[Erax]

Originally posted by tbontob:
Many writers say that Hitler was not in his right mind at the end of the war. He blamed the German people for failing him in winning the war and was apparently so enraged by it that he didn't care if Germany was completely destroyed.

The reason given for Hitler not using mustard gas and other gases is that he was apparently gassed as a soldier (corporal?) in WWI. He found the experience so unpleasant, that he didn't amass any great amount of it in WW2.

Now these are two topics I know something about. There is some evidence that Hitler became insane during the course of the war, as a result of an ill-cured case of syphilis, which he contracted as a young man in Vienna. If this is true, it would have been hushed up by the Nazis, so the chances of proving it conclusively (other than getting the KGB to hand over Hitler's body for a forensic examination, assuming they do have it) are scarce. Aside from this, it is well known that he was addicted to morphine towards the end of the war, which contributed to his mental instability.

Now for the gas. Yes, Hitler was gassed when he was a corporal in WWI and that is one reason why the Nazis never employed chemical weapons. But another important reason is that a German scientist had discovered the first nerve gas (by accident, and it nearly killed him) in the inter-war period. The Germans knew American scientists had been doing research with similar chemical compounds, and they knew the US had discovered something and were keeping it secret. They assumed the US also had nerve gas, but in fact the Americans had discovered DDT. The Nazis did manufacture nerve gas during the war, but never used it because they believed the Allies also had it and would use it back on them.

Edit : The two paragraphs above are about WW TWO. The next paragraph is about WW ONE. My original post was unintentionally misleading and might have caused some confusion.

An interesting side note : while the Germans were the first to use gas (chlorine gas, in fact) during WWI, they did not violate the Geneva Convention. That treaty prohibited the member nations from shooting projectiles or artillery shells with a gas payload. What the Germans did was to open the gas containers and let the wind carry the chlorine to the Allied trenches. Of course, this did not prevent the British and French from claiming the treaty had been violated and loading shells with gas to use against the Germans. If the Germans had won, you can bet it would be claimed that it was the Western Allies who broke the treaty (which is technically correct, I may add).

[ June 04, 2003, 17:02: Message edited by: Chief Engineer Erax ]