US Army Chemical Warfare Service

Note The figures given in this table are very rough approximations. Only in the cases of the UK and the USA are reasonably adequate casualty statistics available. For the other belligerents, the figures given are those estimated by Colonel Prentiss of the US Army Chemical Warfare Service after his careful study of all available material. His treatise, op. cit. Chemicals in War, should be consulted for further information about his estimates. 

The United States was a latecomer to World War I it did not declare war on Germany until April 1917. By early September of that year, a Gas Service had been estabHshed as a separate branch of the American Expeditionary Force in France, but it was not until June 1918, five months before the Armistice, that members of the newly formed US Army Chemical Warfare Service, or CWS, became available for action on the front. Because of the risk of fi iendly-fire casualties and the fact that using CW drew a disproportionate amount of enemy fire, US Army field officers resisted engaging in gas warfare. It was later said by Major General William L. Sibert, the first commanding general of the CWS, that the service actually had to go out and sell gas to the Army. 2 In the end, the US Army command did overcome its reluctance and... 

Major General Amos A. Fries was chief of the US Army Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) during the 1920s. With determination and considerable political acumen, Fries ensured the survival of the CWS. (Courtesy of Soldier Biological and Chemical Command, Historical Research and Response Team, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD.)... 

Daisite. A French Thermite mixt composed of Fe304 58, Al 18 sulfur 24%, used during WWII. Sulfur served as a binder and as a fuel Ref A.E.Gaul L.Finkelstein, "History of Research and Development of The Chemical Warfare Service in World War II (1 July 1940 -31 Dec 1945) , Vol 18, Part 2 Incendiaries, Chemical Corps, US Army Chemical Center, Md (1952), p 95... 

However, the Japan-China conflict seems to have gone almost unnoticed in the Western press, and it was after the Italy-Ethiopian War that the possibility of a chemical war in Europe became the primary concern of both the British and US Army s Chemical Warfare Services. Consequently, they studied the chemical warfare capabilities of both Germany and Italy, but, as will be seen, intelligence completely missed the German development of nerve agents. 

The US Government responded more radically than had the British Government when American troops suffered badly from chemical attacks during the early days after their entry into WWI. A Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) was setup and with eventually 4873 men under the command of 210 officers, formed a force more committed to chemical warfare than any in the British Army. At the end of WWI, the CWS was markedly reduced and all but abolished however, a vigorous and effective propaganda campaign ensured its survival. Articles published in chemical journals extolled the efforts of the CWS and one editorial closed ... 

Fig. 2-25. The Japanese UJI bacterial bomb, drawn from sketches given to Lieutenant Colonel Murray Sanders, Chemical Warfare Service, in 1945. Porcelain rather than metal was used to form the shell because it could be shattered by a much smaller explosive charge. This protected the biological agent, assuring that it would be subjected to less heat and pressure. Reprinted from Scientific and Technical Advisory Section, US Army Forces, Pacific. Biological Warfare. Vol 5. In Report on Scientific Intelligence Survey in Japan. HQ, US Army Forces, Pacific 1945 appended chart.

Katz SH. Standard US Army Gas Masks and Components. Edgewood Arsenal, Md Chemical Warfare Service Technical Command 1944. Technical Division Memorandum Report 878-2. 

Brophy LP, Miles WD, Cochrane RC. US Army in World War II The Chemical Warfare Service, From Laboratory to Field. Washington, DC US Government Printing Office 1959 1-27. 

Kleber BE, Birdsell D. The Chemical Warfare Service Chemicals in Combat. Washington, DC Office of the Chief of Military History, Department of the US Army, US Government Printing Office 1966. 

Cochrane RC. Biological Warfare Research in the United States. Vol 2. In History of the Chemical Warfare Service in World War II. Historical Section, Plans, Training and Intelligence Division, Office of Chief, Chemical Corps, US Department of the Army 1947. Unclassified. 

Jones, The Role of Chemists , op. cit. note 2,146-150 US Army Military History Instimte (Carlisle, PA), Harry M. St. John, Standard Methods for the Manufacture of New G-34 Development Division , Nela Park, Cleveland, Ohio, Chemical Warfare Service, 29 March 1919. 

Historical Survey 2006, pp. 111-27, pp. l4of National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), RG175, Chemical Warfare Service (1917-1963) RG544, US Army Materiel Command (1941-1973) also Balmer 2006a, pp. 7i6f Ede 2011. 

See, for example, in the series The US Army in World War II The Technical Services, Brooks E. Kleber and Dale Birdsell, The Chemical Warfare Service Chemicals in Combat, pp. 25-6 also Brown, op. cit., passim. 

Sidell, F.R., Franz, D.R. (1997). Chapter 1. Overview defense against the effects of chemical and hiological warfare agents. In Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare (F.R. Sidell, E.T. Takafiiji, D.R. Franz, eds), pp. 1-7. Bordem Institute, Office of the Surgeon General, US Army Medical Department Center and Schoul, US Army Medical Research and Material Command, Uniformed Services University of the Health Science, Washington, Falls Church, Fort Sam Houston, Fort Detrick, Bethesda, USA. 

There are many detailed accounts of the use of gas in the First World War a number are contemporary or nearly so, and include books by men who had been closely involved in gas warfare C.H. Foulkes, who had charge of the British Special Brigade S.J.M. Auld Amos Fries of the US Gas Service. Of more modern accounts. The first volume of the SIPRI study. The Problem of Chemical and Biological Warfare, contains much material, as does L.F. Haber s excellent book based on the papers of the late Harold Hartley (one of the first Chemical Advisers appointed to the British Armies in... 

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