Anthony Buckland wrote:
> "SolomonW" wrote in message
> news:SwKho.57761$45.932@newsfe29.ams2...
>> On Tue, 7 Sep 2010 12:28:45 -0700 (PDT), careysub@... wrote:
>>
>>> If the allies had decided to use gas in WWII, employing bomber forces
>>> to drop it once air superiority was established, which would have
>>> enabled establishing instantly lethal concentrations over several
>>> square miles at a time, then views on the possible effectiveness of
>>> gas today would be different (but it would be remembered even less
>>> fondly).
>> Imagine the effect on the fire bombing of Tokyo if gas had been used by
>> the
>> allies in the mix.
>
> Yes, although I'd like to see some evidence about that
> "instantly lethal concentrations over several square
> miles at a time". That sounds like a monumental
> weight distributed with exquisite accuracy under such
> potentially trying circumstances as night, wind (including
> fire storm wind), and even token resistance from the
> ground.
For air delivery large capacity (1000 lb) bombs would have been
preferred, which hold from about 100 kg of agent (hydrogen cyanide) to
200 kg (phosgene).
When one of these bomb bursts it instantly disperses the agent over an
area of something like one hectare, and the cooling effect of the
immediate evaporation of the agent (they boil at 25 C and 7.6 C
respectively) causes the formation of a stable low lying vapor cloud
with a high enough concentration to cause fatal exposure in on the order
of a minute. (A little math: 10,000 square meters of a cloud 5 meters
deep is 50,000 cubic meters, 200 kg of agent makes an average
concentration of 4000 mg/m^3, phosgene is lethal at exposures of 3200
mg-min/m^3)
This means that each individual bomb creates a significant zone of
lethal gas coverage, and it does so regardless of where it lands. If one
drops 2000 tons of these bombs (a large bombing raid) then 4000 hectares
are covered with these clouds (some 15 square miles).
Very rough bombing accuracy suffices for this sort of attack.
This is in contrast to artillery shells which, with these agents, cannot
individually create a high concentration cloud of any size because they
only hold a kilogram or two of agent, and have a relatively large
bursting charge to rupture the heavier shell casing. To create any
effective battlefield concentrations with artillery multiple shells must
be fired so that their overlapping clouds build one up.
The G and V nerve agents were notable innovations that increased
toxicity 30 - 100 times the WWI agents, and rendered individual
artillery shells of creating lethal cloud also. |
