
Special Paint on the Hood of the World War II Jeep Could Detect Mustard Gas - curtis
https://jalopnik.com/how-special-paint-on-the-hood-of-the-world-war-ii-jeep-1826657149
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dingaling
> "after looking at blue British detector paint in the early 1940s"

It is odd that the article doesn't delve into that point more. In the early
stages of the war, actually from mid-1938 onwards, British aircraft and
vehicles had 'gas detector' panels which were squares paper soaked in the
detection paint and taped-on. It was usually yellowish with one on the wing or
the fuselage-spine of aircraft:

[https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/attachments/a380efa1d53530a5-j...](https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/attachments/a380efa1d53530a5-jpg.428273/)

Those fell out of use from late 1940 due to the low risk of gas attack and
production ended in 1943. Just as the USA was starting production of its M5
paint!

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curtis
The United States had mustard gas munitions in the European theater in case
they needed to retaliate against a first use of chemical weapons by the
Germans. In 1943 the Germans launched a successful air raid on the port of
Bari, Italy [1]. One of the ships destroyed in this attack was a U.S.
freighter carrying mustard gas munitions. Many allied servicemen and Italian
civilians were exposed to mustard gas in this attack, and their treatment was
impaired because the military command absolutely did not want to reveal the
presence of chemical agents to the Germans in fear that the Germans might use
that as a justification for using their own chemical weapons.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raid_on_Bari](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_raid_on_Bari)

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Bucephalus355
Reading “The Hollow Years” about France in the 1930’s.

As war seemed more and more likely from the mid-1930's onward, a lot was
talked about the possible merger of chemical warfare and new airplane
technology.

A particularly haunting line the author cites from a contemporary historian
talked about how “a few dozen bombers can spread enough gas to push over all
of Paris a tsunami of mustard gas 100 feet high and 50 miles wide”.

Probably not true, but interesting how they merged threats old and new.

~~~
brownbat
H G Wells wrote in 1933 that submarines armed with intercontinental ballistic
missiles loaded with some kind of chemical weapons would be a dominant factor
in shaping future conflicts.

He also predicted the international post service would take over the world and
enforce universal basic English as the global standard language, so... some
good ones, some bad.

Still, the sub warfare bit was very prescient.

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Pamar
About the international post service... isn't Amazon somehow going that way?

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the-dude
The internet.

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jeromegv
The article make it sounds like the Germans were the ones known to use
chemical weapons during the WW1. Both sides used it quite extensively, this
wasn't just the German.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapons_in_World_War_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_weapons_in_World_War_I)

~~~
rflrob
I agree the article is misleadingly written, but presumably the Allies in WWII
knew they had no plans to use mustard gas in the immediate future, whereas the
enemy could not be relied upon to abstain.

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knolan
Coming to Battlefield V one presumes.

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IAmGraydon
Doesn’t human eyes and skin serve as a more immediate detector than a color
changing star? Surely you would start feeling the effects of a liquid chemical
weapon attack before your magic mustard star would have time to change color.

~~~
mikeash
From the article:

> ...agents like mustard gas, which have a characteristic odor, tend to dull a
> victim’s sense of smell “after only a few breaths so that the smell can no
> longer be distinguished.” In addition, the implementing body of the Chemical
> Weapons Convention states, respiratory damage can occur in the presence of
> even tiny, unsmellable concentrations of the agent.

