As far as the use of chemical weapons, they probably weren't used because they weren't that effective in WWI and if one side used them, the others would. The Germans probably had the best chemical weapons, but they also probably had the best equipment and soldiers, so they may not have seen a need to go there.

The Germans and Japanese had atomic programs. The US recognised the importance of atomic weapons more than anyone else and had more resources to devote to them.

The level of atroticities in WWII were bad on all sides. There was little of this in WWI, awful as it was. Obviously, the German and Japanese atrocities were the worst. The Nazis didn't completely wipe out the population of Poland and occupied USSR like the Jews and Gypsys, but they caused the deaths of millions of civilians, probably due to their racist ideology.

There were heavy casualties in Germans and Russians in each others POW camps and of anyone captured by the Japanese. There was the massive raping by Soviet soldiers. Then you have some British and US bombing which was basically high tech massacres of civilians.

<citation needed>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_...4.E2.80.931945

and much more.

How did I know it would be about Poland...

I dont know, you tell us?
You could have also scrolled down a bit in that link and read the "Germany 1944-45" part:

Well worth a read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill

that's great. also liked the later life part "He startled train conductors and passenger by throwing his attaché case out of the train window each day on the ride home. He later explained that he was tossing his case into his own backyard so he wouldn’t have to carry it from the station.[10]".

Just skimmed trought the thread and would like to share - in short - the warstory of my grandad:

He was born into a poor family and sold on his seventh birthday to tend sheep. Because this wasn't a very good job and he got beaten alot he got himself enlisted in the Army. Later he became a solider in a elite unit subordinated directly to Göhring. He told me several times how you could get nice girls with that white uniform *lol*.
As the war extended to the east he got deployed into the Blitzkrieg and fought his way trough russia. I think he even fought in Stalingrad but I don't remember exactly. Eventually he managed to get back healthy and headed directly to Potsdam/Berlin where his fiance was living (During that trip he ate almost two weeks from 1 KG of white sugar he had stolen, nothing else was there to eat).
On his way trough Berlin he approached a group of around 20 other german soldiers that where sitting around. He asked them for the way and got no answer, he then touched the shoulder of one and that solider just fell over. He told me that there must have been a explosion nearby immediately destroying all their lungs so they just sat around like their still alive. Spooky.
So he stumbled around and was basically lost, as he saw alot of marching comrades which he joined. Little did he know that this was a POW march heading right back to siberia ;(
Of about 20.000 POWs in that camp only 4.000 surived and he was one of them. He lived because he made traps and ate sparrows and he hustled the russian soliders. This is how he did it: He had to wash their clothes and because most of them couldn't count he sold them their own underwear for bread
After he returned to germany he found out his fiance was killed in the bombings, he married another wife and she gave birth to a ******ed boy. The Wife and the boy died after about ten years later and he married my grandmother....

I was always amazed at this lifestory because its so insanely different from what we experience today and thats just a lifetime away, crazy. Plus he is one of the most positive humans I've ever known altough beeing trough all that crazy ****.

My other grandpa always refused to tell me anything about the war, I think because he was a very religious person and he must have done some very bad things.

I also had a step uncle, who would be best described as a redneck. I was totaly certain that he never left the village he lived in in his lifetime I wasn't even sure if he ever left his Farm ;-) But one day he told me that he was also POWed and transferred to California. He told me that the US treated them excellently and that it was like holidays to him. I'd never tought he even knew what California is *lol*.

Last funny note: I live in Berlin and there are tours trough the bunkers of WWII (great btw.). The guide told us that after WWII one of those bunkers was remodelled to be a nuclear-resistant shelter. Those modifications did only cost around 1000$ b/c the only thing they did was painting the ceiling white. Felt alot more safe after this lol.

Interesting Wikipedia article about a Private who had the opportunity to kill Hitler in WW1 but chose not to, and Hitler's subsequent interest in him after he was awarded the VC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Tandey

Roughly as many people as are in this photo died per week at the peak of the fighting on the Eastern Front.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvcicnQL9iY

****in great music too in this clip.

That's not true, where are your sources for this?

