Preface 1 Historical Precedents?
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Notes Preface 1. www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/1984/ARW.htm, p. 3. 2. Fritz Haber, Nobel Acceptance Speech, www.nobel/prizes/1919.htm. 3. Victor Lefebure, The Riddle of the Rhine, London (1919), p. 2. 4. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), The Problems of Chemical and Biological Warfare, Vol. 1, Stockholm (1971), p. 50. 5. Matthew Meselson, ‘The Yemen’, in Stephen Rose (ed.), Chemical and Biological Warfare, George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd, London (1968), p. 101. 6. SIPRI, op. cit., Vol. 1, p. 44. 7. J. Perry Robinson et al., World Health Organisation Guidance, Geneva (2004). 8. J.J. Pershing, Final Report of General John Pershing, US Government Printing Office: Washington DC (1920), p. 77. 1 Historical precedents? 1. http://www.un.org. 2. SIPRI, Vol. 1, p. 25. 3. Edgewood Arsenal, ‘Status Summary of the Relative Values of AC, CK and CG as Bomb Fillings’, Project co-ordination Staff Report No. 1 (10 July 1944). 4. J.R. Wood, ‘Chemical Warfare – A Chemical and Toxicological Review’, American Journal of Public Health, 34 (1946), pp. 455–460. 5. Anon., ‘BC Stridsmedel’, Forsvarets Forkninganstalt, No. 2 (1964). 6. For a fuller discussion of Britain’s discovery of VX see, Caitriona McLeish, ‘The Governance of Dual-Use Technologies in Chemical Warfare’, MSc Dissertation, SPRU, University of Sussex (1997), especially pp. 50–58. 7. The 12th Earl of Dundonald, My Army Life, London: Arnold (1926), p. 330. 8. See Studies, G.B. Grundy (1911, 1948); J.H. Finlay (1942) and A.W. Gomme (1945). 9. Von Senfftenberg, Von Allerei Kriegsgewehr und Geschütz (mid-Sixteenth Century), source located in British Library, London. 10. A chemical weapon is the agent and the projectile; the chemical itself is referred to as a chemical warfare agent. 11. SIPRI, Vol. 11, p. 126. 12. Dundonald, Army, op. cit., p. 147. 13. Ibid., p. 153. 14. Ibid., p. 54. 15. http://www.tripod.com/Napchemxxx.htm. 16. Ibid. 17. Dundonald, Army, op. cit., p. 279. 18. Radhika Lexman, ‘Understanding the Threat’, Kuwait Samacher (2003). 19. http://www.stpetersburg/text/htm. 165 166 Notes 20. Alden H. Waitt, Gas Warfare. The Chemical Weapon. Its Use and Protection Against It, New York: Duell, Sloane & Pearce (1942), pp. 7–11. 21. The Hague Declaration, Clause IV/2. 22. Waitt, Gas, op. cit., pp. 12–13. 2 The First World War 1. Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est (It is a wonderful and great honour to die for your country). Reproduced in full in, David Roberts, Minds at War, Saxon Books (1996). 2. From the diary of Lance-Corporal A. Barclay, 1/1st Ayrshire Yeomanry, kindly loaned to the author by Jonathan Menhinick. 3. www.imperialservices.org.co.uk/military_tactics/html. 4. Nature (12 January 1922). 5. In First World War terms, chemical warfare included not only gas, but liquid flammable material, thermite and smoke. Chapter 2 only deals with what participants referred to as chemicals, gases or war gases. These included real gases such as phosgene and chlorine and also weapons that, while referred to as gases, were in fact vaporised liquids – mustard gas for example – or finely ground solids. 6. Geoffrey Regan, ‘Blue on Blue’, The Historian, www.thehistorian.co.uk. 7. SIPRI, Vol. 1, p. 125. 8. Ibid., p. 126. 9. For a detailed discussion of this shell type see, Anon., Army and Navy Journal (8 May 1915), p. 1141. 10. T-Stoff was a mixture of brominated aromatics including xylyl bromide, xylylene bromide and benzyl bromide. All these compounds are extreme irritants capable of severely limiting the effectiveness of unprotected troops. 11. Eric von Ludendorff, War Memories, Berlin (1919). 12. The interesting point about Haber’s work on chemical warfare is that he did it on his own initiative. In fact, he approached the German military at the end of 1914 to sell them on poison gas, but the military had no great respect for scientists and poison gas seemed ‘unsporting anyway’. 13. Chemical Trade Journal, 65, No. 1677 (1919), p. 37. 14. H. Schwarte, Die Technik Im Weltkrieg, Berlin: Mittler (1920), p. 74. 15. SIPRI, Vol. 11, Chapter 1. 16. Rudolf Hanslian, Der deutsche Gasangriff bei Ypern am 22 April 1915, Berlin: Verlag Gasschultz und Luftschutz (1934), pp. 10–12. 17. PRO, WO 158/815, Chlorine Gas (June 1915). 18. Elmer Cotton in Malcolm Brown, Tommy Goes to War, J.M. Dent & Sons (1978), p. 170. 19. PRO, 30/57/80, SUPP 10/92, Reports on the use of Poison Gas (1918). 20. Hanslian, op. cit., p. 64. 21. www.users.globalnet.co.uk/dccfarr/gas.htm. 22. Hanslian, op. cit., p. 186. 