On D-Day, June 6, 1944, the 87^th Chemical Mortar Battalion went ashore during the first hour of the landing on Utah Beach and quickly began to fire rounds over the cliffs above. The 87^th paid a heavy price, with a total of 84 men killed in action during the unit's 16 months overseas. Like the CWS as a whole, the 87^th and the other three chemical mortar battalions who fought in Normandy fired only high-explosive, smoke, and phosphorus shells, never the toxic chemicals for which their mortars were initially designed.

Long-secret documents from WWII show that the US Army’s 771st Chemical Depot Company buried thousands of M47A2 mustard-filled bombs at Ondal Airbase in British-ruled India. The 769th Chemical Depot Company helped bury hundreds of similar bombs at nearby Chakulia Airbase. Practically, legally and morally, the US should acknowledge its responsibility to remediate these burial sites.