Poison gas for Tokyo, poison darts for Berlin

British officials considered attacking Tokyo with poison gas in 1944, more than a year before the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan.

Documents made public today include a memorandum written by a government academic entitled Attack on Tokyo with Gas Bombs. His report was coupled with a note from the Ministry of Supply, dated May 22, 1944.

From the Times of London. The article doesn't indicate how seriously the proposal was considered, but all sorts of ideas were being bruited about at the time -- as the Daily Mail reports:

A war strategy to shower enemy troops with tens of thousands of poisoned darts that could bring death in minutes. . .

Details, revealed today in secret documents released by the National Archives, outline the gruesome physical effects of such an attack on Nazi troops.

The papers also show how the Government tried to rope the Singer Sewing Machine Company into supplying the needles.

The concept, developed between 1941 and 1945, involved darts carrying a sufficient amount of poison to cause 'death or disablement'.

More the 30,000 of the darts could be stored in cluster bombs, which could be dropped onto enemy troops from an aircraft at 3,000ft, according to the file entitled Research Into Use Of Anthrax And Other Poisons For Biological Warfare. Death of a target would occur in 30 minutes if the darts were not removed quickly.

ADDENDUM: Further perspectives over at Airminded.

Posted by David on June 25, 2009 9:10 PM