This document is refered to by multiple Chemical Warfare textbooks used on Treasure Island and was the definition of Chemical Warfare Training during World War II. Unfortunately the training chemicals for chemical warfare were deadly poisons and the chemicals used to clean are deadly poisons. Here is a photograph of the gas mask training at Edgewood Arsenal where the plane is spraying “Asbestine” which was asbestos and talcum powder onto the unsuspecting recruits.

The other training chemical which was used to simulate Mustard Gas was mostly Molasses with sand and Cresols which are a deadly poison. This was dumped on 60,000 soldiers trained in chemical warfare for World War II and the VA made an alotment for their exposure durinig the war. My guess is nobody told the VA that they continued this training after the war and to this day.
All battles of World War II had Chemical Warfare ready to be used if the Axis powers decided to use them. It was the first demonstration of Mutually Assured Destruction in combat and it was not used in the war for offensive conflict against the allies. The Japanese had used it in China when they invaded in the early 30s but did not use it against The US in the war. They knew we had perfected our techniques and were ready to use them!
This is the revised edition for the Training Manual 1942 and the revisions were located at the front of the document. Also understand that these chemical weapons used full laboratories to make the agents, and those other chemicals are listed in this publication. I will post the chemical weapons and the chemicals used directly for working with them in the field whther in combat or in medical treatment in an index at the end and their current status of toxicity.
- The new agents for 1942:
- 144.1 Phenyldichlorarsine
- 158.2 Hydrocyanic Acid
- 158.3 Cyanogen Chloride – which was made in Linden NJ
- 158.1 Arsine
In Training manuals the numbering system is for the item numbers and not the page numbers and to provide an index at the and of this document. Thsi is done so the new agents can fit into existing documents with other numbered toxins under their categories without having to number them again. It is important to standardize all training to the same exact specifications so it can be done anywhere. This procedure would continue for all CBR Training on all bases. The main document was printed in 1940 so it uses different terms. Eveyrthing was standardized in the war so the British Chemical Warfare agent names and descriptions matched with the US Names and descriptions. So for instance Mustard Gas was (H) it is now (HS). Later editions would fix this.
Mustard Gas Test at Treasure Island 1964
The Navy applied the Mustard Gas as a liquid onto a field gun, a mock up of a ship and a mock up of an airplane along with several vertical steel placards that they set up on the island to measure the different effects of weathering on an application of Mustard as a liquid onto these plaques. By using it in liquid form the concentration of the vapors from evaporation would be 50 times the lethal amount than from it being deployed as gas. The Training used mustard gas as a liquid and here is the information from this document of the danger. The concentrations at lower temperatures are still multiples of the lethal amount.
Continue reading “Military Chemistry and Chemical Agents 1942”