was glycerine-based and had the spraying characteristics of mustard gas.

In October 1943 there was another demonstration at Lakenheath which, if memory serves me, involved several types of aircraft including a Boston.

No doubt there were similar trials elsewhere

PNK;131633 wrote:

I don't know what the Geneva convention said but I doubt it was a law as such. I always thought chemical weapons were not used by either side for fear of retaliation. Does that sound familiar?

That sounds right, hence why I put illegal in inverted commas! Although I thought the Geneva Convention was technically international law?

I had always assumed that we would have readily used it in retaliation, but it does make you wonder what circumstances would have otherwise been deemed sufficient for us to have used it first... and then what the reaction would have been if we had?

Arcade wrote:

That sounds right, hence why I put illegal in inverted commas! Although I thought the Geneva Convention was technically international law?

I had always assumed that we would have readily used it in retaliation, but it does make you wonder what circumstances would have otherwise been deemed sufficient for us to have used it first... and then what the reaction would have been if we had?

I know this is Wikipedia, so all bets are off, but it's an interesting few lines:

Proposed use against German invasion

During World War II the British planned to use mustard gas and phosgene to help repel a German invasion in 1940-1941,[4][5] and had there been an invasion may have also deployed it against German cities.[6] General Brooke, in command of British anti-invasion preparations of World War II said that he "...had every intention of using sprayed mustard gas on the beaches" in an annotation in his diary.[7] The British manufactured Mustard, chlorine, lewisite, phosgene and Paris Green and stored it at airfields and depots for use on the beaches.[6]

Later plans[edit source]

The mustard gas stockpile was enlarged in 1942-1943 for possible use by Bomber Command against German cities, and in 1944 for possible retaliatory use if German forces used chemical weapons against the D-Day landings.[4]

Obviously the German's didn't use it, so there must have been a major retaliatory fear. Would we have been more hard nosed about it, especially once they were coming down the garden path?

Yes the use of chemical weapons is illegal under international law, not sure if the Geneva convention specifically deals with it or other conventions. But not all countries in wwii had actually signed and ratified the convention, I don't think Japan had. And slightly off topic, is CS gas classed as a chemical weapon?

canberra;131687 wrote:

Yes the use of chemical weapons is illegal under international law, not sure if the Geneva convention specifically deals with it or other conventions. But not all countries in wwii had actually signed and ratified the convention, I don't think Japan had. And slightly off topic, is CS gas classed as a chemical weapon?

It's an interesting one, I've always seen the careful use of "riot control agent" used for CS.

If they do class them as chemical weapons,I'll be sure to start slagging the RAF for using it on me every year in the chamber!

I've just read a couple of things about CS being illegal to use in warfare...seems the worry is the other side will come back with something nastier!

SJT1985;131686 wrote:

I know this is Wikipedia, so all bets are off, but it's an interesting few lines:

Obviously the German's didn't use it, so there must have been a major retaliatory fear. Would we have been more hard nosed about it, especially once they were coming down the garden path?

It's referenced so there must have have been some source...

But it still remains to be seen as to how the intentional community would have have looked upon it... both at the time, and in hindsight...

Hard to tell I guess, the world was at war, people would do what they needed to in order to survive I guess and both sides were expecting the other to use it...

In comparison to Stalin's and Hitler's atrocities against mankind into the millions, gassing an invasion party statistically probably wouldn't look too bad, especially to the allies and the people of Britain fighting to keep them out... Morally, though, I guess we end up like this Syrian situation where no-one cares about tens of thousands dead in conventional attacks, but 1400 dead by chemical is a whole different ball game...

I know it's not technically CW, but where did the world stand on the use of Napalm during WW2 and in Vietnam? It took until the 80s before the UN decided it was a bit too nasty for war...

Ive just looked on wiki and according to it napalm wasn't invented until 1943, and it was invented in the USA. Again according to wiki it was only used in Europe. The Geneva convention apparently says that the use of it against civilians is a war crime.

And on the subject of aerial spraying we had the Boscombe Down Hunter come to Cranwell one day and it sprayed the cadets on the north airfield.