Toxic Dangers and Responsibilities, May 1945
Eighty years ago, in May 1945, the dangers and the responsibilities faced by soldiers in the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service became frighteningly clear. The 760th Chemical Depot Company was stationed near Oro Bay in what is now Papua New Guinea, maintaining the central American stockpile of toxic chemical bombs for the South West Pacific. The 760th was ready to supply many thousands of toxic munitions for what President Roosevelt had promised would be a massive “retaliation in kind” if Japan resumed using its own toxic chemical weapons, as it had done earlier in China.
The soldiers of the 760th were far removed from the grand strategy of warfare during WWII, and they were likely unaware that some leaders in Washington were then giving serious consideration to American “first use” of toxic chemicals. President Roosevelt was strongly opposed to American first use on moral grounds, even though the U.S. had never ratified the treaty that would make the action illegal. Roosevelt had died on April 12th, however, and had been replaced by Harry Truman, whose position on chemical warfare was less clear. Even more importantly, Germany surrendered on May 7th. American strategists had long calculated that chemical warfare in Europe would favor Germany, but that the Allies would have a chemical advantage against Japan. With Germany out of the war, with Roosevelt dead, and with Japan nearly defeated in the Philippines, chances rose significantly in May that WWII would “go chemical,” initiated either by an increasingly desperate Japan or by Allies in search of a more effective weapon for jungle warfare.
As some American leaders made their case in Washington for using the stockpiles of American bombs filled with mustard agent, phosgene, cyanogen chloride and other toxins, the soldiers of the 760th Chemical Depot Company in New Guinea confronted a different reality. Their bombs were deteriorating to the point of being virtually useless. Their Company Commander, Capt. Edward L. Kenny, described the situation in an Organization History Report, which remained secret until 2009.
“The month of May was unquestionably the toughest month of overseas service for the 760th. The novelty of life in the verdant, tropical paradise of New Guinea, so attractively portrayed in Stateside travel posters, had painfully given way to the reality of monotonous swamps, heat, dust, mosquitoes and the boring duty of handling the toxic agents with little or no change in daily routine.
“The mustard bombs in the Toxic yard at Strip 12 were leaking more and more each day and a pungent, garlic like odor permeated the air for a mile in either direction. Working in this atmosphere, in impregnated clothing, on a hot day was far from pleasant. At Kabi the situation was even less attractive, since the defective 500 lb CK [cyanogen chloride] filled bombs were exploding without any apparent warning. Working in the vicinity of these bombs, and the defective bombs had to be cut out, was hazardous and unpleasant. These explosions, extremely violent in nature, sent up a cloud of white gas and the detonations alone were capable of flooring a man fifty (50) yards away.
“In destroying these bombs, a Standard Operating Procedure had to be established which would enable personnel to destroy the bombs rapidly and safely. Static detonation was out since this entailed removing bombs which might explode any moment to a detonation area three miles away. The remaining method was to destroy defective lots in the storage piles by marking the bombs and penetrating the casing with thirty (30) caliber armor piercing bullets. The background had to be clear in the event of ricochets. The jungle background against which the bombs were stacked was considered safe for the work. When the casing was penetrated from a distance of seventy-five (75) to one-hundred (100) yards, personnel, wearing their gas masks would move away, upwind, until the cloud had dissipated. Since polymerization had not yet occurred, the gas would escape without exploding.”
The problem encountered by the 760th with its cyanogen-chloride bombs rightly received prompt attention at the highest levels of the Chemical Warfare Service. The spontaneous “explosions” described by Capt. Kenny were caused by a chemical reaction in which molecules of cyanogen chloride (ClCN) combine to form larger, less toxic molecules. The reaction releases heat, and it can produce enough pressure to burst the bomb casing. Other chemical depot companies that also worked with stocks of cyanogen chloride bombs (including the 757th at Campbells Gulch in Hawaii) were instructed to conduct regular checks of their CK bombs, measuring the acidity (pH) and taking action to stabilize the contents. After WWII, the U.S. military continued to investigate the dangers posed by its aging CK bombs, including experiments at Fort Segarra in the U.S. Virgin Islands. As late as 2003, the U.S. conducted tests for the presence of cyanide that might remain in the soil as part of a program to return Fort Segarra to civilian use. Although remote during WWII, the area around Oro Bay in New Guinea has now become important for its agricultural and fisheries, without the sort of testing and remediation considered essential for similar sites in the U.S.
As WWII approached its end in June 1945, the soldiers of the 760th were transferred north, expecting to work with the incendiary bombs then being dropped on Japan. They vented some of their CK bombs before they left New Guinea, but others were left intact and above ground. Eighty years later, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Recovered Chemical Warfare Material (RCWM) Program remains active in the remediation of old and abandoned toxic chemical munitions at current and former U.S. bases in the U.S. and its territories. The RCWM is authorized to participate in the remediation of former U.S. bases in places such as Papua New Guinea only if someone else provides the funding.