On Thu, 9 Sep 2010 15:19:26 +0200, Michele wrote:
> "Carey" ha scritto nel messaggio
> news:325io.3866$2N5.841@newsfe12.iad...
>> 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).
>>
>
> I think the other poster's point is that there will be overlapping clouds.
> And it's a fair point.
>
>> Very rough bombing accuracy suffices for this sort of attack.
>>
>
> And that balances the overlapping.
One characteristic of WW2 firebombing like in Tokyo was that the fires
created enormous winds. I am not sure what it would do to these gas clouds.
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