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Special Paint on the Hood of the World War II Jeep Could Detect Mustard Gas
- knolan 8y agoComing to Battlefield V one presumes.
- Bucephalus355 8y agoReading “The Hollow Years” about France in the 1930’s. As war seemed more and more likely from the mid-1930's onward, a lot was talked about the possible merger of chemical warfare and new airplane technology. A particularly haunting line the author cites from a contemporary historian talked about how “a few dozen bombers can spread enough gas to push over all of Paris a tsunami of mustard gas 100 feet high and 50 miles wide”. Probably not true, but interesting how they merged threats old and new.
- brownbat 8y agoH G Wells wrote in 1933 that submarines armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles loaded with some kind of chemical weapons would be a dominant factor in shaping future conflicts. He also predicted the international post service would take over the world and enforce universal basic English as the global standard language, so... some good ones, some bad. Still, the sub warfare bit was very prescient.
- lostlogin 8y agoIt’s interesting what wasn’t imagined given that the war ended with 2 planes levelling 2 cities as well as killing the inhabitants.
- aaron695 8y agoThey were more like towns by today's standards and were not leveled. Go visit when you can. http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/MED/med_chp10.shtml http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/MED/med_chp10.shtml I kinda get the point, but even today's nukes aren't scary. Outside of Hollywood a nuke war would be a blip in our history.
- megaman22 8y agoThere is a lot of startling military theory from the interwar years. Fortunately, the second go-round played out pretty convetionally.
- IAmGraydon 8y agoDoesn’t human eyes and skin serve as a more immediate detector than a color changing star? Surely you would start feeling the effects of a liquid chemical weapon attack before your magic mustard star would have time to change color.
- mikeash 8y agoFrom the article: > ...agents like mustard gas, which have a characteristic odor, tend to dull a victim’s sense of smell “after only a few breaths so that the smell can no longer be distinguished.” In addition, the implementing body of the Chemical Weapons Convention states, respiratory damage can occur in the presence of even tiny, unsmellable concentrations of the agent.
- philipkglass 8y agoNo, chemical tests can detect mustard gas much faster than human senses. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/emergencyresponsecard_29750008.html https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/emergencyresponsecard_29750... Sulfur mustard damages cells within minutes of contact; however, the onset of pain and other health effects is delayed until hours after exposure.
- jeromegv 8y agoThe article make it sounds like the Germans were the ones known to use chemical weapons during the WW1. Both sides used it quite extensively, this wasn't just the German. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapons_in_World_War_I https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapons_in_World_War_...
- rflrob 8y agoI agree the article is misleadingly written, but presumably the Allies in WWII knew they had no plans to use mustard gas in the immediate future, whereas the enemy could not be relied upon to abstain.
- arrosenberg 8y agoThey did use it first, however. Seems reasonable that the Allies would think they might do it again.
- poulsbohemian 8y agoHistory is written by the victors. How else do you maintain the moral authority but by portraying your enemy as lacking?
- curtis 8y agoThe United States had mustard gas munitions in the European theater in case they needed to retaliate against a first use of chemical weapons by the Germans. In 1943 the Germans launched a successful air raid on the port of Bari, Italy [1]. One of the ships destroyed in this attack was a U.S. freighter carrying mustard gas munitions. Many allied servicemen and Italian civilians were exposed to mustard gas in this attack, and their treatment was impaired because the military command absolutely did not want to reveal the presence of chemical agents to the Germans in fear that the Germans might use that as a justification for using their own chemical weapons. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raid_on_Bari https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raid_on_Bari
- dingaling 8y ago> "after looking at blue British detector paint in the early 1940s" It is odd that the article doesn't delve into that point more. In the early stages of the war, actually from mid-1938 onwards, British aircraft and vehicles had 'gas detector' panels which were squares paper soaked in the detection paint and taped-on. It was usually yellowish with one on the wing or the fuselage-spine of aircraft: https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/attachments/a380efa1d53530a5-jpg.428273/ https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/attachments/a380efa1d53530a5-j... Those fell out of use from late 1940 due to the low risk of gas attack and production ended in 1943. Just as the USA was starting production of its M5 paint!