U.S. Army’s Chemical Warfare Service

A group of U.S. Army soldiers, rifles in hand, wears gas masks during a training exercise in California related to chemical attacks. 1943.

by Major General Alden H. Waitt

When World War II began all the world wondered whether poison gas was to be used. Later, after this country was attacked, and month after month passed, there was still a great deal of uncertainty as to whether the Axis powers would resort to its use in their desperation.

All during these months and years the primary mission of the Chemical Warfare Service was to be ready to retaliate immediately and with overwhelming force if the Germans and Japanese initiated such warfare.

We and our Allies were so well prepared—and the enemy knew it—that gas was never used.

This preparation took the form of stockpiling toxic agents at air and ground bases. They were always ready for immediate retaliatory use. Also, the Chemical Warfare Service developed, procured, and supplied to our fighting troops gas masks, protective clothing, and scores of other items of equipment for defense against gas attacks. Chemical officers were on the staffs of every Theater headquarters, Army group, Army corps, division and base command, prepared to supervise the use of gas if necessary.

In the performance of its research, development, logistical, and training mission, the Service expanded its technical and scientific personnel from three hundred to more than five thousand; established proving grounds in both temperate and tropical climates; set up special laboratories at universities; built new chemical and medical laboratories, arsenals, depots, and training centers; operated seven procurement districts; conducted civilian defense training at the CWS School and at seven civilian colleges and universities; and, beginning in 1939, expanded its military personnel strength from 917 to 69,791, and its civilian strength from 1,355 to 28,651.

In the absence of gas warfare most of CWS personnel, and virtually all its units, were fully engaged in other primary and secondary missions.

The 4.2-inch Chemical Mortar, the most famous of the ground-type chemical weapons, and a product of this Service, was originally developed for firing gas and smoke. Later, the firing of a high explosive shell was authorized. With its rifled barrel, the 4.2 could fire with artillery-like accuracy, and the guns of one battalion could lose 12 tons of shell in a minute. Its high-angle fire enabled it to reach targets inaccessible to artillery, and its accuracy and short minimum range enabled units to emplace it within 600 yards of targets.

The 4.2 was first employed in the assault on Sicily and, two months later, against the Japanese. During the thirty-eight days of the Sicilian campaign the mortar companies supported infantry, airborne, armored divisions, and Ranger battalions, and fired almost every type of non-gas mission. Landing in the first waves of the assault, 4.2s helped break up counterattacks launched by the enemy before our own artillery could be landed. The remarkable accuracy of the weapon was demonstrated when, during night firing, eight rounds were fired at an enemy tank, all of which fell within a radius of 15 feet, with one round going down the open turret of the tank.

During the Italian campaign every division demanded chemical mortar support. The battalions fired almost continuously, one battalion being out of the line only thirty-seven days in fourteen months. On one occasion during the fighting on the Sorrento Peninsula, a 4.2 knocked out a German 88-mm gun at a range of 4,700 yards! Employing white phosphorous (WP) shell, smoke screens were fired to protect American forces confined on the Anzio beachhead, and to lay other type screens in places where smoke pots and generators could not be emplaced.

Only two chemical mortar battalions were available for the cross-channel attack on the Normandy coast on 6 June 1944. By the end of 1944, however, nine battalions were supporting infantry operations in the European Theater. The 4.2s were among the first guns in action on the Normandy beaches, where they knocked out machine gun nests, broke up counterattacks with massed fire, laid smoke screens to protect infantry attacks, and knocked out German 88s.

During the Battle of the Bulge a mortar company, ordered to fire to cover the withdrawal of U.S. forces, opened fire with WP shell. Enemy tank drivers lost their way in the smoke, and the German infantry be-came panicky when showered with WP.

In the Mediterranean and European Theaters, chemical mortar battalions fired a total of 2,500,000 rounds of high explosive and WP shell. One battalion spent 508 days in the line, fired almost 500,000 rounds, and, during the first year of its operations, suffered 1,200 casualties. Only the armored cavalry, the infantry, and air personnel sustained a higher rate of casualties than chemical mortar battalions.

Perhaps the most spectacular type employment of 4.2-inch mortars in the Pacific was their use in assault landings, mounted on LCI(M)s, three mortars per boat. As waves of infantry and Marines waded ashore at Peleliu, Leyte, Luzon, Iwo Jima, and at Okinawa, the 4.2s, firing over the heads of the troops, laid rolling barrages which blasted enemy beach installations and troop concentrations.

The use of smoke to conceal activity in military operations is by no means new, but in World War II the CWS, employing advanced concepts and newly developed devices, smoke pots, and mechanical smoke generators, advanced the strategic and tactical use of smoke to a point of proficiency never before attained. Adapted to both offensive and defensive operations, smoke marked aerial targets; reduced or completely neutralized the effectiveness of enemy bombing; concealed river crossings; denied observation to enemy artillery, mortars, and small arms fire; protected our vital supply lines in ports; provided a protective curtain for infantry advances, patrol activity, the evacuation of the wounded, and paratroop landings.

