Weapons in World War II

            Four types of gases developed in WWII were very deadly. Cyanogens, Carbon Monoxide, Cyanide, and Sarin were the four deadliest gases of WWII. The chemicals would enter the blood stream causing the body to shut down (Trueman, Chris). Sarin was the deadliest of all and could kill a victim in two minutes on average.

            Napalm was another type of chemical used in WWII. Napalm was a gooey substance that would stick to things and burn furiously. It was mainly used against people in trenches and many soldiers would be completely set on fire when it was used. Phosphorous was also used like napalm. Phosphorous bombs were made to drop on buildings to set them on fire to tell other bombers to attack it. Phosphorous grenades were made for soldiers to carry around on the battlefield. Phosphorous grenades would explode, scattering white pieces of phosphorous all over the battlefield. Any soldier that was hit by it would be burned terribly from it and it would cause enough pain to take them off the battlefield (Trueman). The two chemicals were not considered poison gases, so they were still allowed to be used without extreme retaliation.

            Germany and Australia had large amounts of stored gases ready for use. Germany had 70,000 tons of sarin. That was enough gas to kill all of the citizens in Paris 30 times. The U.S. used Australia to store their poison gases incase the Japanese invaded. Australia had thousands of tons of mustard gas hidden. They also had thousands of artillery shells and 53,000 of them were phosgene artillery shells (Trueman, Chris). The war could have been much more deadly if these gases were put to use.

           The Geneva Convention, held in 1925, enforced the banning of the use of chemical weapons. The document was ratified by all major countries except Japan and the U.S. Germany would have broken the rules in the document signed at the Geneva Convention, but they were afraid of retaliation from the Allied Powers. If they attacked an opposing country using chemical weapons, the casualty rate would have been much higher (Trueman, Chris). The Germans did still use poisonous gases but it was used in concentration camps and wasn’t considered fighting as much as it was slaughter.

Overall, flamethrowers, poison gases, and the German V weapons changed the war and caused more deaths than the regular weapons. First, flamethrowers could easily clear out trenches and kill the enemies hiding in them. Next, poisonous gases could kill quicker than other weapons. Lastly, the V weapons were scientific breakthroughs and were capable of destroying many buildings and killing many people from a distance. All in all, the weapons were unique to the basic weapons and gave an edge to the user.