General Staff, War Department

US Chemical Warfare Service, US Chemical Warfare Policy, Washington DC Operations Division, War Department General Staff, Strategy and Policy Group (14 June 1945), Draft. 

United States War Department General Staff (ed.), Rules of Land Warfare, Govt. Print. Off., Washington 1914-1915 2nd ed., ibid, 1917... 

Nonetheless, the War Department General Staff took a defensive position toward gas warfare throughout most of this period—defensive both in the attitude with which it approached the subject and in the type of warfare upon which it concentrated. In 1922 it suspended work on toxic agents and restricted other CWS efforts to defensive measures. Although this restrained approach was frequently reaffirmed in the 1920 s and 1930 s, modifications in the War Department prohibition of research on toxic gases allowed some work in this field—one had to know the offensive potential of an agent in order to defend against it. 

After the completion of the Edgewood tests, the CWS felt better prepared to provide technical supervision of smoke installations in the zone of interior, which the Operations Division, War Department General Staff, was finding difficult to establish because of shortages of... 

Jun 42. (j) The War Department General Staff based future activations on a schedule which called... 

To carry out these provisions the Commanding General, ASF, promptly established a committee headed by General Porter and including representatives chosen by G-2 and OPD of the War Department General Staff, the Requirements and Operations Divisions of the ASF, and the U.S. Navy. ... 

Compared to the amount of organization and effort involved in defensive training, that devoted to offensive chemical warfare was relatively limited. Policy in this field was frequently reviewed by the War Department General Staff. Standard procedure was that chemical weapons developed for the U.S. Army should be produced "with a view to employment by one or more of the combatant branches (that is, by Infantry, Field Artillery, Air Corps, etc.). For such materiel, the CWS was in theory a producer and supplier only. But the Chemical Warfare Service was never content merely to purvey. It took the view that the stocks of smoke, incendiary, and gas munitions were specialties, the merits of which might be overlooked if not adequately utilized. Hence an important function of CWS officers detailed to the faculties of special service schools and the Command and General Staff School was to further the introduction of chemical warfare situations into instructional problems and at the same time assist in the development of doctrine covering the employment of chemical munitions by the several combat arms. The Chief, CWS, selected instructors for assignment to those schools with the utmost care. 

Although the War Department General Staff repeatedly challenged the need for chemical combat troops, it did not object to "service type chemical... 

The timing of the mobilization of these chemical service companies viewed against the full background of the war was excellent. Their primary mission was to limit the effectiveness of hostile gas attack such secondary functions as they undertook were quite incidental to this principal purpose. By the time the War Department General Staff activated them, it had be-... 

Chiefs of Supply Services The Divisions of the War Department General Staff... 

Even more than other elements of the Army, the Chemical Warfare Service (designated Chemical Corps after World War II) felt the effects of the government s restrictions on personnel and funds in the years between the two world wars. This was partly the aftermath of international efforts to outlaw gas warfare and partly the result of antipathy to that type of warfare on the part of various high government officials. Certain members of the War Department General Staff, including at times the Chief of Staff himself, were opposed to gas warfare. Consequently the Chemical Warfare Service was considered as more or less a necessary nuisance. 

All chemical warfare requirements were subject to review by the War Department General Staff (G-4), and later by Headquarters, ASF, before... 

These same files, supplemented by other source material, were consulted for the emergency and war periods. The author found valuable information on the Chemical Advisory Committee to the Army-Navy Munitions Board in the files of the Chlorine Institute and the Manufacturing Chemists Association. He also searched the retired files of the Army-Navy Munitions Board, some of which were in the National Archives and others in the Pentagon. He obtained data on various aspects of CWS procurement and distribution from retired files of the Assistant Secretary of War (ASW), the Under Secretary of War (USW), the Army Service Forces (ASF), the Operations Division (OPD) of the War Department General Staff, the War Production Board (WPD), and the War Department Manpower Board (WDMB), all in the National Archives. 

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