The most significant screening operations took place in the Mediterranean and European Theaters. The first large area screens were laid to protect the North African ports from enemy bombing. On 7 July 1943, ships for the impending invasion of Sicily lay in the Bay of Bizerte when the Germans attacked with about sixty planes. The attack lasted thirty-five minutes but, thanks to the smoke screen, not a single bomb struck within the vital area. Along the lower Garigliano, during March 1944, enemy-observed fire was taking its toll of American troops and supplies moving through the valley to the front. To protect this area, a gigantic smoke haze covering 120 square miles was maintained.

Perhaps the most decisive contribution made by smoke in the European Theater was the protection afforded to engineer and infantry units in river crossings. In the crossings of the Moselle, the Saar, the Roer, and other rivers, smoke enabled the engineers to construct and maintain bridges, and the infantry to cross and seize bridgeheads with minimum losses. The crossing of the Rhine constituted the greatest mass crossing of an inland waterway, or any other body of water, in history. To protect this operation, the British, Canadian, and American armies erected and maintained, for two weeks, a screen which extended over most of a 60-mile front from Emmerich to south of Dusseldorf, resulting in the largest smoke screen in history.

The main incendiary weapon for employment by ground troops was the flame thrower, which was initially employed by the enemy in both the European and Pacific Theaters. In the Pacific Theater, portable ad mechanized flame throwers were among the most effective ground weapons.

On Guadalcanal, in December 1942, our advance was held up by a Jap bunker which other weapons had failed to reduce. At this point a CWS officer conducted a short course on the flame thrower for Marine engineers. The following day two Marines crawled into position and fired a flame thrower into the bunker. There were no survivors among the Japanese.

In addition to improving the portable flame thrower, the CWS, in cooperation with the Navy and Marines, developed the tank-mounted, or mechanized, flame thrower to meet operational demands. Such armored flame throwers had greatly increased fuel capacity and from two to three times the range of portable weapons.

A typical mechanized flame thrower operation was the attack on Rocky Crags near Hill 178 on Okinawa. About 300 Japanese, armed with everything from rifles to 75-mm guns, defended the 460-foot coral hill. Until an infantry battalion supported by eighteen standard tanks and six flame tanks was assigned the mission of taking the objective, progress was slow and costly. With the flame tanks repeatedly flooding the peak with flame, resistance was broken and the infantry took the position. The 713th Tank Battalion, equipped with fifty-four main armament flame throwers, was credited with killing 4,788 Japanese and capturing forty-nine on Okinawa, at a cost of only seven men killed and 112 wounded.

For air operations in non-gas warfare, the CWS provided two important chemical munitions—the incendiary and the fire bombs. When the War Department assigned the incendiary bomb mission to the CWS, the U.S. had a single incendiary—the 100-pound gasoline-filled bomb. At that time there was a critical shortage of magnesium, but the CWS developed and procured an effective substitute in time for General Doolittle to use it on his historic raid on Tokyo in 1942. The Service then proceeded to develop and procure two and four-pound magnesium bombs, a six-pound oil bomb, a ten-pound pyrotechnic gel bomb, a 100-pound jellied oil bomb, and the 500-pound pyrotechnic gel bomb. Approximately 250 million incendiary bombs were procured by the CWS for use by the Air Forces in strategic bombardment. By 1945 more than half of the bombs being dropped on Japan were of the incendiary type. The accomplishments of the CWS in this field were second to none among its many contributions to the winning of World War II. For air support of tactical operations, the CWS provided fire bombs (napalm-filled) of 30-gallon to 300-gallon capacity. Approximately 37,000 of these were dropped on point targets during 1944 and 1945—mostly in 1945.

The Author

Major General Alden Harry Waitt was born on 22 December 1892. He was graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1915.

Commissioned in 1917, he served in France with the 29th Division and later with Headquarters of the Chemical Warfare Service there, being discharged a captain in December 1918.

He was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Chemical Warfare Service of the Regular Army on 1 July 1920. In the three years that followed, he saw extensive duty and training in America and the Hawaiian Islands.

In August 1942, he was named Commandant of the Chemical Warfare School at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland.

In October 1942 he was assigned to the Office of the Chief of Chemical Warfare, Washington, D.C., as Assistant Chief, Chemical Warfare Service for Field Operations, and, on 29 November 1945 he began a tour of duty as Chief of Chemical Warfare Service, Washington, D.C.

Made a brigadier general (temporary) on 13 September 1942, he was promoted to major general (temporary) on 13 November 1945.

His decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, Army Commendation Ribbon with Oak Leaf Cluster, and other awards.

Died on 11 February 1981.

