The Chemical Bombs that DIDN’T Fall on Nagasaki
Eighty years ago, on March 5, 1945, Lt. Col. Wyss from U.S. Chemical Warfare Headquarters in Calcutta visited Ondal Advanced Chemical Park in West Bengal, India. The purpose of his visit was to reassess the stockpile of toxic chemical bombs then being maintained at Ondal by the 771st Chemical Depot Company (Aviation). Immediately after Wyss’s visit, the soldiers of the 771st began a major project to dispose of tens of thousands of chemical bombs that were judged to be either unneeded or unusable.
Since at least August 1944, the presence of American toxic chemical bombs in India had been an essential element of Allied strategy. During the late 1930s and early ‘40s, Japan had used toxic chemicals against Chinese soldiers and civilians, and Japanese leaders were widely expected to use toxic chemicals again whenever they felt it was to their advantage. President Roosevelt’s promise of “retaliation in kind and in full measure” was a real and necessary deterrent, but only if the U.S. military was actually ready to fulfill that promise. Months before bases became available in the Mariana Islands, B-29s based in India crossed the Himalayan Mountains and staged through forward bases in China, dropping high-explosive and incendiary bombs on Japanese targets, including the city of Nagasaki on the night of August 10-11, 1944 and the nearby city of Omura on November 21. If Roosevelt had given the order, soldiers of the Chemical Warfare Service were indeed prepared to load several different types of toxic chemical bombs onto B-29s bound for the southernmost of Japan’s home islands.
By March 1945, the war in Asia and the Pacific was far from over, but the likelihood of B-29s from India actually dropping toxic bombs on targets in China or Japan itself had greatly diminished. The B-29s stationed in India continued throughout March to drop high-explosive and incendiary bombs and anti-ship mines on targets in Saigon, Singapore, Shanghai, Kuala Lumpur, Rangoon, and elsewhere. The night of March 29-30, 1945, however, would be the last B-29 raid from bases in India. By April, all of America’s most powerful bombers had moved to bases in the Mariana Islands from where they could more easily attack the Japanese home islands, including Tokyo itself. Soldiers serving with the Chemical Warfare Service were still needed in India to provide incendiary bombs for delivery by B-24s and B-25s against targets in Burma and elsewhere, and they might still be called on to deliver toxic chemical bombs within the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater. India, however, was no longer central to American plans for the bombing of Japan. The U.S. would continue to expand its overall stockpile of toxic chemical bombs until after Japan surrendered; however, the supply path along which those bombs might reach Japan no longer passed through India. There was no reason to continue maintaining a toxic chemical depot in India on the scale of Ondal Advanced Chemical Park.
Despite the shifting emphasis, Organizational History Reports from the 771st Chemical Depot Company describe the arrival of more and more chemical bombs at Ondal. Bomb shipments unloaded by the 771st Chemical Depot Company during March included 85 rail cars filled with 1000-pound M79 “non-persistent” bombs, each filled with phosgene (CG), hydrogen cyanide (AC), or cyanogen chloride (CK). Somewhat like propane in a household tank, these toxins were stored under moderate pressure inside the bomb as a liquid but would change quickly to gas when a small explosive burster ruptured the bomb.
Large, non-persistent bombs were one of two broad types of toxic chemical bombs that were essential to maintaining America’s chemical deterrent during WWII. Ondal had an even more numerous stockpile of “persistent” bombs, primarily 100-pound M47A2 bombs and 115-pound M70 bombs filled with mustard agent (H). The depot also had some bombs and bulk containers filled with lewisite (L), another persistent toxin. Liquid mustard and lewisite were designed to spread as a fine, oily mist when the burster in those bombs exploded. Although less acutely toxic than the true gases released by the larger bombs, mustard would “persist” for hours or days on equipment, clothing or skin and would continue to disable anyone who contacted it. Gas masks generally provided effective protection against non-persistent gases, but protection against mustard also required specialized, full-body clothing.
As they prepared to reduce and restructure their toxic stockpile, the main concern of the 771st was their M47A2 mustard bombs. The relatively thick bomb casings of non-persistent bombs generally held up well even under hot, humid conditions. With no need to contain pressurized contents, the mustard bombs had been manufactured from 1/32-inch sheet steel, rolled, and lap-welded into a cylinder. Despite several revisions to the design, the M47 series of bombs was always prone to leaks, especially in a hot, moist climate like that of India. Under the plan approved by Lt. Col. Wyss, the 771st was to dispose of about half its M47A2 bombs, beginning with those that were in the worst condition. Along with some of the non-persistent bombs, the unneeded and unwanted mustard bombs were scheduled for shipment to Calcutta, to be placed on ships and dumped at sea.
