Germans use gas near the end of WWII

Hi!

I'm assuming this has been done before, but here goes.

It's 1944 or so. The Germans are being pushed back on all fronts and find themselves in increasingly desperate straits. They're concerned that they'll have to do something big to stave off defeat.

While the war has been going on, German scientists have been working on developing increasingly deadly gases to use on the victims of the death camps. Someone in the General Staff figures that the Allies have not learned about the particulars of these new gases and thinks that they might give the Germans an advantage on the battlefield -- especially if one of the gases is such that the WWI-era gas masks will prove to be of no protection to its victims.

Hitler is initially opposed to the idea: he believes the Final Solution has to keep going, and he is reluctant to unleash gas on the battlefield after suffering a gas attack himself in WWI. However, the General Staff talks him into it. Germany has to do something radically different to change the tide of battle. Furthermore, word of the concentration camps is starting to leak out and other countries are starting to complain to the Nazis about them. The officer recommends that the camps be scaled back. This leaves all the gas stockpiled: might as well do something with it.

If Hitler's dead set on the concentration camps, arrangements could be made to test the gas on camp victims wearing gas masks until they can find a gas which can affect a person with a gas mask (this sounds sort of like Mengele's "experiments" with the camp victims). If the Germans are lucky, these experiments could result in a gas which will defeat WWI gas masks but not newly-invented Nazi-made gas masks (this can be discovered by a victim in the camps surviving the gassing with the experimental mask, at which point the victim is shot and the mask is deemed a success)

So, the Germans decide to use gas. The gas canisters could be shot by mortars or sprayed from aircraft as an aerosol (provided that the Germans can protect their own troops). Gas bombs could also be used.

Presumably, the Allies would respond in kind -- but the Germans would probably figure their new gases will be more effective than the old ones.

How would the war continue from this point?

ACG
 
The war would be much more gruesome with Allied bombers retaliating against German cities. The Germans can't stop them as the allies have air superiority by 1944. The Germans OTOH can't bomb British cities without losing the entire Luftwaffe's bomber force and any fighters that go along for the ride.
 

wormyguy

Banned
OTL Hitler refused to allow the use of gas because he was affected by a gas attack during WWI, and deemed it to horrible a weapon to use in war. So he would need some heavy persuading to allow this.
 
OTL Hitler refused to allow the use of gas because he was affected by a gas attack during WWI, and deemed it to horrible a weapon to use in war. So he would need some heavy persuading to allow this.

Is there any actual hard documentation to back this up? It seems like one those psuedo facts that gets on the internet and somehow lingers. There seem more convincing reasons as to why gas wasn't used than *Hitler was affected in WW1 and thus banned it*. Given this is the same guy who was shot in WW1 and yet would start a war, saw the slaughter of millions and would go on to slaughter millions more and so on and so forth and it doesn't seem to have had that much of an effect.
 
Fine have hitler killed

Like that wont have long term side effects, none at all. IF HITLER WAS KILLED SOME PERSON WHO WAS NOT BATSHIT WOULD SURRENDER!!!!!!!!

In response to the point that the Germans had no way to deliver the gas, that is complete bullshit. You ever heard of the thing called the V1 and 2
 
Is there any actual hard documentation to back this up? It seems like one those psuedo facts that gets on the internet and somehow lingers. There seem more convincing reasons as to why gas wasn't used than *Hitler was affected in WW1 and thus banned it*. Given this is the same guy who was shot in WW1 and yet would start a war, saw the slaughter of millions and would go on to slaughter millions more and so on and so forth and it doesn't seem to have had that much of an effect.

I suspect this is an urban myth, Germany didn't use gas during WWII for the same reason that nobody has used Nukes since WWII. MAD, if you use WMD then your opponent who has as big a WMD arsenal as you have will have every reason to use it.

The British and Russians had just as big a gas arsenal as the Germans, if the Germans use gas then the British, Russians, and later Americans will use it.
 

Deleted member 1487

There was no delivery mechanism for the V1 or 2 as it would explode and destroy the gas. They never researched it because the Allies, especially the British made the Axis aware that if they use gas on any front, it would mean retaliation against German civilians. MAD. Not even the Germans were willing to commit national suicide under any circumstances, even if that meant losing a war. Hitler is not the obstacle, just any remotely sane individual who would ever lead a nation. If the Germans use it, they get wiped out as a people.
 
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