With the Allies still carrying gas masks as late as D-Day "in case" why did'nt Hitler use the stuff? Afraid of the repercussions? He had seen it during WWI. As desperate as he was late in the war,wonder why this was'nt used. Especially against the Russians.

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The Allies were on constant fear of Hitler resorting to Gas Warfare.
They considered taking supplies of Gas weapons to Nth Africa in case the French used them, and the Luftwaffe made a mess of Bari in 1944 when they sank a number of Ships holding Mustard Gas supplies killing hundreds.
(Also, a Gas Mask could be handy in cleaning up after combat)

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Whe're off to see the Wizard, the wonderful wizard of OZ - 6 Australian Infantry Div, Bardia January 1941

I've always thought that it was one of those MAD things ( remember, 'Mutually Assured Destruction' ? ).

All sides had it but it wasn't used due to the certainty of retaliation in kind.

WW1 had shown gas to be psychologically effective but actually difficult to use in practice - a puff of wind in the wrong direction, or one's own troops occupy ground contaminated by Mustard Gas and : oh dear, gas is less discriminatory than a bullet ! And of course, WW1 was far less a war of movement than WW2.

But certainly, at the outset of WW2 I don't think that anyone believed that gas would not be used at all.

Huge stocks were manufactured and moved around ; as Ali has pointed out, the Bari disaster was ghastly. And in quite recent years, the media created a hysterical fuss here when Mustard Gas bombs were rumoured to be buried at a 9th USAF base in England.

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

After what I´ve read my opinion is that Hitler feared that the allied would return the favour i.e. he believed they had the same gas weapon to use if necessary. Then again he was willing to use everything else starting with V-weapons so I´m sorta confused why he did not use the gas weapon as well. But of course I´m happy he did not use it!!!

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Just thought of telling that on the book :Philip Henshall´s "Hitler´s V-weapons" the author says there was a place found in the final stage of war where V-2 weapons and poison gas tanks were found. He seems to believe the Germans were planning to put gas on the V-2. Not on top of it but to the sides of the rocket so that it would spread around when the rocket crashes. As well he says that some drawings of late planning phase confirm this, and this may be the case, but no such orders were ever given or plans put on paper, I think. Or could it be too secret to put on paper??

I believe they might have made plans for this kind of operation but these never went further.

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I would think that they wouldn't need to combine the use of gas on the V-2. It was already doing enough damage as is and to add gas would only add little more effect considering the bombing over London. [img]smile.gif[/img]

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Hence the saying: One may know how to conquer without being able to do it- Sun Tzu

I wonder what kind of effect V-1s or V-2s loaded with gas would have on massed enemy formations like Kursk?

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I'd have thought that V1s and V2s would simply be too inaccurate for such use, and a lot of them would be needed.

And as was discovered all too often in WW1, one of the BIG problems with gas at a tactical level is when the wind changes, or one's own troops occupy ground which is gas-contaminated..... [img]graemlins/no.gif[/img]

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"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

Sod useless V weapons with gas the payload would be way too small to be effective. Hitler would never have used gas due to his fear that the Brits would use it back.

Churchill had plans drawn up for the aerial bombardment of german cities with gas bombs... Now whats more effective a doodlebug with gas or 80 lancasters...

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"Watch that Fu*ker, he'll 'ave someones eye out!" King Harold at Hastings 1066.

I agree with Redbaron and Martin, the use of poison gas on either side would be highly improbable, not ineffective but the bombing done by the Lancasters and the launching of the V-2 rocketes mostly did enough devastation and to add gas wouldn't do much more mentally or physically.

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Hence the saying: One may know how to conquer without being able to do it- Sun Tzu