Rather belatedly, the United States Army in preparing for World War II investigated on an intensive and very large scale the chemical munitions that might be necessary or useful in fighting the Axis powers. This effort required the collaboration of a host of civilian scientists and research centers as well as a great expansion of the laboratories and proving grounds of the Chemical Warfare Service itself. A similar development, recounted at the beginning of this work, came too late to influence the outcome of World War I. In World War II, on the other hand, the Army not only prepared against gas warfare sufficiently well to discourage its employment by the enemy, but also developed a number of new chemical weapons that contributed materially to victory. The authors add perspective and interest to their story by telling very briefly about corresponding German and Japanese activity. The manufacture of chemical munitions in quantity was possible only through a rapid expansion of private industry to support and supplement the work of Army arsenals. Both necessity and choice led the Chemical Warfare Service to make widespread use of small industrial concerns throughout the United States, and the account of production in this work is especially pertinent to a consideration of the problems involved in military contracting with small business on a big scale.

General employment of toxic munitions in World War I made it necessary for the United States as a belligerent to protect its soldiers against gas attack, and to furnish means for conducting gas warfare. The postwar revulsion against the use of gas in no way guaranteed that it would not be used in another war; and to maintain readiness for gas warfare, Congress therefore authorized the retention of the Chemical Warfare Service as a small but important part of the Army organization. Between world wars, officers of the Chemical Warfare Service anticipated that in another conflict the Service would again be principally concerned with gas warfare, and they concentrated on defense and retaliation against it. The almost equal preparedness of the United States and other nations for gas warfare acted during World War II as the principal deterrent to the uses of gas. That it was not used has obscured the very large and vital effort that preparations for gas warfare required at home and overseas. This effort involved large numbers of American scientists and the American chemical industry as well as the Chemical Warfare Service, and served not only the Army but also the other armed forces of the United States and those of Allied nations. And in World War II the Chemical Warfare Service and its civilian collaborators came up with some new major weapons, notably the 4.2-inch mortar, generators for large-area smoke screening, flame throwers, and incendiary and flame bombs. The Service acquired in addition an entirely new mission, that of preparing the nation against the hazards of biological attack. In fulfilling its responsibilities the Chemical Warfare Service during the war compiled a record ofachievement that readers of this book both in and out of the Army, will find instructive.