Smoke munitions shells

From 1937 onward all industrial mobilization planning was based on the manpower requirements of the Protective Mobilization Plan (PMP). The PMP called for an army of 400,000, within 30 days after mobilization, known as the Initial Protective Force and made up of the Regular Army and the National Guard. Within 4 months, the number would be raised to 1,000,000 men and within 14 months to a peak wartime figure of 4,000,000. The CWS planned for both units and facilities under the PMP and estimated the time it would require to furnish the mobilized forces with critical and essential items, such as gas masks, toxic agents, smoke, munitions, impregnite, airplane spray tanks, and shells for 4.2-inch chemical mortars. ... 

Among the offensive munitions which the CWS procured in World War II were incendiaries of various types, 4.2 inch mortars and shells, flame throwers, smoke, and smoke munitions. 

The loading of colored smoke munitions was confined to two CWS arsenals, Edgewood and Huntsville. By far, most of the loading was done at Huntsville. There the colored smoke was loaded into Ml6 and M18 grenades, and M22 and M23 rifle grenades, furnished by the Ordnance Department, and canisters for 105-mm. and 155-mm. Ordnance shells. 

In the military, white phosphorus is used in ammunitions such as mortar and artillery shells, and grenades. When ammunitions containing white phosphorus are fired in the field, they burn and produce smoke. The smoke contains some unbumt phosphorus, but it mainly has various burned phosphorus products. In military operations, such smoke is used to conceal troop movements and to identify targets or the locations of friendly forces. White phosphorus munitions are intended to burn or firebomb the opponents, in other words, to effectively produce widespread damage but not kill the enemy. 

At the end of World War I, there were four million shells in the United States inventory. World War I ordnance such as the Livens projectile and Stokes mortar were outmoded by World War II, resulting in burials and dumping. Leaking ordnance was a continual problem. Add to that the 1,343,728 World War II chemical bombs, and the 13,550,613 World War II chemical mortar rounds not used in World War II, and the probability of substantial buried chemical weapons becomes a certainty, in addition to the tremendous numbers of currently stockpiled ordnance. Also, even current inventory ordnance would have an occasional leaking or damaged munition. In addition, experimental ordnance, grenades, rockets, candles, spray tanks, smoke pots, and cylinders are also burial candidates. Where is the question state and local regulators need to repeatedly ask. 

In some cases, these devices are able to positively identify the chemical constituents inside a steel shell. They can locate plastic land mines by the same technique, for that matter. They save valuable time in eliminating the careful handhng of expended ordnance. Neutron beams can identify chemical, explosive, smoke, and incendiary munitions, each of which may require special handling. 

At the end of May, Shadle expressed his satisfaction with the chemical offensive potential and ammunition status in the North African theater. His view seems to have been overly optimistic since smoke pots, tear gas, and HC smoke grenades were the only ammunition items available in sufficient supply. All the chemical supply officers reported urgent requests for unavailable white phosphorus grenades. The Twelfth Air Force reported limited quantities of ANM50A1 4-pound incendiary bombs, a few Mja yoo-pound incendiary bomb clusters, and a considerable number of My4 loo-pound incendiary bomb clusters. There was no other chemical ammunition in the theater although the New York port had promised that 120 days supply of high explosive and smoke shell was en route for the three chemical mortar battalions which had recently arrived in the theater. Aside from a small amount of artillery shell stored by Ordnance, no toxics were available in the theater and none was scheduled to arrive until the fall of 1943. The March theater plan for gas warfare, the first such plan, was based on meeting possible enemy gas attack with this plainly inadequate supply of artillery shell. The new War Department policy for retaliation in event of enemy initiation of gas warfare called for the use of aerial munitions as the principal gas weapons. Shadle s satisfaction with the toxic supply status can be explained by the fact that he did not con-... 

In mid-1940 the only smoke-producing munitions available to the U.S. Army were smoke shells, pots, grenades, and airplane smoke tanks. These munitions were satisfactory for establishing transitory curtains and could be used to a limited extent for blanketing enemy positions, but they were unsuitable for maintaining smoke screens over wide areas of friendly terrain because of the limited amount of smoke they produced and because artillery and mortar shells could not be impacted... 

With types A, B, C, and E HC mixtures, the CWS had a range of smoke agents suitable for hand grenades, rifle grenades, artillery shells, rockets, bombs, and smoke pots. Shells, grenades, and bombs found employment during the war but by far the most widely used HC munition was the smoke pot. 

Among the munitions filled with HC smoke mixture were 2-pound bombs, M8 grenades, rifle smoke grenades, M88 and M89 shells, canisters for 105-mm. and 155-mm. shells, 100-pound and 500-pound clusters, 2.35-inch rockets, and smoke pots. Virtually all the 2-pound bombs were loaded under private contract in the Pittsburgh and Chicago procurement districts. Rifle grenades, smoke shells, and canisters were loaded at CWS arsenals, particularly Huntsville and Pine Bluff. Edgewood Arsenal filled all 100- and 500-pound clusters. ... 

VAl September 1945 Seven shiploads of chemical munitions— 75,852 mortar shells filled with mustard gas 924 white phosphorous cluster bombs potentially containing up to 60 smaller munitions each upwards of 1,000 55-gallon steel drums of arsenic trichloride and 23,000 chemical smoke projectiles—dumped near the Virginia-Maryland border. 

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