[righttackle44]

I’m a WWII buff. I’ll be interested to see if there is any new information develops on this.

[grapeape]

He is not a hero but an intelligent man who made an economic decision. He realized that the allies could and would hit back and completely destroy Germany. No really. Destroy, like wipe off the map destroy. The end of their culture. Many of us forget that people all over the world at the time didn’t care if Germany ceased to exist as a people. The same was true for the attitude toward Japan.

He knew the Allies would blanket Germany with chemical weapons and there would be no Germany left. We were bombing them on a regular basis at that point.

[JoeProBono]

Saviour: Did Otto Ambros want to spare millions of soldiers?

[caver]

Great post! I’m a bit of WW2 buff also.

[caver]

Great post! I’m a bit of WW2 buff also.

[BenLurkin]

The Germans would have used their chemical weapons on the Bolsheviks, if they really planned to deploy them. And it’s too bad they didn’t.

[mainsail that]

Dresden post WWII

Now imagine it if the Germans had used nerve gas too

[cynwoody]

Albert Speer reportedly advised Hitler against going chemical, because the other side could, too. From this link:

In World War II, both sides stockpiled chemical weapons, but never used them. The reasons for this was: they were belived to be no more efficient than conventionel wepons and would complicate and delay operations where used, fear of retaliation with the same means and, political leaders did not want to go agains the Geneva Protocol.

The Germans had produced more leathal agents which were organophoshorus nerve agents. It was developed from insecticides, but much more leathal to man than insect. They caused intense sweating, dimming of vision, uncontrollable vomiting and defecation, convulsion, and finally paralysis and respetory failure. Death would generally come within a few minutes after respitory exposure and within hours if exposure was throught liquid nerve agents on the skin.

Fortunately, Adolf Hitler never used these weapons during the war. The reason why he made this decision is still a subject of controversy for modern historians. The most popular explanation for Hitler's apathy stems back to the previous World War where toxic gases were used in combat. Hitler had been victimized by these chemical agents and was unwilling to introduce new and more toxic agents. There is also evidence that suggests that Hitler was advised against using the agents and even stopped their production. Hitler's Minister of Production, Albert Speer, said after the war, All sensible army people turned gas warfare down as being utterly insane, since, in view of America's superiority in the air, it would not be long before it would bring the most terrible catastrophe upon German cities.

[cynwoody]

Contrary to what the article says, this is old news. The Wikipedia relates basically the same story:

In 1940 the German Army Weapons Office ordered the mass production of sarin for wartime use. A number of pilot plants were built and a high-production facility was under construction (but was not finished) by the end of World War II. Estimates for total sarin production by Nazi Germany range from 500 kg to 10 tons.

During that time, German intelligence believed that the Allies also knew of these compounds, assuming that because these compounds were not discussed in the Allies' scientific journals information about them was being suppressed. Though sarin, tabun and soman were incorporated into artillery shells, the German government ultimately decided not to use nerve agents against Allied targets. The Allies didn't learn of these agents until shells filled with them were captured towards the end of the war.

This is detailed in Joseph Borkin's book The Crime and Punishment of IG Farben:

Speer, who was strongly opposed to the introduction of tabun, flew Otto Ambros, I.G.'s authority on poison gas as well as synthetic rubber, to the meeting. Hitler asked Ambros, "What is the other side doing about poison gas?" Ambros explained that the enemy, because of its greater access to ethylene, probably had a greater capacity to produce mustard gas than Germany did. Hitler interrupted to explain that he was not referring to traditional poison gases: "I understand that the countries with petroleum are in a position to make more [mustard gas], but Germany has a special gas, tabun. In this we have a monopoly in Germany." He specifically wanted to know whether the enemy had access to such a gas and what it was doing in this area. To Hitler's disappointment Ambros replied, "I have justified reasons to assume that tabun, too, is known abroad. I know that tabun was publicized as early as 1902, that Sarin was patented and that these substances appeared in patents. (...) Ambros was informing Hitler of an extraordinary fact about one of Germany's most secret weapons. The essential nature of tabun and sarin had already been disclosed in the technical journals as far back as 1902 and I.G. had patented both products in 1937 and 1938. Ambros then warned Hitler that if Germany used tabun, it must face the possibility that the Allies could produce this gas in much larger quantities. Upon receiving this discouraging report, Hitler abruptly left the meeting. The nerve gases would not be used, for the time being at least, although they would continue to be produced and tested.
– Joseph Borkin, The Crime and Punishment of IG Farben

Borkin's book was published in 1979.

[darth]

There’s more to the story.

In the late 1930s the U.S. Army slapped Top Secret on a patent for a chlorinated hydrocarbon. Nazi spies and scientists told Hitler that the USA had discovered nerve gas. Hitler, who had been gassed in WWI, knew that with nerve gas, Allied bombers could kill every German.

After the war, the Top Secret classification was lifted. It was DDT, a similar molecule, which the Army thought was so important.

As an aside, the USA had to restrain Churchill from bombing Germany with anthrax spores to make it almost unhabitable for 100 years. That was AFTER the success at D Day. Guess Churchill REALLY hated Germans.