Chemical Warfare Board

Weir Papers, 20/16. Memorandum on the Position in the Event of an Early Gas Blitz (10 February 1941) and extract from the Minutes of the Chemical Warfare Board (28 January 1941). 

Harold Hartley (1878-1972) was educated at Dulwich and Oxford, and studied chemistry with Richard Willstatter in Munich, before graduating from Oxford in 1900, and becoming a Fellow of Balliol. In 1915, he was sent to France as Chemical Adviser, Third Army. In 1917, he became Assistant Director of Gas Services at GHQ, and in 1918, transferred to the Ministry of Munitions as director of the Chemical Warfare Department. In 1919, the department was transferred to the Artillery, and he returned to Oxford. In 1921, he helped set up the Research and Development Establishment of the War Office, and served on its Chemical Warfare Board until the 1950s. See Biog. Memoirs, Fellows of the Royal Society, 19 (December 1973), 348-373, esp. 356-357. 

Assisting the Chief, CWS, were an Advisory Committee of fifteen civilian authorities in chemistry and chemical engineering, a CWS Technical Committee, and a Chemical Warfare Board. The Advisory Committee, which was unofficial in capacity, was set up in the American Chemical Society in 1920. The members of the committee met periodically with CWS scientists and administrators to discuss policies and problems of research and development. The CWS Technical Committee, also set up in 1920, came into existence as the result of a need for co-ordination among interested branches of the armed forces in the development and standardization of chemical warfare items.On the Technical Committee sat representatives of CWS and of the following Field Artillery, Coast Artillery, Infantry, Air Corps, Cavalry, General Staff, National Guard Bureau, and the Assistant Secretaries of the War and Navy Departments. The Chemical Warfare Board was established at Edgewood Arsenal in 1923 to study and co-ordinate technical developments with tactical doctrine and methods. 

OC CWS so 19, 21 May 23. For details on the Chemical Warfare Board, see Leo P. Brophy, Wyndham D. Miles, and Rexmond C. Cochrane, The Chemical Warfare Service From Laboratory to Field, a volume in preparation for the series UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II. 

The Chemical Warfare Board, after it ceased to be responsible for the writing of publications, continued to review many of the manuscripts processed by the Tactical Doctrine Branch, a procedure which enabled the writing agency to take full advantage of the board s experience in all fields of chemical warfare. 

In passing from the original idea to the final product, the CWS employed a procedure based upon regulations laid down by the War Department. The idea itself could stem from the laboratories at Edgewood, a CWS officer, another branch of the Army, or a patriotic civilian. It was then studied in the Office of the Chief and perhaps by the Chemical Warfare Board. If the idea was accepted the Technical Committee drew up a military requirement, an official statement that the proposed article was needed by the Army, and the military characteristics, a list of specifications that stated the desired size, shape, weight, materials of construction, and performance of the finished article. After approval of the requirements and characteristics by the Chief, CWS, and the War Department, Edge-wood Arsenal went to work. 

Chemical Warfare Board Project No. 279, Sub-Caliber Trainer for 4.2-Inch Chemical Mortar, 27 Sep 43. (2) CWTC Item 952, Standardization of Mortar, Sub-Caliber, 3-Inch, M3 Charge, Smoke, 3-Inch Sub-Caliber Shell, Ml and Charge, Propelling, 3-Inch Sub-Caliber Shell, M8, 17 Mar 44. (3) TB 3-320-2, Training Accessories for the 4.2-Inch Chemical Mortar, 29 Feb 44. 

CWTC Item 756, Standardization of Plant, Impregnating, M2, 23 JuJ 43. (2) Chemical Warfare Board Project No. 289, Field Test of Plant, Impregnating, Ml, 20 May 43. (3) Noyes, Chemistry, pp. 206-07. 

Chemical Warfare Board Project No. 298, Test of Mobile Water Suspension Impregnating Plant, 31 Aug 43. (2) CWTC Item 863, Military Requirements and Military Characteristics for a Mobile Impregnating Unit, 3 Dec 43. (3) CWTC Item 993, Military Requirement and Military Characteristics for a Kit for Conversion of Mobile Laundry Units for Impregnation, 5 May 44. See also Item 1090, 7 Jul 44, same title. 

Chief of the Special Assignments Branch, Office of the Chief of the Chemical Warfare Service Committee on the Treatment of Gas Casualties Chemical Warfare Board... 

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