The Bombers and the Bombed: Allied Air War Over Europe 1940-1945

by Richard Overy

Less well known are the plans for biological warfare against Germany developed in 1944–45. These too were the result of growing fears that a desperate enemy might utilize bacteriological warfare, possibly projected by some form of rocket propulsion. In 1942, Roosevelt authorized a War Research Board directed by George Merck, with an advisory board of prominent scientists, disguised simply as the “ABC Committee,” whose first task was to work out ways to protect the American population from a possible German or Japanese bacteriological attack. In late 1942 the work was taken over by the Chemical Warfare Service, which set up a research facility at Camp Detrick in Frederick, Maryland. As with gas warfare, intelligence began to appear in 1943 that suggested Germany was planning the use of biological warfare agents, and in particular “bacillus botulinus” (now known as Clostridium botulinum, the cause of botulism), which was impossible to detect in an airborne attack, caused symptoms in four to five hours, and death by embolism in most cases. The assumption was that Germany would only hesitate to use biological weapons because of the threat of “instant reprisal,” and as a result a program to produce lethal pathogens was accelerated. A further report in January 1944 warned that rocket or air attacks using bacteria might be imminent, and their effects “devastating.” This included the probability of using anthrax spores directed at human populations.90 Three plants were set up for ...