Tabun!

This is coolbert:

Here thanks to oneindia, the real dope on the poison chemical agent Tabun, a weapon that had war-winning or war-changing possibilities for the German during the Second World War [WW2], but never used!!

"Allies would lost Second World War had Hitler used deadly nerve gas: Expert"

As the D-Day anniversary approaches, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, Frank J. Dinan, has revealed what could have happened if Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had used the deadly nerve gas Tabun.

TABUN! Deadly nerve agent, a poison gas, in the hands of the German, stockpiled, the gas masks and filters of the allied forces being ineffective against this toxic agent. Employment would have resulted in massive allied casualties!!

TABUN - - accidentally discovered, and kept a secret throughout the course of the war, the existence of this agent NOT KNOWN TO ALLIED AND SOVIET INTELLIGENCE!!

"the Tabun story began on December 23, 1936, when a single drop of that newly-made chemical fell to the floor of a laboratory in Germany".

"The two men working there immediately suffered diminished vision, labored breathing and a loss of muscle control."

"By mid 1943 thousands of tons of Tabun had been produced, loaded into artillery shells and bombs that were moved to storage sites throughout Germany."

"The secrecy that surrounded Tabun was so effective that the Allies had no hint of its existence and had no comparable weapons to retaliate with if the Nazis used it."

That widespread use of poison gas and other chemical agents was not availed by the fascist forces [or allies for that matter], is generally thought to have been because of:

1. Hitler had a visceral unfavorable reaction to the use of any chemical agents! Having been temporary blinded by mustard gas attack during WW1, Hitler forbade the use of poison gas - - presumably in reaction to his own experiences.

2. The use of such chemical agents - - poison gases and such, would not have had the profound and dramatic influence on the course of the war as it was fought. The gain as compared to the loss would not have been so great, the effort too costly for whatever advantage may have been [and only maybe] been achieved.

3. The German BELIEVED [erroneously] THAT THE ALLIES ALSO POSSESSED A CHEMICAL POISON GAS ANALOGOUS TO TABUN!! Retaliation was not worth the risk.

This is not to say that poison gas was NOT used in WW2.

The Japanese made numerous poison gas attacks on Chinese Nationalist forces in those years prior to December 1941. Most liberal and egregious use of poison gas employed at the Battle of Wuhan! During the much wider war in the Pacific Theatre, NO poison gas was used, the threat of retaliation being to great?

"Emperor Shōwa [Hirohito] authorized by specific orders (rinsanmei) the use of chemical weapons against the Chinese. During the battle of Wuhan, Prince Kan'in transmitted the emperor's orders to use toxic gas on 375 separate occasions"

[release of poison gas for use was supposedly made only with the personal confirmation of Emperor Hirohito. Yet the man in the aftermath of the war was NOT reated as a war criminal?]

See these previous blog entries also concerning the German use [?] of poison gas on the Eastern Front during WW2. Used sparingly and very selectively, but still used:

* Brest Fortress [?]. Tear gas at any rate, some suggest poison gas.
* Warsaw Ghetto. Used against the Jewish ZOB fighters.
* Adzhimushkay Catacombs.

IN ALL CASES HOWEVER - - NOT TABUN!!

[I recall very well that the greatest fear of the coalition prior to the First Gulf War [1991] was for allied forces to get "hung-up" in the "Saddam Line" while getting saturated with artillery rounds containing nerve agent, presumably Tabun!!]

coolbert.