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This is one of those pieces of World War II history that I somehow missed. I found the part about the mustard gas particularly shocking -- I hadn't realized th

• tzs 12y ago
  The Wikipedia article on chemical warfare has some interesting information on this [1]. The British were ready to use gas on their beaches if the Germans has stages an invasion of Britain. Churchill urged its use against German cities if it came down to life or death for Britain, or if it would shorten the war by a year, but this was rejected because of fear that this would prompt the Germans to use gas. The Germans didn't use their fancy new nerve gases because they assumed the allies secretly had them too (they interpreted the lack of mention of such gases in allied scientific journals as evidence the allied military was suppressing publication of such research), and so feared the allies would retaliate with similar gas attacks. They would have probably used gas to repel the D-Day invasion, but practical matters stopped them. Germany was dependent on horses to move supplies, and they had been unable to develop an effective gas mask for their horses. Japan made heavy use of gas, but only against Asians. They didn't use gas against Westerners, because they feared retaliation. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_warfare http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_warfare