Comments on: Saturday, 24 September 1938

By: Airminded · Post-blogging the Sudeten crisis: thoughts and conclusions

Airminded · Post-blogging the Sudeten crisis: thoughts and conclusions — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:11:53 +0000

[...] that came Hitler’s shocking demand for the Czechs to cede the Sudetenland by 1 October. No more talking, no more diplomacy: the [...]

By: Brett Holman

Brett Holman — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:39:36 +0000

My point is that it is hihgly impractical to use the war gasses available in 1938 in a terror campaign, and this was perfectly well known at the time.

Can't agree with this last bit. Yes, quite a few people were saying things along those lines in 1938 -- the year that Breathe Freely! The Truth about Poison Gas was published, for example. But not everyone agreed, and the government didn't manufacture and distribute 40-odd million civilian gas masks just for fun! A snippet from O'Brien's official history of civil defence (332): early in 1940, the government had intelligence that the Germans had found a way to deliver arsine gas by air, and only the service pattern masks protected against this. So Home Security had to get to work designing and making 70 million improved filters to protect the populace against this possibility. Again, clearly they took the threat seriously. The truth is that nobody was really sure what was going to happen when the bombs dropped. J. B. S. Haldane, for example, was one expert who was a gas sceptic, based partly on his scientific knowledge but also on observations of the war in Spain. He was right about gas (and he did make this point during the crisis, I just haven't talked about that -- there's too much to cover!). But he was also sceptical that incendiaries would be very dangerous. Try telling that to the inhabitants of Coventry, Dresden, Tokyo ...

By: Airminded · Monday, 26 September 1938

Airminded · Monday, 26 September 1938 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:56:51 +0000

[...] the situation has deteriorated since Saturday (above, Manchester Guardian, p. 9). Hitler has made new demands which are described by the [...]

By: Erik Lund

Erik Lund — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 17:14:52 +0000

My point is that it is hihgly impractical to use the war gasses available in 1938 in a terror campaign, and this was perfectly well known at the time. _Flight_ debunked the notion at regular intervals during the interwar years.
Comparing the effectiveness of high explosive/incendiary loads against gas, Britain’s best defence would have been a good taunting. “Hey, Herr Goering! We’re not wearing our gas masks! Come and get us!”

By: CK

CK — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:37:53 +0000

“And still no-one is calling shenanigans…”

I think the word could be ‘bullshit’.

But, having said that, I think it was a completely fair call by Chamberlain (as seen, at the time).

And EL, not quite getting your point here. It being?

By: Erik Lund

Erik Lund — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:14:10 +0000

And still no-one is calling shenanigans at the idea of gas bombing major cities….

By: CK

CK — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:44:18 +0000

Another great post, Brett.

In the endless battle against appeasement and Random Nazi Of The Week that we have to encounter in 21C, can one blame people for being so shit-scared in 1938?

Especially since that minor contretemps that finished just 20 years earlier.

Oh, and minor quibble here. A couple of posts back you blamed the Graudian’s famous typos on the use of computer spell-checks (or some other cack-handed excuse). Ahem:

“…to occupy the Sudenten [sic] districts?”

I do like the idea of a London correspondent, though.

I conjure with idle thoughts of somebody covering the Deb Season thoroughly chucked right in it.