Sun, Apr 25, 1943: potent stuff

"I think they are expecting gas to be used in the war before long because they have sure been preaching & teaching it to us.  Brother it is potent stuff."

--Letter from Everett “Sammy” Samuelson (a college friend), Camp Hood, Texas, to my father, Winfield, Kans., Sunday, April 25, 1943.  Italy had used mustard gas in Ethiopia in 1935-1936 and Japan used it in China in 1937.  In both cases, the other side had no chemical weapons with which to retaliate.  Both the Axis and Allies had chemical weapons stockpiles in World War II.  However, it was never used in the fighting in Europe or the Pacific, where both sides had gas weapons.  (Source: James W. Hammond, Poison Gas: The Myths Versus Reality [Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999], 43-49.)