Use of gas in the Crimea?

[Simon Orchard]

That would be Generalmajor Hermann Ochsner, General der nebeltruppe

[Zebedee]

On 13 June 1942 Generaloberst Franz Halder made the following entry in his diary:

"General Oksner. Report on the participation of the chemical troops in the battle for Kerch. The attitude of the enemy states to the fighting poison gases. (An increasing interest.) Conditions of the antigas defence at Volkhov..."

Thank you.

[Simon Orchard]

I'd rather see the original German text for that quote. As Ochsner's name was misspelt there maybe further mistakes. In particular 'chemical troops'. I have, for example seen nebeltruppe translated as both chemical troops and smoke troops before.

[Jan-Hendrik]

Be aware that under the command of Nebeltruppen existet "Entgiftungsabteilungen"

Jan-Hendrik

[Zebedee]

Kamen Nevenkin - could you put the German text up for us to look at please? I've tried to find a copy of Halder's diary but it seems that I might have to wait a while to get my hands on one

[Kamen Nevenkin]

I think that the local library has one. I'm afraid that I won't be able to go there today, but I'll do my best to pay them a visit on Monday at latest.

Kamen

[Simon Orchard]

Be aware that under the command of Nebeltruppen existet "Entgiftungsabteilungen"

Jan-Hendrik

Absolutely right though entgiftung means decontamination, if chemicals were used then Ochsner would be the man to report on their use as his inspectorate covered smoke troops (nebelwerfer units etc.), chemical troops and decontamination\gas protection troops.

[Epaminondas]

I'd like to see the origenal german as well- english translators frequently butcher rocket troops as chemical or smoke units.

[Sergey]

I hear about usage of chemical weapons by German army during WW2 first time. I searched Ruusian internet and found, that gas was allegedly used against partisans to push them out from undeground caves (and not only in Crimea).

Even Russians don't know these gas use cases well. Why aren't these gas cases known to Russians?

Kim Sung!

Hitler brought so much evil to the Soviet Union that usage of poison gases was almost insignificant in comparison with other nazi atrocities. Gases? What could we expect from fascists? So many were murdered, tortured... Uncle of my wife (18yo then) was turtured to death in Gestapo in Dnepropetrovsk. And take into account that hundreds thousands were killed in the gas chambers. On this background usage of gases in few cases was not so important even to mention it.

[Simon Orchard]

a 'nazi atrocity' Sergey? :roll:

[Sergey]

a 'nazi atrocity' Sergey? :roll:

Of course Simon, you know that my English is too far from ideal.

[Simon Orchard]

Your spelling wasn't what i was refering to.

[Zebedee]

I think that the local library has one. I'm afraid that I won't be able to go there today, but I'll do my best to pay them a visit on Monday at latest.

Kamen

Thank you Kamen. I'm getting it through an inter-library loan which may take quite a while

Thanks for the explanation Sergey. But could we keep the thread on topic please gentlemen? There are many threads discussing other war-crimes committed by the belligerent nations of WW2 but this, although perhaps not the greatest of them if true, seems to have received very little coverage even as an allegation to be disproven.

[David Thompson]

Let's get back on topic and avoid unsourced opinion posts.

[Sergey]

Your spelling wasn't what i was refering to.

Well Simon. I repeat my point in a different way. German nazi regime committed numerous war crimes in the Soviet Union. Millions were murdered, tortured, starved to death. Many villages were annihilated completely. In this context usage (quite bounded) of chemical weapons by German army was not the most disgusting among other atrocities committed by nazi regime. Gas chambers were much, much worse.