Tropical warfare

All these discoveries were made by pursuing clues which Ehrlich and his school had revealed. Indicative of the impact that chemotherapy was now making was the German State s ban on any disclosure of the constitution of suramin and mepacrine, because of the potential they lent to tropical warfare. This was a complete swing of the pendulum from the State s apathy in 1899. (Parenthetically, the secrecy was short-lived the synthesis of suramin was solved by Fourneau et al, in 1924 at the Pasteur Institute in Paris Maghidson and Grigorovski, in Moscow, published that of mepacrine in 1933.)... 

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and the declaration of war by the United States, Allied headquarters began to pay greater attention to the possibility of waging chemical warfare under tropical conditions. This not only highlighted the military value of Porton s research facilities in the Far East, but strengthened collaborative projects and the sharing of resources, expertise and production facilities between Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, India, and South Africa.Reports... 

Northern Australia, the trials suggested mustard gas was roughly four times more potent under hot and humid conditions than in more temperate climates, and that Allied defensive capabilities would be inadequate. According to Gorrill, the entire Allied body of [chemical warfare] knowledge had to be re-examined and revised.By expanding and relocating the Unit to Innisfail, north of Queensland, where the terrain resembled the tropical... 

In France, chemical weapons could aid the war effort by helping Allied forces to break through the German defences , but they could also slow the military advance, affect communications, unsettle civilian labour, and negatively affect the relationship with the local population. The same was the case in the east, in southern France and in the Mediterranean, where chemical warfare was seen to be counterproductive in maintaining support from civilians and partisans. Existing chemical warfare stocks in the Far East were deemed to be insufficient to allow offensive chemical warfare to be conducted simultaneously in both theatres of war, and defensive measure were inadequate to protect the military from gas under tropical conditions. 

Williams, R.T., The Biochemical Reactions of Chemical Warfare Agents. A Symposium Held at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine on 15 December ig4J (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1948). 

Copthorne felt the CWS in the United States should provide gas warfare technical and preparedness doctrine for the tropics, or else that it should assist him and his colleagues in the Pacific areas in formulating such doctrine, but he was not satisfied that his appeals for help had received sufficient attention in the United States. He found communication with the Central Pacific Area chemical staff too difficult in 1943 to offer adequate opportunity for co-ordinated study of chemical problems, but his colleagues in the South Pacific were closer... 

Copthorne made a trip to Washington in the spring of 1944 for consultations in OCCWS, where he gave special attention to his manpower and planning problems. Lt. Col. William A. Johnson, an officer whom Copthorne had several times requested, arrived in the theater during Copthorne s absence to take over the operations and training functions. In June the theater gas warfare plan was revised, and the revision indicated a considerable improvement in the theater situation both with respect to supply and plans. Technical and munitions performance information was still deficient, but a team of two officers sent out to SWPA by OCCWS had made a preliminary survey of requirements for information on gas warfare in the tropics just before Copthorne s departure, and OCCWS was soon to set up a project for assessment of gas in tropical situations in the western hemisphere. ... 

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