As a central depot, Ondal was responsible not just for bombs on hand but also for bombs that had been distributed to active bomber bases, such as the B-29 bases at Kharagpur and Chakulia. During March, two men from the 769th Chemical Depot Company at Kharagpur were detached to help with the work of moving 800 mustard-filled bombs by road from the toxic yard at Chakulia to a rail siding for shipment to Ondal. Of these 800 bombs, 100 began to leak badly enough after their initial movement that it was decided to bury them at Chakulia. When the rest of this shipment arrived by rail at Ondal on 14 March, another 25 bombs were found to have begun leaking so badly they could not be shipped further.
At Ondal, it was decided that the worst of the leakers should be “decanted,” draining their liquid mustard into drums for shipment out to sea with the more stable bombs. The empty (but still contaminated) bomb casings would be buried onsite. The 771st already had a disposal area in which leaking bombs and contaminated materials had been buried. Expecting to bury more empty casings and other contaminated material and recognizing that contamination would remain long after the war ended, the Commanding Officer of the 771st, Capt. Joseph L. Gramling, had an additional warning in Hindustani added to the English-language marker they had previously erected in the burial area. In both languages, the marker reads, “Danger: War Gases. Don’t Dig in the Area before 1970.”
Decanting the mustard bombs did not go well. The first difficulty was that Indian “coolies” who had been digging pits by hand to bury the contaminated bomb casings could not keep up with the need. That difficulty was overcome by the arrival on 3 April of excavating equipment to dig larger holes. By 12 April, the men of the 771st had achieved a pace of decanting 400 bombs per day, helped by a period of cooler weather. Heat and humidity soon returned, causing renewed problems as Capt. Gramling explained in his monthly report.
“A number of men received burns from working in mustard, some serious enough for hospitalization. Sick call averaged fifteen and twenty men daily for the following two weeks. Working in impregnated suits and gas masks made working conditions nearly unbearable.”
The 771st obtained “additional coolies” to work on general duties at the depot, relieving more trained soldiers for the decanting project, but that was not enough. The unit requested and received additional assistance from the 769th Chemical Depot Company at Kharagpur Army Air Base. The 769th was one of several Chemical Companies during WWII that consisted of white commissioned officers and African American enlisted men. Capt. Gramling had high praise for the men who arrived to help.
“Three days later 30 colored EM and one white officer reported for duty from the 769th Chemical Depot Company of the 20th Bomber Command to assist in the project of decanting bombs. Their first day of duty, 510 bombs were emptied. This was a record for decanting project to date, however, the following day 637 M47A2’s were decanted.”
Working together during April, the men of the 771st and the 769th decanted 5000 of the worst leakers, buried the empty casings, and filled 1200 drums with mustard agent that was safe for transport. On 10 May, the USS George Porter reported dumping 16,000 M47A2 bombs and 1180 40-gallon drums of liquid mustard agent into deep water in the Bay of Bengal. On May 12, the USS O.B. Martin reported dumping another 16,000 unspecified munitions. A third May dump at a slightly different site in the Bay of Bengal was reported as including 37,957 M70 mustard bombs, 1,496 M78 500-pound phosgene bombs, 8,742 M79 1000-pound phosgene bombs and 2,512 M79 1000-pound cyanogen chloride bombs. These three ocean dumps in May 1945 were likely about half of the total stockpile at Ondal Advanced Chemical Park.
Many U.S. chemical bombs manufactured during WWII remained in the U.S. and were buried there or dumped off the U.S. shore using methods similar to the methods used in India. In 2007, the Recovered Chemical Warfare Materiel (RCWM) Program identified 194 sites on active or former bases in the U.S. that were known or suspected of containing old toxic material that made them eligible for the Defense Environmental Restoration Program. Former U.S. bases outside the U.S. and its territories are not eligible for the program.
The soldiers of the 771st and 769th Chemical Depot Companies and all the 66,000 soldiers (including my father) who served with the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service during WWII are heroes, and they deserve far more credit than they have received for their dangerous and difficult work. If they had not turned President Roosevelt’s verbal threat of “retaliation in kind and full measure” into real military capability, it is almost certain Japan, Germany, or both would have initiated chemical warfare when they felt it was to their advantage. The men of the Chemical Warfare Service were also heroes in the diligence with which they disposed of unneeded toxic munitions in accordance with the standards of their time. We should always honor their contributions and sacrifices in providing the weapons America needed while also striving to protect the health and welfare of both soldiers and civilians.
If you are interested in learning more about the 771st or 769th Chemical Depot Company, their first-hand Organizational History Reports were kept secret in the Air Force Archives at Maxwell Air Force Base until 2009. Copies are now available at https://www.toxinsandfire.com/sources. More information about the DoD Recovered Chemical Warfare Materiel (RCWM) Program is available at https://www.denix.osd.mil/rcwmprogram/.