I watched an excellent documentary called "The Third Reich: The Rise" and also "The Fall"". They're both on youtube and are worth a watch.

Also I recently read a book called "A detail of history" by Arek Hersh http://www.amazon.co.uk/Detail-Histo...0540377&sr=1-1. I definitely recommend it.

Name calling is pretty childish but I think it's warranted in this case; idiot.

Wow, that's pretty amazing. I wonder what Tandey thought of his actions after the outbreak of WWII.

Severe lack of modding ITT.

Severe lack of posts reports ITT. Thank you for pointing that guy out, whoever did.

This is orginally from Martin Gilbert in The Second World War, although it seems the figure has been rounded down again by an independent 2010 report to around 25,000, which stands at significantly less than the 40,000 who died it the Blitz (although still more than were killed in London in the whole of the Blitz).

Hamburg lost roughly 50,000 people when destroyed by the latest wiki figures, so the general point is still valid imo.

The blatant bombing of civilian targets was started by the British as retaliation for stray bombs during the Battle of Britain. That being said once the taboo was broken Hitler and Goering became a big fan of bombing London ruthlessly. It also switched the Luftwaffe's focus off of Fighter Command and towards civilian targets. This allowed the British air defence network the time to repair and rearm and eventually end any threat of German invasion.

Russian Veteran apparently discovering his actual tank was being used as a war memorial.

Uh, no.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotterdam_Blitz

I do not think that explains the chemical weapons decision. I have read two propositions. One was that based on US pesticide research the Germans felt that the Allies either were as advanced as they or would quickly close the gap so that there was no advantage to be gained. Also, Hitler had a brush with poison gas in WWI and did not want to see it used.

[QUOTE=RLK;29878656 Also, Hitler had a brush with poison gas in WWI and did not want to see it used.[/QUOTE]

Not trolling but did you ever hear of Zyklon B? If Hitler didn't use it it was because he was afraid of retaliation not because he didn't want to use it. If he was sure the Allies had nothing similar I am sure he would have gassed the Allies once things turned bad for Germany.

The Germans did not fear retaliation by the dutch airforce though. Hitler and Goering purposefully did not bomb London because they knew the British could bomb Berlin in response. Once the British decided to purposefully bomb Berlin Hitler had no reason to not bomb London. And as the Rotterdam Blitz showed, he had no moral quandaries with bombing civilians

Zyklon B was not used for military purposes. The most compelling reason for why chemical warfare was not used is that it is ineffective against military targets. As shown in WWI chemical agents can be defeated with relatively easy countermeasures. It also is often too unpredictable. Less than 3% of casualties in WWI were due to chemical warfare and it lead to no dramatic victories.

The first bolded is the "uh, no." Hitler never had any qualms about hitting civilian targets. None.

The second bolded is a new "uh, no."

The Battle of Britain strategy was sound at first in that the Germans solely went for military targets. They were on the cusp of wiping out the British radar system (without really knowing or understanding the critical importance of it), but then during a night raid the Luftwaffe accidentally bombed civilian targets. This was not part of their plan even though that decision was still a close one. Of course, the story continues that Churchill ordered a raid on Berlin the next day and that so incensed Hitler that he lost his composure and hence focused on civilian targets to the detriment of his cause.

At the time, many militarized nations were toying with the concept of bombing enemies into submission which means whole cities would be carpet bombed until they surrendered.

The English developed this theory, yet never really adopted it. The Germans were intrigued by it and would have likely used that as "Phase B" of their operation after eliminating the proper military targets. However, because the radar system was not wiped out first, the Luftwaffe suffered huge losses and Hilter withdrew.

In sum, Hilter and Goring were not refraining from bombing civilian targets in the U.K. out of fear of reprisal, they refrained because current conditions did not allow for it - the Fighter Command had to be conquered first.

Those numbers are totally meaningless as it is not a proper "apples" to "apples" comparison.

It's nice to throw numbers around, but not when it is at the expense of proper context.

I'm curious what context you mean. The argument you make in the post before seems inherently wrong as the Germans could easily have attacked military targets by day and civilian by night in the early stages of the Battle of Britain had they no qualms.