British Army Staff

British Army Staff Washington to War Office, 29 June 1944 Military Attache Chungking to War Office, 5 July 1944 COS(44)226th meeting, 7 July 1944, PRO, WO 106/4594A WO 208/3044 CAB 79/77. 

The U.S. Biological Warfare Committee, with Mr. Merck as chairman, came into being in October 1944, as a supervisory body to make recommendations to the Secretary of War and Chief of Staff on policy and to establish liaison with its British counterpart, the London Inter-Service Sub-Committee on Biological Warfare (ISSCBW). Members of the new committee included the Chief, Chemical Warfare Service the director of the New Developments Division, WDSS the director of the Office of Strategic Services the chief of the Navy Bureau of Ordnance the Surgeon Generals of the Army and Navy the chief of the Military Intelligence Service the Chief of Staff, ASF the chief of the Requirements Section, AGF the assistant chief of Air Staff Plans the British Army Staff representatives the director of Canada s Department of Chemical Warfare and Smoke and the CWS representative on the ISSCBW. Research and de-... 

Two days later, on 26 May, a strange figure clad in a uniform bearing tell-tale marks of long association with mud and barbed wire , a cap split by a shell splinter and a pistol strapped to his belt, appeared at the Advanced General Headquarters of the British Army at Hazebrouck. Major Charles Howard Foulkes of His Majesty s Royal Engineers had an appointment with General Robertson, Chief of Staff to Sir John French. It was an interview, Foulkes later recalled, of few words ... 

Shadle and an officer assistant immediately set about making general chemical plans for the scheduled invasion, known as Operation Torch. On 15 September 1942, Shadle s section was officially organized as the Chemical Warfare Section, AFHQ. Lt. Col. Ian A. Marriott, British Army, was appointed deputy and one of the two American officers assigned became executive officer. One British major, three American enlisted men, and two British enlisted men completed the staff. While... 

Comments by Maj Gen Alden H. Waitt, USA (Ret.), 1955, on draft copy of this chapter. (i) Wiseman, Cas Warfare, p. 126. (2) Rpt of AC CWS (USCWC 53/1, 27 Oct 43), for Fid Opns (Waitt) to USCWC, 27 Oct 43 . (3) Unlike the U.S. Army, the British Army had no central organization dealing with chemical warfare. Different arms and branches handled chemical warfare duties. For instance. Ordnance was responsible for the supply and maintenance of chemical weapons and equipment in the field the Royal Engineers performed laboratory analysis the Pioneer Corps furnished smoke companies while staff advice was provided by GSC officers trained in chemical warfare and assisted at higher headquarters by technical officers who were trained chemists. The limited amount of materiel and manpower in the British Army was a governing factor in determining the effort which could be devoted to gas weapons. See USCWC 96, 21 Feb 44, Min of Mtg, 12 Feb 44. 

Evaluation of United Kingdom and American equipment was accomplished more readily than interchangeability. In April 1S>44 the Advisory Committee on the Effectiveness of Chemical Warfare Materiel in the Tropics, consisting of representatives of the CWS, the Canadian Field Experimental Station, and the British Army, was established to provide operational data for planning chemical warfare in the tropical theaters of war. This committee was served by the Project Co-ordination Staff which evaluated chemical warfare tests carried out in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and India. The staff considered all factors involved in the use of chemical weapons, including weather and terrain, protective devices, and weapons and munitions. 

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