The Chemical Warfare Service

Book excerpt: This volume, the second in a series of three devoted to the Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) in World War II, now the Chemical Corps, covers research, development, procurement, and distribution of chemical warfare materiel. It traces the history of these activities from the World War I period, when the CWS was activated to supervise the offensive and defensive aspects of gas warfare throughout the Army, until the end of World War II. The first volume in the series, "Organizing for War", discusses the development of the CWS organization and mission as well as personnel management and military training. The third volume, entitled "Chemicals in Combat", will deal with the chemical warfare activities in the theaters of operations. In treating research and development, the present volume concentrates on CWS projects that proved of greatest significance to the armed forces during World War II. It attempts to point up the problems that arose in course of research and development and to indicate the solutions which the scientists hit upon. Since research and development in the zone of the interior was closely related to research and development in the theaters of operations, the volume covers activities in both areas. In contrast to research and development, procurement and distribution differed considerably as between the zone of the interior and the theaters of operations; in the theaters these activities were closely associated with the commanders' combat responsibilities. The volume, therefore, confines itself to a review of procurement and distribution in the zone of the interior, leaving narration of theater activities to the volume "Chemicals in combat".