23. Sir J.E. Edmonds, Military Operations: France and Belgium, London, Vol. iii (1927), pp. 163–164. Notes 167 24. On 17 December 1932 Auguste Jaeger was tried at Liepzig on charges of desertion and betraying German plans to the enemy. He was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. 25. Militärarchiv der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (MA), W31.60/2021 (June 1915). 26. Victor Lefebure, The Riddle of the Rhine, op. cit. 27. Hanslian, Der Chemische Krieg, op. cit., 2nd edn (1927). 28. Rudolf Hanslian, Gasangriffe, op. cit. 29. W.G. McPherson et al. [Official] History of the Great War: Medical Services, Vol. 2, ‘Diseases of the War’, London (1923). 30. Hanslian, Der Deutsche Gasangriff, op. cit. 31. C.H. Foulkes, Gas! The Story of the Special Brigade, London (1936). 32. Hanslian, Der Deutsche Gasangriff, op. cit. 33. New York Tribune (26 April 1915). 34. New York Tribune (27 April 1915). 35. Hansard (Lords) 208 (11 June 1915). 36. MA, W31.60/2021 ( June 1915); PRO, WO 32/5169, Operations: General Code 46 (A) ( June 1915). 37. PRO, WO 32/5169, Operations: General Code 46 (B) (June 1915). 38. PRO, WO 32/5173, Engineers Code 14 (E): Formation of special poison gas companies, Royal Engineers (1915). The special gas companies were later to evolve into the Royal Engineers Special Brigade. 39. PRO, WO 142/265, The Royal Engineers Experimental Station, Porton (1919). 40. LHMA, FOULKES 6/37, Establishment of Central Laboratory, Helfaut (1915). 41. C.B. Carter, Porton Down: 75 Years of Chemical and Biological Research, London: HMSO (1992), p. 10. 42. PRO, WO 32/595, Casualties caused by poison gas in British Forces 1915–1918 (1918–1919). 43. German Sixth Army War Diary, Extracts in Rudolf Hanslian, Der Chemische Krieg, Berlin: E.S. Mittler und Sohn (1927), pp. 86–98. 44. Regan, op. cit., p. 5. 45. When the Ministry of Munitions was established in Britain in June 1915 the production of high-explosive shells were 92 per cent in arrears. Throughout the First World War this arrears was never rectified. 46. LHMA, FOULKES 6/6, Papers relating to the Battle of Loos on 25 September 1915 and ‘Sir John French’s Dispatch’ (15 October 1915). 47. The development of mustard gas resulted from pure scientific investigation from as early as 1860. Victor Meyer, a German chemist, described the substance in 1884, indicating its skin blistering effects. There is some evidence of further investigation in German laboratories in 1913, and whatever motive for this work, we know that mustard gas must have received the early attention of the German War Office, for it was approved and was in production early in 1917. 48. PRO, WO 32/5176, Report on Mustard Gas attack by Germany (1917); PRO, WO 106/148, Reports on Mustard Gas (April 1917 to September 1919). 49. See Table 2.2. 168 Notes 50. PRO, WO 32/5177, Laws of War: Code 55 (E), Threat of use of new poison gas shells (1918–1919); PRO, MUN 4/1684, Gun ammunition filling (2 May 1918). 51. T. Watkins, J.C. Cackett and R.G. Hall, Chemicals, Pyrotechnics and the Fireworks Industry, Oxford: Permagon Press (1968), p. 9. 52. Ibid., p. 10. 53. Ulrich Miller-Kiel, Die Chemischer Waffe im Weltkrieg und Jetzt, Berlin: Verlag Chemie (1932), p. 49. 54. PRO, WO 142/71, WO 142/72, Chemical War Committee Minutes 77–112 (23 October 1917 to 28 March 1919); WO 188/114, Chemical Warfare – Germany (1918–1922). 55. PRO, MUN 4/2735, Chemicals and their use by German and British armies (10 August 1917). 56. Hanslian, Chemische, op. cit., pp. 48–49. It is interesting to note that as early as 1887 Professor Bayer, a renowned organic chemist, in his lectures at the University of Munich, included a reference to the military value of lachrymators. 57. Ibid., p. 50. 58. Ibid., p. 75. 59. Pierre Berton, Vimy, Toronto: McClelland & Stewart (1986), p. 115. 60. LHMA, FOULKES 6/5, Papers relating to the Livens Projector (1915–1921). 61. Hanslian, Chemische, op. cit., p. 107. 62. Major Charles E. Heller, USAR, Chemical Warfare in World War I: The American Experience, 1917–1918, Combined Arms Research Library, Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, Leavenworth Papers (hereafter cited as Leavenworth Papers), No. 10, p. 17. 63. Ibid., p. 18. 64. Ibid., p. 17. 65. LHMA, FOULKES 6/45, Official evidence complied from Germany of the results of British gas attacks (1918–1920). 66. Leavenworth Papers, No. 10, p. 20. 67. PRO, WO 142/71–72, Chemical Warfare Committee Minutes (27 October 1917 to 28 March 1919) 68. Hanslian, Chemische, op. cit., p. 45. 69. A.M. Prentiss, Chemicals in War: A Treatise on Chemical Warfare, New York: McGraw-Hill (1937), p. 58. 70. MA, W31.60/20. 71. Haber, Poisonous Cloud, op. cit., p. 165. 72. For more information on German casualty figures see, W.G. Macpherson et al. [Official] History of The Great War: Medical Services: Diseases of the War, London (1923), Vol. 2, especially Chapter 9.