Content area
Full Text
Britain intended to use lethal germ warfare during World War II, writes KEITH SUTER
The world's first anthrax bomb was invented by the British and dropped on a Scottish island. If the rest of the project had been carried out, then parts of Germany would be contaminated to this day.
The story of Britain's anthrax experiments in World War II did not come to light until about 40 years after they'd been conducted. Even now there is some hesitation about visiting "anthrax island", off the northwest Scottish coast.
Anthrax is the best known -- and probably the most feared -- example of biological warfare, where a germ is taken out of nature and used on the enemy.
By contrast, gas warfare is where a poisonous gas is invented.
The first major use of biological warfare last century was by the Japanese against the Chinese in northern China in the 1930s.
The British had noted this work and decided to do their own research. With war in 1939, they concentrated even more on biological warfare, creating the Porton Down research centre, near Stonehenge in southern England, in 1940.
With 1941 and 1942 being particularly bad for Britain in the war, Prime Minister Winston Churchill decided desperate times required desperate measures.
He was also worried that the Germans could be developing these weapons, not knowing that the German biologicalwarfare program was many years behind.
By late 1941, Porton Down was ready to test its anthrax. The name "anthrax" is derived from anthrakis, the Greek word for coal, the small blister which develops being as black as coal.
Anthrax is found in low levels in soil and in many animals, including sheep....
