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Something Tells Me This Won't Show Up at the Next Surplus Sale
Now, we have a friend who collects WWII stuff for re-enacting*, but even they'd probably draw the line at this:
When another dusty cardboard box was uncovered in her uncle's attic, Lyn Fulton expected to find memorabilia from his days as a war-time air raid warden and chemistry lecturer.Instead, she found vials of deadly gases thought to date back to the Second World War.
Poison gas is not your friend!
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* Which, as near as we can tell, is mostly an excuse to dress funny, camp, shoot guns, and drink beer**. In other words, deer hunting without the deer, sort of thing. With tanks!
** Not that there's anything wrong with that†.
The article is semi-wrong in that while poison gas was stockpiled by all the warring nations before and during World War Two, gas was not used on the battlefields, although gas masks were issued. The horrific memory of its use in World War One too recent on the minds of all the combatants. Plus there are logistical issues...a sudden change in wind-direction, for example, could have disastrous "friendly fire" consequences...
On the other hand, the Germans did use poison gas, the infamous Zyklon-B, in the death-camps.
Just not on the battlefield.
Posted by: Mark on January 15, 2009 10:22 AMHell, I think it's still stockpiled by some nations (in fact, I think we're one of those nations) though the Geneva Convention prohibits its use.
Posted by: ronaprhys on January 15, 2009 11:47 AMSounds like they were part of a training kit.
ronaprhys, us and the russians are destroying their chemical weapons (local depot has finished burning all their sarin and is now starting on mustard gas) as part of a treaty.
Posted by: walt moffett on January 15, 2009 01:23 PMWalt - good info. Somehow I doubt that either of us are destroying all of it, though.
Posted by: ronaprhys on January 15, 2009 03:38 PM