Bleach Bath question

Is there any particular reason why Airborne Soldiers would require a bleach bath?

I have found a sign saying this and suspect it may have something to do with parachures but not sure.:confused:

ww2ni;44090 wrote:

Is there any particular reason why Airborne Soldiers would require a bleach bath?

I have found a sign saying this and suspect it may have something to do with parachures but not sure.:confused:

Bleach was/is/can be used to decontaminate clothing, equipment etc following exposure to some chemical agents. Is your sign at all connected with a gas decontamination block?

Thats what I was going to say. In the UK it was called bleach slurry, basically used to decontaminate vehicles, and I think aircraft. But isnt bleach corrosive?

Hi,

I found the sign in an out-building at Killymoon Castle at Cookstown which was a base used by 82nd Airborne during the Second World War prior to D-Day.

I will get it downloaded and put on the site.

canberra;44106 wrote:

Thats what I was going to say. In the UK it was called bleach slurry, basically used to decontaminate vehicles, and I think aircraft. But isnt bleach corrosive?

Used at a pH of less than 10 and washed off immeadiately, probably not that corrosive

kebecker;44117 wrote:

Used at a pH of less than 10 and washed off immeadiately, probably not that corrosive

Google it and you'll find that large numbers of females use it regularly for hair modification in one way or another !

Hair bleach is usually a solution of Hydrogen Peroxide,(once used as torpedo fuel oxidant!) but the bleach used for mustard gas contamination was (is) Sodium Hypochlorate although I accept that some household products contain a mix of both. The latter was mixed with kaolin - China Clay - (I think to form a paste applied to the body and then showered off. Clothes were discarded and collected for separate decontamination by washing.

Vehicle decontamination sounds right as there is an inspection ramp nearby so I am guessing this was an MT Section.

I think that bleach slurry might be a different compound to what waqs used in wwii. Did they really worry that much about gas in wwii?

Yes, or Decontamination Centres and the UKs own production, storage and filling facilities for deterrent CW (Mustard) would not have been built.

Fortunately, perhaps because he himself was a WW1 victim of gas - Hitler never ordered the use of the CW in the German inventory which is just as well because the had Nerve agents too which the Allies knew nothing about.

Also, respirators (gas masks) were standard issue to both military and civilians earlier in the war.