What if Chemical Weapons were used in WWII?

[MichiganNationalist1837]

Say the Germans use chemical weapons at Kursk or Stalingrad. Would large scale gas warfare win the eastern front for the Germans? Also, would chemical weapons be used on British and German cities in bombing raids? If this did happen, would contamination from British anthrax bombs prove a serious problem for post-war Germany?

 

[ObssesedNuker]

Say the Germans use chemical weapons at Kursk or Stalingrad. Would large scale gas warfare win the eastern front for the Germans?

No. Chemical warfare kills operational tempo by forcing everyone to slow down, something that highly favors the defender. Victory in the vast spaces on the Eastern Front is dependent on mobile warfare, which requires rapid operational tempos and fast movements. So using chemical weapons is totally counter-productive. Plus, in the specific instance of Stalingrad, Soviet and German troops were in such close proximity that the Germans would effectively be gassing themselves in the process of trying to gas the Sovs. Now they may be able to deny the Soviets victory, at least for a time, for the same reason but the Germans weren't fighting the war to try and achieve a stalemate with the Soviets or the WAllies.

Also, would chemical weapons be used on British and German cities in bombing raids?

Yes. And the Germans would get the worse of it because of WAllied air superiority.

 

[Lost Freeway]

If this did happen, would contamination from British anthrax bombs prove a serious problem for post-war Germany?

Is The Daily Mail sensationalist BS?

 

[SactoMan101]

It would have been interesting to see how the Germans would have delivered nerve gas if they had been used in combat. I believe they studied the idea of using modified Focke-Wulf Fw 189's for aerial spraying, along with artillery shells and the Nebelwerfer bombardment rocket system.

 

[Asp]

The Germans were always WAY more vulnerable than the allies were to chemical warfare. It be an act of glorious national suicide if they decided to do this.

One of the other serious problems besides the aforementioned where they get strategically bombed with gas is that they never developed an effective way to protect horses from gas (this even came up in the Tabletop Monologues), and German logistics were hugely dependent on horses.

 

[wtw]

German population gets gassed, extinction of several horse breeds and double the deaths of civilians and at most a 10% increase of deaths of armed forces, mostly wounded.

 

[MichiganNationalist1837]

Is The Daily Mail sensationalist BS?

If Anthrax weapons were used on a large scale they are very hard to remove and make the area dangerous, as evidenced by Gruinard Island.

 

[fastmongrel]

If Anthrax weapons were used on a large scale they are very hard to remove and make the area dangerous, as evidenced by Gruinard Island.

he was agreeing with you. Saying "Is the daily Mail sensationalist BS?" is like asking "does the Pope wear a funny hat" and "do Bears sh1t in the woods"

 

[MichiganNationalist1837]

he was agreeing with you. Saying "Is the daily Mail sensationalist BS?" is like asking "does the Pope wear a funny hat" and "do Bears sh1t in the woods"

Oh. I misread. I thought he said "is this daily Mail sensationailist BS?" I apologize.

 

[Lost Freeway]

Oh. I misread. I thought he said "is this daily Mail sensationailist BS?" I apologize.

That's okay.