Bibliographical Note
World War I
There are several published volumes which discuss the origin and activities of the Chemical Warfare Service in World War I. These include Benedict Crowell, America’s Munitions, 1917-1918 (Washington: GPO, 1919) ; Amos A. Fries and Clarence J. West, Chemical Warfare (New York: McGraw Hill, 1921); and Medical Aspects of Gas Warfare, Volume XIV of the series MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD WAR (Washington: GPO, 1926). Volumes XV and XVI of the series UNITED STATES ARMY IN THE WORLD WAR (Washington: GPO, 1948), prepared by the Historical Division, Special Staff United States Army, contain data on the Chemical Warfare Service, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). More valuable as a source of information is the official history of the Chemical Warfare Service, American Expeditionary Forces, a copy of which is on file in the Chemical Corps Historical Office. Especially useful in this history are the appendixes which are copies of pertinent directives. On the organizational development of the Chemical Warfare Service in the zone of interior, the most fruitful sources of information are M. T. Bogert’s and W. H. Walker’s History of the Chemical Service Section, on file at the Technical Library, Army Chemical Center, Maryland, and the annual reports of the CWS for the years 1918, 1919, and 1920. The retired CWS files in the National Archives contain some important documents.
Peacetime
A brief account of the development of the Chemical Warfare Service from World War I up through the end of World War II appears in a volume entitled The Chemical Warfare Service in World War II: A Report of Accomplishments, published in 1948. This volume was prepared by the Historical Office for the Chief of the Chemical Corps and was published by the Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New York City, for the Chemical Corps Association. The brief survey of the CWS in the peacetime period which appears in this volume is the only such account in print. The sources for this period include annual reports of the Chemical Warfare Service, the annual reports of the Secretary of War, War Department general orders
and other directives dealing with chemical warfare activities, and correspondence and reports in the retired files of the War Department General Staff, The Adjutant General, and the Chemical Warfare Service. Copies of much of the correspondence between the War Department and the Chemical Warfare Service on policy matters were kept on file in the Office of the Chief, CWS, in a loose-leaf notebook, known as the “black book.” After World War II, Miss Helen McCormick, secretary to successive chiefs of the CWS, graciously turned over this notebook to the Historical Office. Military and civilian personnel data for the peacetime period and the World War II period were obtained from the files of the Civilian Personnel Division, Office of the Secretary of War, and from working files maintained in the Office of the Comptroller of the Army and in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel.
The Emergency
On the period from the emergency through World War II, several volumes in the series UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II make reference to CWS administration or training activities. These include The Organization and Role of the Army Service Forces by John D. Millett, The Women’s Army Corps by Mattie E. Treadwell, The Procurement and Training of Ground Force Troops by Robert R. Palmer, Bell I. Wiley, and William R. Keast, and The Organization of Ground Combat Troops by Kent R. Greenfield, Robert R. Palmer, and Bell I. Wiley.
In June 1943 the Chemical Corps Historical Office was established as part of the War Department historical program. This office prepared a number of monographs on various phases of CWS activities, including administration, military training, research, procurement, and supply. These studies were written on the basis of research in a limited number of sources available in the Office of the Chief, CWS, and at certain CWS installations. In addition to the monographs, the Historical Office initiated and supervised an historical program throughout the Chemical Warfare Service, which resulted in the compilation of historical monographs by the CWS installations. These various monographs proved useful in the compilation of the present volume. Copies of these histories are on file in the Chemical Corps Historical Office and the Office of the Chief of Military History. The Historical Office also collected a number of valuable records.
World War II
With the increase of CWS activities from the period of the national
emergency on, came a concomitant expansion of the volume of records, reports, and pieces of correspondence which these activities entailed. The bulk of CWS retired files for the World War II period, now located in the Technical Services Records Section, Military Records Branch, Region 3, General Services Administration (formerly the Departmental Records Branch, The Adjutant General’s Office), is many times that of the World War I and peacetime periods combined. The voluminousness of these files is not necessarily an indication of their value to the historian. They contain much material that is not useful for historical purposes, and they lack data on some of the more important developments in the Chemical Warfare Service. To fill in gaps in the history of CWS administration, research was conducted with the following sources: records of the United States Chemical Warfare Committee on file in the Historical Office; the retired files of the Chief of Staff, of the Assistant Chiefs of Staff, G-1, G-2, G-3 and G-4, the War Plans Division (WPD), and its successor the Operations Division (OPD), all sections of the War Department General Staff; the central file maintained by The Adjutant General’s Office (AG); and the files of Headquarters, Army Service Forces. All of the foregoing were located in the Departmental Records Branch, The Adjutant General’s Office, at the time this volume was compiled. Footnote citations throughout the volume which give file numbers preceded by the abbreviation “CWS” indicate documents currently filed in the Technical Services Records Section. Other records, such as those of the Assistant Chief of Staff, G-1, are indicated by the appropriate organizational abbreviation.
To supplement the data in these files, the author of Part I of this volume corresponded with and interviewed key soldiers of all ranks as well as civilians who participated in the events described. These letters and interviews proved extremely valuable because many times the reasons behind administrative actions were not made a matter of record. At the time of writing, these letters and interviews were on file in the Chemical Corps Historical Office. Copies of these documents will be retired to Technical Service Records Section under file reference 314.7, Interviews and Correspondence.
The sources described above were researched for material for both parts of the volume. In the writing of Part II extensive use was also made of the collection of Chemical Warfare Service records on military training located in the Chemical Corps Historical Office. This collection includes blocks of records pertaining to the following Chemical Warfare Service training areas: unit training, replacement training both at Edgewood Arsenal and Camp
Sibert, the Chemical Warfare Schools (including class records for most courses), Officers Candidate School, War Department Civil Defense Schools (conducted by the CWS), the administration of training, training literature, and the chemical warfare training of other services and arms. Also researched were the training records among the retired CWS files in the Technical Services Records Section, and the historical data cards and orders on chemical units furnished by the Organization and Directory Section, Operations Branch, Administrative Services Division, The Adjutant General’s Office.