Is it true that Churchill suggested dropping poison gas on German cities instead of bombs?

Question

I have learned that Churchill was a great strength to the British people during the war, yet he was also their greatest threat by constantly coming up with disasterous miitary schemes that only due to the strong stance of his military leaders, would have occurred.

Answer 1

How could churchill be blamed for something like this if it were true, since Gt Britain had a coalition government anyway during WWII. All parties worked together.

Answer 2

It sounds unlikely.  At least Churchill listened to his Generals, unlike Hitler, whose megalomania cost him the war.

Answer 3

In desperate times anything is possible... But even so, Churchills early military record was not good - he was a decadent waster and he made many mistakes which cost others their lives. The gas thing comes from the consideration of using gas weapons on the Kurds.

Answer 4

I think you are a little confused.  Churchill never suggested dropping gas bombs but it was a policy that was considered if the n**i's ever used it against us.

As for the other stuff the same applies.  Churchill came up with many great ideas and also some less good ones.  Many of these were simple brain storming and were never considered possible. I cant think of a single military scheme he actually encourage that turned into a distaster.

Answer 5

Don't know the details... but YES.

Answer 6

I'm quite sure all things militarily possible were discussed behind closed doors at some point or another during WW2.

Answer 7

Churchill  also considered ANTHRAX disease bombs. These were tested out on Gruinard island off the west coast of Scotland. The disease is so deadly that it is only within the last few years and after a major clean up that it is now safe togo back on to the island

Answer 8

No, but he did advocate using poison gas against the Kurds in the 1920s.

Answer 9

No doubt, but it was never carried out. However, in the context of Thousand Bomber raids, there is not much moral difference between burning a population to death through incendiary bombs and gassing them.

On the point that Churchill was a "loose cannon", more a liability than an asset, he did have many hare-brained schemes, but he had more good ones than daft ones, which gives us all hope.

Answer 10

This is an oversimplification.

In 1943, in an attempt to force the Soviet Union to the peace table, Hitler threatened to use mustard gas against the Red Army (the Russian economy could not produce gas masks for all 30 million soldiers, so this was a very serious threat). In a show of solidarity, Churchill and Roosevelt stated to Germany that if mustard gas was used on the Red Army in the field, that the western Allies would begin dropping mustard gas bombs on German cities as a deterrent. Of course, it the deterrent is to be taken seriously, the gas must be available to be dropped on very short notice, which means storing them in an area under the control of the western Allies.

Unfortunately, Churchill was not politically strong enough at this time to stockpile the gas bombs in England, so it was decided that the bombs would instead be kept in Southern Italy where the western armies had invaded by this time. At this point, an amazing chain of coincidents occurs.

The only major port in southern Italy in Allied hands at this point in Bari, on the Adriatic coast. On the same day as the ship carrying the gas bombs arrives in Bari, ALL of the ships carrying the anti-aircraft guns, the hospital equipment, and the new headquarters all arrive at the same time with massive confusion and gridlock in the tiny harbor. At the same time, the Germans have seen how messed up everything is and launch a desperate air raid on the harbor with devastating results (this raid is unofficially termed 'the second Pearl Harbor' of WWII!).

Of course, the ship with the bombs explodes, and of course the ONLY person in the harbor who knew about the secret shipment of gas bombs was blown up with the ship. The gas is now pouring into the air and dissolving in the sea water, while the water main for the city of Bari has been destroyed in the air raid, so the wounded sailors pulled from the sea cannot be washed and they will continue to breathe in a mixture of poison gas, sea water and deisel fuel for about a week. Some of the German prisoners on hand noted to their captors that they thought they smelled mustard gas, but mustard gas smells like GARLIC, and the Americans thought that there was nothing suspicious about smelling garlic in Italy!

EDIT - How the heck can I have a thumbs down for this answer? This is ridiculous. This is the only answer that actually answers the question, and I actually cite a source! What more is there to do?

Answer 11

Not as far as I know.

Answer 12

Ah, the good old days when our Political leaders listened to the Military men who knew what they were talking about before embarking upon self-righteous crusades based upon iffy 'intelligence'. Who mentioned Iraq?

Answer 13

chuchill was the first to mustard gas the kurds, long before saddam ever took power

Answer 14

I wouldn't be surprised. Churchill was a stupid fat butt.