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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.
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