Promotions

1940-10-09: Lieutenant-Colonel

1942-02-01: Colonel (Army of the United States)

1942-09-13: Brigadier-General (Army of the United States)

1945-11-13: Major-General (Chief of the Chemical Corps)

Service

1939-10-XX – 1941-02-XX: Chemical Officer, Armored Force

1941-03-XX – 1942-03-XX: Chief of Air Corps Branch, Operations & Training Division, War Department General Staff

1942-03-XX – 1942-08-XX: Chief of Plan & Training Division, Office of the Chief of Chemical Warfare Service

1942-08-XX – 1942-10-XX: Commandant of the Chemical Warfare School

1942-10-XX – 1945-11-29: Assistant Chief for Field Operations, Office of the Chief of Chemical Warfare Service

1945-11-10 – 1945-11-28: Acting Chief of the Chemical Corps, War Department

1945-11-29 – 1947-09-17: Chief of the Chemical Corps, War Department

1947-09-18 – 1949-09-30: Chief of the Chemical Corps, Department of the Army

U.S. troops in Panama participate in a chemical warfare training exercise with smoke during World War II.

 

Three test subjects enter a gas chamber, which will fill with mustard gas, as part of the military's secret chemical warfare testing in March 1945.

Soldiers of the 44th Division at Fort Dix, New Jersey, in a gas mask drill. The experiments however, exposed troops to chemical weapons without such protection.

US Army soldier with rifle during gas mask training, Fort Belvoir during 1942.

A soldier being sprayed with DDT from a pump-pressurized canister in World War II.

Mechanical smoke generator M1 (100-gallon) pouring out smoke screen to conceal Fifth Army operations from the Germans, Anzio area, Italy, March 1944.

“I see Comp’ny E got th’ new style gas masks, Joe.”

Maj. Gen. Alden H. Waitt, Chemical Warfare Service, U.S. Army.

Negro troops doing calisthenics in gas masks, Ridgewood Arsenal, Maryland, 1 April 1941.

Chemical Warfare troops undergoing training on infiltration course, Camp Sibert, Alabama.

Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, major installation for field testing, proof-firing, and surveillance of chemical agents and munitions under temperate zone conditions.

Service gas mask with M4 facepiece worn by women in training at Camp Breckinridge, Kentucky.

Walt Disney with staff members of Chemical Warfare Service, January 1942, meeting to discuss a Mickey Mouse gas mask for children. From left: Col. George J. B. Fisher, Col. Maurice E. Barker, Walt Disney, General Porter, and General English. Note picture of mask, left background.

4.2-inch chemical mortar in action, Arundel Island, New Georgia, September 1943. HE ammunition for the mortar is stacked at the right.

Mortar gunboat. Crew preparing to fire one of the 4.2-inch chemical mortars mounted on the deck of an LCT.

Operator firing a portable flame thrower E1R1 at a concrete fortification during a test of the weapon.

Attacking a Japanese bunker with an M1A1 portable flame thrower, Bougainville, March 1944.

Firing an M2-2 portable flame thrower into a wall opening, Maniula. Luzon, February 1945.

American and German portable flame throwers. U.S. flame thrower M2-2, left; German 1942 model, right.

M4 medium flame thrower tank in action on Okinawa, May 1945.

Lt. Gen. Wilhelm D. Styer standing in front of a flame thrower mounted on a medium tank chassis at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. To the right of General Styer is Col. Jay C. Whitehair, Howard C. Peterson, and Coil. George F. Unmacht.

M3A1 light tank equipped with flame gun firing during a demonstration, New Zealand, October 1943.

Flame gun to fit .30-cal. machine gun mount of tanks is demonstrated to Seventh Army soldiers, France, February 1945.

Burning phosphorus from a 100-pound incendiary bomb on an enemy airfield, Rabaul, New Britain. Aircraft are Japanese Betty-type bombers.

Lockheed P-38’s dropping fire bombs near Ipo Dam, Luzon.

Smoke screen demonstration over the harbor, Palermo, Sicily. The screen was produced by mechanical smoke generators and smoke pots in thirteen minutes.

Small M1 smoke pots set off in a series to maintain a screen for troops in the Gothic Line, Italy.

Mechanical smoke generator (50-gallon), one of many used to screen a heavy ponton bridge over the Rhine River, Germany.

Lockheed A-29 spraying smoke from M33 smoke tanks visible under wings of craft. Smoke tank protruding from bomb bay is the M33 A-1.

4.2-inch WP chemical mortar shells on an assembly line, Pine Bluff Arsenal, Arkansas.

93rd Chemical Composite Company testing flame thrower fuels, Milne Bay, New Guinea.

Loading liquid smoke into an M10 smoke tank for aircraft, New Guinea.

Loading 500-pound clusters of magnesium bombs into a B-24 of the Eighth Air Force, somewhere in England.

Attaching an empty 108-gallon fire bomb tank to the fuselage of a P-47.

A Marine flame throwing tank, also known as a "Ronson", scorches a Japanese strongpoint. The eight M4A3 Shermans equipped with the Navy Mark 1 flame-thrower proved to be the most valuable weapons systems on Iwo Jima.