WW2 What If?

[Lonestar]

The Germans had small(er) stocks of nerve gas compared to WW1-style chemical weapons, which is what would have been the real killer. That said, all the Europeans and North Americans avoided using chemical weapons against each other, and so did the Japanese against the Europeans/Australians/North Americans. I doubt the Germans are going to resort to chemical warfare if their position is BETTER not worse.

[David Floyd]

Dave, where do you get the Germans had small stocks of chemical weapons? I can look it up now but I remember in another discussion here a few months back, I found information on Italian usage of gas during the war with Ethiopia and it compared the national stockpiles of gas between the Axis and Allied countries and Germany had a crapload.

The Germans did not have a reliable delivery system, nor did they have anthrax. The British had both weaponized anthrax and a delivery system. The Nazis didn't have big enough dicks to get into a pissing contest with the British over chemical weapons.

[David Floyd]

But the point is that there is absolutely ZERO doubt that had Britain actually been seriously threatened with invasion or defeat that the gloves would have come off. The fact that Britian didn't use anthrax historically against Germany only serves to tell us how little chance Germany actually had of invading or defeating Britain.

[Docfeelgood]

I have read that the allies had gas weapons at D-Day just as a deterrent should the Germans decide to use them.

[David Floyd]

The Allies had WMDs they could have used to destroy Germany in 1941. By D-Day, the outcome of the war was a foregone conclusion to everyone other than the Nazis.

[Al B. Sure!]

The Allies had WMDs they could have used to destroy Germany in 1941. By D-Day, the outcome of the war was a foregone conclusion to everyone other than the Nazis.

Yeah but did the Allies have them ready to go, as Doc suggested, in case Hitler decided to use them?

From what I've read, Churchill was all for using gas during the war but the British military wasn't willing to.

[David Floyd]

Whether that is, or isn't, the case, do you really think anyone in the British military would have been against using weaponized Anthrax against Germany, when faced with losing the war?

Additionally, the Nazis did NOT have large scale WMD-type weapons "ready to go", certainly not on the scale that Britain did.

[Al B. Sure!]

Whether that is, or isn't, the case, do you really think anyone in the British military would have been against using weaponized Anthrax against Germany, when faced with losing the war?

Additionally, the Nazis did NOT have large scale WMD-type weapons "ready to go", certainly not on the scale that Britain did.

Yeah but how much do you need to **** with the D-Day landings? In the First World War, they just fired that **** out of artillery cannisters. It wouldn't be hard to coat the Normandy beaches with a barrage of gas.

[Al B. Sure!]

Maybe I'm clueless about the delivery systems for poison gas but (especially if you don't give a **** about collateral damage), how hard can it be? Just load up cannisters with it or literally spray that ****. It might not be the most effective way or the most tactical but still, you can do it easily I think.

[Egbert]

Yeah but how much do you need to **** with the D-Day landings? In the First World War, they just fired that **** out of artillery cannisters. It wouldn't be hard to coat the Normandy beaches with a barrage of gas.

Yes but then they spray back. Mutually assured horrors.

Umh, and if the Germans had any rockets left they dump some poison gas on London. (I don't know if the Allies were 100% sure the Germans couldn't deliver gas to any UK cities.)

[Al B. Sure!]

At the Second Battle of Ypres in WW1, the German troops literally opened the cannisters by hand and just let the wind take the gas to the French lines. 6000 French troops died in 10 minutes.

The German soldiers also opened the cylinders by hand, relying on the prevailing winds to carry the gas towards enemy lines. Because of this method of dispersal, a large number of German soldiers were injured or killed in the process of carrying out the attack.[11]
Approximately 6,000 French and colonial troops died within ten minutes at Ypres, primarily from asphyxiation and subsequent tissue damage in the lungs. Many more were blinded. Chlorine gas forms hydrochloric (muriatic) acid when combined with water, destroying moist tissues such as lungs and eyes.[12] The chlorine gas, being denser than air, quickly filled the trenches, forcing the troops to climb out into heavy enemy fire.

Really? How hard could it have been for the Nazis if they wanted to do it? Am I missing something?

[notyoueither]

The French broke and ran. The Canadians next to them did not.

It was not an effective weapon against a determined enemy.

[notyoueither]

Of course, it is said that the Canadians did not break because they did not know that this was not what was normal.

You ****s use poison gas?

We piss in handkerchiefs and use them as gas masks while we shoot you!

[Al B. Sure!]

Good point, NYE.

[David Floyd]

Britain was well prepared for the type of WW1-style gas attack that Germany could launch. Sure, it might have killed a lot of people, but nothing on the scale Britain could have done. Anthrax is on a level above mustard gas, Lewisite, etc., and Germany didn't have a defense for it.

And you're right, Britain wasn't 100% sure Germany DIDN'T have anthrax. We know that now, of course, but they didn't then. That's part of the reason it wasn't used. My point is, if faced with losing the war, Britain could and very likely WOULD have done it.