Gas defense training

During the period of limited emergency, the U.S. Army mobilized thirty-six divisions and activated seventy air force groups—together a phenomenal achievement. With these developments the Chief, CWS, was closely concerned as technical adviser to the War Department on gas defense training. It was his responsibility to counteract the inevitable tendency to neglect, in the rush of such rapid mobilization, a type of training for which need was not immediate. It was his job to see that a serious flaw— vulnerability to gas... 

The over-all War Department objective was stated as "Our peacetime preparation in chemical warfare will be based on opposing effectively any enemy employing chemical agents and weapons. This w as amplified, as previously noted, by detailed instructions on gas defense training."... 

Only a skeleton GHQ staff moved into the Army War College in the summer of 1940. No chemical officer was included in General McNair s special staff until 1941, and GHQ continued without a formal chemical staff section until 10 January 1942. This reflected General McNair s attitude on gas warfare and adversely influenced gas defense training of ground units throughout 1940 and 1941. 

Gas Defense Training for Qvilians at the Chemical Warfare School, Edgewood, Maryland, 1941,... 

The apathy with which gas defense training was so often regarded by the ground forces may have been rooted in a basic conviction that gas, like the incendiary, had become primarily an air weapon and that its future employment would be principally strategic rather than tactical. Such views were frankly held by air units and accounted for much of the vitality that marked AAF training in chemical warfare throughout the war. Perhaps the principal reason why AGF preparations for chemical warfare did not more nearly approach the objectives set by the Staff is the fact that many commanders never did take seriously the prospect of gas attack in ground combat. 

Three trends in gas defense training of the U.S. Army during the course of the war were definite enough to deserve notice. These were ... 

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