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by James Cooper on August 30th, 2005

James Cooper

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In WWII, why were chemical weapons not used to the extent they were in WWI, especially by the Axis Powers?

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  • by RJTRIES on July 18th, 2006

    RJTRIES

    To add on to what everyone else said, Chemical Munitions were not used during WWII because the nature of the war at that time did not lend itself to effective employment of the weapons. The primary purpose of Chemical munitions is to degrade military operations. They achieve this purpose through (1) Contaiminating territory and/or equipment (2) Requireing military units be spread out over a wide target area to prevent a less lucarative target package, which in turn slows down the command and communication process and finally (3) requires troops to take self-protective measrues that inhibits combat operations and functionality of not only solderly operations, but basic human functions like, eating, sleeping, going to the bathroom and the like.


    You'll notice that I did not say cause casualties. That's because by the end of the first world war, military theorists realized that casualties after an initial attack would be minimal, and as a killing weapon, chemical munitions were in efficient. Additionally, the primary delivery method was via artillery and by 1939 the concept of counter battery fire was developed significantly enough that the long barrages of the first world war, from heavily emplaced guns were obslete.

    Neither the germans, nor the allies wanted to deal with the issues of chemical weapons in a high mobility environment. Simply put, it would slow everyone down.

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