WI: Hitler orders gas used in the last days of the war?

Hitler absolutely despised gas. He had been blinded during a mustard gas attack at the end of WWI, and the experience led him to conclude that poison gas was a completely evil weapon. He never used it, even as Germany was falling apart and his own generals were urging him to deploy it he refused. It may well have been the only line he was unwilling to cross.

The one time we can be grateful to Hitler for anything honestly; as I can't even begin to imagine the horror that would have happened if a less restrained leader had gained control and unleashed the gas.
 
The one time we can be grateful to Hitler for anything honestly; as I can't even begin to imagine the horror that would have happened if a less restrained leader had gained control and unleashed the gas.

It's called the Anglo-American Nazi War, and it will give you nightmares.
 
Do you think he had not been as much traumatized by artillery bombings ?

The fact is that in 1939, everybody seriously feared that the next war in Europe would see massive use of chemical weapons. The french government, for example, organized massive distribution of gas masks, even for little children. Child-size gas masks were massively produced.

Now the fact is that Hitler's Germany, albeit all its crimes, did not use gas for military operations. It is very probably because Germany was still a little rational and knew that, at least from 1943 on, that it would lose and risked total annihilation. From at least 1943 on, the allies enjoyed air domination.

Yes, artillery bombings isn't as traumatizing or at least not in at all the same way. Gas is a nightmare that you can have your own troops fire off and the wind changes and blows back on your own men. Its a nightmare that hits you out of nowhere and often doesn't kill you, but blinds you and does alot of other terrible stuff to your body and mind.

With a shell hitting you... well you have lost chunks of you or you are or dead. Its pretty simple and straightforward. Yes, it can cause PTSD, but its a completely different kind of horror then gas on the battlefield.

You are in a trench at night you know there is some risk of the trench being blown up or being overrun at a moments notice, but the idea of gas creeping over the trench was a very different kind of horror for the men to have to live with each and every day.
 
Well, they still have the agents stockpiled...

For delivery systems:
Rockets are out... the chemical warheads were still in development for the V-1s and V-2s and were some days off.

Aircraft are out, for obvious reasons. The Germans can't get enough bombers in the air and rely on them not getting shot down to get effective concentrations going.

That leaves artillery and land mines, which the Germans, while short on, aren't exactly out of. They'll probably be mostly used as a scorched earth/area denial weapon: spray them over a piece of territory to contaminate it and deny it to the enemy.

The nerve gasses the Germans had were not good for this purpose. Not long lasting. I also think they have difficultites applying them with range at that time. Take the decision a little sooner and the Me-262 and Arado-jets finds a new purpose in a more gloomy TL
 
Yes, artillery bombings isn't as traumatizing or at least not in at all the same way. Gas is a nightmare that you can have your own troops fire off and the wind changes and blows back on your own men. Its a nightmare that hits you out of nowhere and often doesn't kill you, but blinds you and does alot of other terrible stuff to your body and mind.

With a shell hitting you... well you have lost chunks of you or you are or dead. Its pretty simple and straightforward. Yes, it can cause PTSD, but its a completely different kind of horror then gas on the battlefield.

You are in a trench at night you know there is some risk of the trench being blown up or being overrun at a moments notice, but the idea of gas creeping over the trench was a very different kind of horror for the men to have to live with each and every day.

The difference is that the risk of gas no longer was a surprise when WW2 began. The armies were prepared to face it. Every soldier in fighting units had his gas mask in his operations' package.

The point is that used of gas is going to make military operations slower, not to decimate armies. And the main problem is the carrier to bring gas where you want. If you want to strike far away, you could not carry much and you needed air domination.

And if you don't have air domination, you know your enemies will inflict on you far more damage than you will.
 
The difference is that the risk of gas no longer was a surprise when WW2 began. The armies were prepared to face it. Every soldier in fighting units had his gas mask in his operations' package.

The point is that used of gas is going to make military operations slower, not to decimate armies. And the main problem is the carrier to bring gas where you want. If you want to strike far away, you could not carry much and you needed air domination.

And if you don't have air domination, you know your enemies will inflict on you far more damage than you will.

Many generals in the East did want to use gas much early then 1945 where it could make up for their numbers disadvantage and slow down the Red Army and even blow major holes in their line. Gas masks wouldn't have done a great deal of good with what Germany had in its pocket in large quantities by 1944.

There would have been battlefield benefits for Germany from using it, the population of Germany would have suffered greatly because of it, but in the end Hitler really hadn't changed that much he was still the frightened and angry man he was in 1918 and a great many of his view on war and chemical warfare were fixed in time from that point on.

People have trouble believing that because of the gas chambers, but I will just say that while Hitler gave the general direction for the Final Solution I read the transcripts between him and Himmler on the matter, he never wanted to know how it was being done and I actually very much think he wanted himself shielded from the details, just that it was being done with euphemisms always used by Himmler for mass murder (as in X Jews ready to be deported East).

Its a strange reality where you can order racial cleansing on a mass scale, but shield yourself from the actual horrors of what you ordered, but that was exactly what Hitler did.
 
Last edited:
Many generals in the East did want to use gas much early then 1945 where it could make up for their numbers disadvantage and slow down the Red Army and even blow major holes in their line. Gas masks wouldn't have done a great deal of good with what Germany had in its pocket in large quantities by 1944.

There would have been battlefield benefits for Germany from using it, the population of Germany would have suffered greatly because of it, but in the end Hitler really hadn't changed that much he was still the frightened and angry man he was in 1918 and a great many of his view on war and chemical warfare were fixed in time from that point on.

People have trouble believing that because of the gas chambers, but I will just say that while Hitler gave the general direction for instituting the Final Solution I read the transcripts between him and Himmler on the matter, he never wanted to know how it was being done and I actually think wanted himself shielded from the details, just that it was being done with euphemisms always used by Himmler for mass murder (as in X Jews ready to be deported East).

Its a strange reality where you can order racial cleansing on a mass scale, but shield yourself from the actual horrors of what you ordered, but that was exactly what Hitler did.

Goes to show you that Hitler was not a demonic creature; but a morally corrupt and frankly evil, albeit complicated and nuanced human being just like anyone else.
 
Top